Some time has passed since hit gaming apps were leading the way as focal points of the licensing business, when licensors and licensees were in search of “the next Angry Birds.” That said, a number of licensors of app-centric games have been able to establish licensing programs keyed to appropriate categories, as recent deals attest:
- Night and Day Studios licensed its preschool app Peekaboo Barn to Educational Insights for an early learning board game, which made its debut at New York International Toy Fair last week. It is the first of Educational Insights’ games to focus on players as young as 2 years old; most of its preschool games start at age 3. Candlewick Press was previously announced as the licensee for Peekaboo Barn board books.
- Sago Sago named Bonnier Publishing imprint Sizzle Press as the publisher of a series of books tied to its preschool app Sago Mini. It also produces a Sago Mini range of toys in-house. Sago Sago and Sizzle were formerly both in the Bonnier Group family; Spin Master purchased Sago Sago and Toca Boca in April 2016. (Sago sibling Toca Boca has also been available for licensing over the years; one of its product lines was a range of legwear-cum-puppets from Happy Socks.)
- Slither.io launched as an app in March 2016, after being previously introduced as a massively multiplayer browser game. All told, the game has more than 150 million downloads to date and 120 million daily game plays. Slither.io, which recently retained Lisa Berlin Wright as its licensing agent, partnered with Bonkers Toys for blind bags, plush, vinyl figures, and backpack clips, introduced at Toy Fair; other licensees include Everything Legwear for socks and Fifth Sun for apparel.
For more on recent toy industry trends, see our newly posted wrap-up of observations from the 2017 edition of New York International Toy Fair.
Comments are closed.