It was a great chat that spanned the gauntlet of how the companies are creating a two-way street between webcomics and the comic shop with titles like Wayne Family Adventures, Vixen: NYC, and the recently released Zatanna and the Ripper. We were also excited to reveal the release dates of new WEBTOON DC collaborations like Zatanna and the Ripper and the upcoming Red Hood and the Outlaws. If you can’t get enough of the behind the scenes chat then we had an even deeper dive on our Collision Fest podcast, which you can listen to right now below. There, Marie and David give us some incredible insight on the collaboration between the two companies, how it started, where it’s going, and why its massive success is something for every comics fan to be excited about. As someone who has both a pull list at my local comic shop and a ton of webtoons I follow religiously, this was a really great place to explore both mediums and to talk about why they’re equally as important when we think about the future of the comics industry!
Exploding Kittens: From Cards to A Budding Digital Empire
In Toronto’s bustling Enercare Convention Center, the open and spacious layout left plenty of room for crosstalk, with rumblings about digital currencies and tidbits about startups seemingly flying at you in all directions. It could be a bit overwhelming at times. So in the press lounge, amidst reporters typing up recaps from keynote speakers, I kicked off a conversation with Elan Lee, the CEO of Exploding Kittens, about physical media and personal interaction. As his company expands into mobile gaming on Netflix, and an in-development Netflix animated show in the works too, Lee was adamant he wanted to continue building on their foundational ethos. “The mantra of the company has always been, ‘let’s not build entertaining games, let’s build games that make the people playing entertaining.’ And that means eye contact and having table flips and cheating and throwing things across the table and doing all the fun stuff that comes up when you play card games,” Lee says. In a past life, Lee was Chief Design Officer at Xbox Entertainment Studio and he’s using his over 20 years of experience in the gaming world to bring Exploding Kittens’ impressive tabletop portfolio–which includes 20 different games and according to the company has sold more than 18 million games to date in over 50 countries since its founding in 2015–and the fanfare of its adorable kitty-centric IP to the digital space. “For the first time, these characters that you play with at your house with your friends every night, suddenly you get to see the world they live in. You get to hear their voices. You get to see how they move, which for us is huge for IP expansion.” For fans of Exploding Kittens, the partnership with Netflix might only be the start. Lee is poised to take the brand into the collectibles and merchandise space with plans to flesh out an ecosystem that bridges the physical and the digital. – Chris Longo
GameSquare CEO Justin Kenna on What’s Next For Esports
On the SportsTrade stage, Justin Kenna, CEO of GameSquare, sat down with TSN’s Marissa Roberto and NFL star Leonard Fournette to discuss how gaming and esports have become a prime vehicle for athletes and celebrities to connect with their fans. When we spoke with Kenna in the media village after his talk, he detailed the secret sauce behind GameSquare’s rapid expansion into several areas of the industry, from media agencies to esports organizations, and their own content studio: “Concentrating directly on authentic brands and fans.” “We believe in the future of esports but the reality is esports orgs right now as stand-alone businesses are burning a huge amount of cash,” Kenna says. “In markets like this, that’s not going to fly.” GameSquare consists of seven companies, notably including Complexity, which has fielded esports teams that have won over 140 championships in 30 different gaming franchises. From agencies that handle marketing to Code Red, which reps talent, Kenna’s company is looking for integrated ways to reach audiences that traditional publishers are struggling with. “Brands are spending a hell of a lot of money to reach them. We can build our strategy as to how you reach them. We can upsell you on our media network to help you reach them. We can upsell you in our content team, into our merch team, and have this full-360, one-stop shop to connect you with this fan base.” “Greater rev sharing, less barriers to entry when it comes to actually participating as well. I think we’re going to see salary caps introduced so this Wild-West-type approach doesn’t happen.” – Chris Longo Collision returns June 26-29, 2023 at Enercare Center in Toronto, Canada.
