Licensing IP in Games: Brand Collaborations as a Growth Strategy

Someone else's IP usually reads as a risk: how do we avoid infringing. If you take the optimist's view, licensing and collaborations are a growth channel. Some of these deals cost little or nothing.

IP licensing works both ways. For a studio, folding in an outside brand brings a ready audience and recognition. The rights holder needs it too: to push a product, bring in a new generation of fans, extend the life of the brand. Good deals rest on that mutual interest.

Game Collaborations That Trade Audiences: Free or Nearly Free

Sometimes it's a clean license purchase, sometimes a mutual swap of reach. A clear example is «Everyone is Here» in Dead Cells from Evil Empire: free updates brought characters from indie hits into the game. The first wave landed on 22 November 2021 — Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Guacamelee, Hyper Light Drifter, Curse of the Dead Gods, and Skul; the second, in November 2022, added Shovel Knight, Katana ZERO, Slay the Spire, Hotline Miami, Risk of Rain, and Terraria. The deals ran on personal contacts: Evil Empire COO Benjamin Laulan described simply firing off emails to developers he knew, along the lines of "hey, I'm a big fan of your game." Team Cherry granted the asset rights as a favor.

An even cleaner form is a reciprocal swap, where studios let each other into their games for free. That's how the crossover «An Eye for An Eye» between Terraria and Don't Starve Together worked: teased 21 October, released 18 November 2021. The idea grew out of a Reddit AMA for Terraria's tenth anniversary, where Re-Logic named Don't Starve Together as a dream collaboration partner — after which Klei reached out. The exchange came out symmetrical: Don't Starve Together got the Eye of Cthulhu and The Twins bosses, and Terraria got a «The Constant» world seed in Klei's style. Both updates are free.

The terms aren't always disclosed. The crossover of Monster Hunter: World and The Witcher 3 from Capcom and CD Projekt Red arrived on consoles in February and on PC on 9 May 2019 as a free update, with Doug Cockle back voicing Geralt. It's mutual promotion between two publishers, and the financial terms stay private.

There are outright free models, too. Composer Kevin MacLeod has released more than 2,000 of his tracks under a Creative Commons license with a single condition — credit the author; an attribution-free version is available for a fee. Large studios practice licensing out — sending their titles outward: Ubisoft licensed mobile ports of its games for years (including Assassin's Creed) to Gameloft. Handing IP out this way extends its life and pulls new players toward the core games.

When a Collaboration Falls Flat

A collaboration helps growth when the brands' audiences overlap and the price and delivery respect the player. Without that, an outside brand doesn't pay off. In December 2025, EA released two DLC packs for The Sims 4 based on the SpongeBob movie — «SpongeBob Kid's Room» and «SpongeBob's House». By player reviews the pairing didn't land, and it's clear why.

— Expensive. Each pack cost $6.99 against the usual kit price of $4.99, and some items from the "free" event were tucked behind a paid $9.99 bundle. Players called it paid DLC inside paid DLC and a cash grab.

— Narrow audience. The look clashed with The Sims' visual style: flat recolors, a cheap feel. The content mostly appealed to devoted SpongeBob fans; to everyone else it felt foreign. On Steam both packs settled at the bottom of the charts with a handful of reviews.

— Timing. The promo came shortly after the announcement of EA's sale to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund (29 September 2025, a $55 billion deal). The community was already set against it: major Sims content creators like lilsimsie, Plumbella, Steph0sims left the EA Creator Network in protest. Paid brand advertising inside the game landed right in that wave.

An outside brand drives growth with a close audience and a fair price, and at the wrong moment with an inflated tag it turns into fuel for criticism.

How to License IP: A Strong Pitch Outweighs the Budget

Rights holders say no more often over a weak pitch. A small budget gets in the way less: the first thing to show is why the studio needs this IP and what the brand owner gets in return.

The rights holder has goals too — for instance, gaining a foothold in a new market where they're still little known. A partner who brings recognition into that market is valuable in their own right.

The value here comes from preparation: identifying which IP fits, building a warm contact with the rights holder, and packaging the pitch to show the upside for them as well. Without strong in-house BizDev, it makes sense to go through a specialized agency — it knows the contacts, the rates, and the pitfalls of the licensing market.
— Futura Digital's assessment

The License Agreement in Practice: Ten Contracts for One Integration

Even after a yes, the mechanics of licensing stay slow: negotiation, rights clearance, sign-off from all sides, signing. A single integration often runs on many contracts, because the rights holders are different companies and individuals.

Take Wargaming's practice with music brands. The rights to the band's brand itself are bought under one contract. The songs are licensed separately from a music publisher, and the rights to a track can be split among several publishers — down to one-percent shares, with a contract needed for each. On top of that come separate service contracts for voice work and recordings: the performers have their own riders and union terms (SAG-AFTRA). So one handsome collaboration adds up to as many as ten contracts and a lot of stages. A license has a term — once it expires, the track or voice is pulled from the game or renewed.

That's where the umbrella-license trick comes in. In a partnership with a sports association, for example, the association itself holds the image and name rights of active athletes — one contract with it can secure several athletes at once. That's how the UFC collaboration with World of Tanks Blitz worked: under the association's umbrella, Alex Pereira, Israel Adesanya, and Max Holloway came into the game. That umbrella usually won't cover individual services — voice work, standalone clips. For those you sign a separate contract with the specific athlete: that's how Wargaming ran its collaboration with hockey player Alexander Ovechkin (World of Warships, 2018).

Someone Else's IP as a Growth Channel: What to Do

Keep an outside brand on your radar as a growth channel. Some collaborations are free and run on a mutual swap of reach. If you're going for a license, invest in the pitch as much as the budget and leave time for the legal mechanics. With weak in-house BizDev, it's reasonable to go through an agency: it knows the contacts, the rates, and the pitfalls.