Animoca Brands launches The Addams Family mobile game to coincide with global movie release
The Addams Family Mystery Mansion game is based on the animated comedy-horror movie out in theaters worldwide on 11 October, 2019.
In parallel to the launch of the new animated The Addams Family movie set to hit movie theatres around the world later this week, Animoca Brands (ASX: AB1) has unveiled ‘The Addams Family Mystery Mansion’ game for both Android and Apple users.
As of today, the game has been made available globally for most iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
The official mobile game has purposefully been synchronised with the highly anticipated movie in order to maximise awareness and to boost the brand’s momentum amongst consumers. Importantly, the game reflects the same stylistic themes and mechanics of the animated comedy horror movie which Animoca has called “darkly humorous” and “spooky”.
The Addams Family is based on the franchise spawned by the comic by Charles Addams, first published in 1938, and includes books, films, television series, animations, video games, and musicals. The film is set to distributed theatrically in the US by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) through its United Artists Releasing banner.
The movie itself will star the voices of Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac, Academy Award winners Charlize Theron and Allison Janney, as well as, US rapper Snoop Dogg.
Done deal
According to Animoca, the game came about courtesy of an interactive license agreement between its subsidiary Pixowl and US-based media giant MGM Studios.
The studio was first founded in 1924 by Marcus Loew and Louis Mayer and has endured an illustrious history including multiple takeovers and a bankruptcy filling in 2009. However, in recent years the studio has flourished and is estimated to rake in around $500 million a year in income from its extensive film and television library.
Meanwhile, Pixowl is a mobile game development company, first founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, with development studios in Argentina.
The terms of the agreement between Pixowl and MGM state that Pixowl retains a non-exclusive license to use the property and assets of The Addams Family to develop, distribute, and monetise The Addams Family Mystery Mansion until the end of 2024.
One of the key features of the new game is its availability under a so-called “freemium” model. The game is free to download and play although optional premium content is made available to players. It’s “in-app products” range from $2-$100 per item and has already amassed over 10,000 downloads in the first few hours after release.
In support of the game and the upcoming release of the animated movie tomorrow, Animoca said: “Funny, outlandish, and completely iconic, The Addams Family redefines what it means to be a good neighbour”.
Acquisition time
In addition to launching the new Addams Family mobile game, Animoca has also recently completed the acquisition of German-based company Stryking Entertainment for €1 million (A$1.63m), payable in shares and including up to €2 million (A$3.27m) in earn-out payments.
Stryking is the operator of the popular fantasy sports game Football-Stars, for which it holds an official license from the Bundesliga, the top-tier German football league, for the right to use all club logos and player pictures.