Hey folks - edition #22 is here, and I have to say, I’ve been chomping at the bit to write this one…

There is SO much happening across sports, entertainment & games at the moment that it was hard to narrow it down to just three, so look out for a jam-packed ‘other news’ section for some that if I had more time, I would have loved to deep dive into too.

However, the three that did make the cut for the main show focus on commerce, crossovers & cinema within the three biggest UGC gaming platforms…

These being Warner Bros & Fandango trailblazing by selling cinema tickets directly through Roblox; Disney & Epic showing their hand with confirmed moves into Fortnite and LUSH launching limited-edition Minecraft items IRL & in-game.

Contents: Edition #22

• Warner Bros & Fandango sell Beetlejuice movie tickets directly through Roblox

• A whole host of Disney characters are confirmed for Fortnite entrance

• Minecraft & LUSH team up for limited-edition items IRL & in-game

Let’s dive in…

Warner Bros & Fandango sell Beetlejuice movie tickets directly through Roblox

Warner Bros, Fandango & Sawhorse Productions have teamed up to sell movie tickets inside Roblox through an experience tied to the film "Beetlejuice". The experience will allow users aged 13 and up to buy tickets directly from a Fandango box office in-game, also leveraging four of Roblox’s most popular community created games to help amplify and drive footfall to said experience.

Why should you care?

The commerce promise is starting to become a reality on Roblox.

Walmart has been testing (as we covered in edition 7). e.l.f. Beauty too. But this experience is special (in a sports & entertainment context) as it’s the first time that purchases have been made directly in-game to push people to an IRL activity.

As we know in sports & entertainment, the core product takes place in stadiums & movie theatres, and this arena is where our industries are most adept/experienced at monetising the fan (not necessarily in-games, yet!).

This development has the potential to shift the needle from driving engagement within a Roblox experience (which is where many sports & entertainment brands are at the moment) to now being able to drive commerce and attendance at IRL event.

If successful, this is a BIG innovation that Warner Bros & Fandango will have pioneered, and we could (and should) see iterations of this rolled out by sports & entertainment brands that are already in Roblox or planning to be.

There has however already been an indirect impact prior to this. The most successful movies of 2024 (Kung-Fu Panda 4, Despicable Me 4 etc) have all been accompanied by Roblox experiences as part of their promotional strategy, but as Warner Bros & Fandango will now be able to attribute sales directly to the Roblox experience vs just seeing an uptick in attendance, we’ll get definitive answers on the communities appetite to take the social experience in Roblox out of platform, and how receptive they are to a checkout experience.

Roblox seem optimistic, with Todd Lichten, Head of Entertainment Partnerships at Roblox saying:

Entertainment & movies have long been a passion point for the masses, and that will remain for future generations, but the way Gen Z/A want to interact with their favourite stories/movies has changed, so we’ll be actively looking out for the number of sales in-game vs overall to see how much it shifts the needle!

A whole host of Disney characters are confirmed for Fortnite entrance

Disney and Epic Games announced exciting collaborations at the D23 event, revealing new Disney content coming to Fortnite. Highlights included Disney Villains like Maleficent joining Fortnite later this year, Pixar's The Incredibles making their debut, and new Star Wars characters like Grogu being added. Additionally, Marvel unveiled a new season featuring Doctor Doom and more.

Why it matters?

I won’t cover too much old ground around the actual partnership (we have Edition 10 for that!), but there are a few key pointers here worth noting:

1) Disney made the announcement through Fortnite, and had a staggering 1.3m concurrent players…

For one off events/campaigns, Fortnite continues to be able to corral their user base to deliver incredible engagement, and with the introduction of Disney IP, the interest is going to continue to rise because…

2) Disney IP is timeless - only above have we just talked about the change in go-to-market for a lot of entertainment brands in promoting movies - Disney has a constant pipeline of movies in production and now has Fortnite as its distribution tool to promote those films. I’m excited to see the integrations and crossovers that’ll be brought to life in-game, which takes me onto my third point…

3) A connected entertainment universe - with Disney’s reach across Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and it’s own Disney Animations, they have a testbed to see which IP is appealing to Fortnite players (through skins bought & UGC content created around the experiences).

This is a BIG change - no more focus groups, but live feedback to advise which crossovers from the Disney universe should come next.

And they’re already lightly testing this with the new chapter of Battle Royale with Dr Doom and multiple Marvel characters going live this Friday.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how ingrained Fortnite IP becomes into Disney’s ecosystem (like at Disneyland) and vice versa. Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences had the below to say:

So strap in folks, it looks like a lot more is on the way!

Minecraft & LUSH team up for limited-edition items IRL & in-game

Minecraft and LUSH have collaborated to create an in-game experience and real-world product line inspired by the natural beauty of the game. Players can craft lush-like items within Minecraft to impact gameplay and Lush has introduced a series of limited-edition bath products that capture the essence of Minecraft biomes in their stores.

Why should you care?

I’m always a big fan of IRL x URL crossovers, and this is no exception.

I mean, look at how on-point the physical items are…

The partnership focuses on what LUSH is known best for, its bath bombs, with the items inspired by Minecraft’s OG blocks, the Grass Block, Diamond Ore Block & TNT Block.

LUSH have always been quite a playful and value led brand (they left all Meta platforms a few years back), but never afraid to take a risk.

That playfulness of the brand obviously lends itself to gaming in a really authentic way, and gives a lot of scope for fun gameplay to be developed around LUSH’s IP, which they have brought to life in this partnership by leaning into the ‘crafting’ narrative, which appeals to both Minecraft gameplay and LUSH product development.

But this creativity and experimentation approach isn’t a new one for LUSH - we were lucky enough to have Adam Goswell, Tech R&D Principal from LUSH @ SEG3 London 2023, who at the time had just pioneered their Decentraland activation - he reinforced that those values are company wide drivers for all of their marketing/product development, so it’s no surprise them shine through with this partnership/approach once again.

It really takes a brand to get immersed in the storytelling and gameplay to be able to deliver products (and in-game experiences) that hit the nail on the head, but the wording of the release, the IRL product development and how they maintain the storytelling from gameplay in said products (i.e. rarity etc) shows LUSH have gone into the weeds with this one, so kudos and I hope the community embraces ‘crafting some moments of calm’.

In other news…

A quick round-up of other stories we found interesting this week. I did say there were quite a few…

• Robot achieves human like speed and performance in competitive table tennis

• Lamborghini & Animoca Brands team up for Motorverse

• Fall Guys comes to Fortnite

• BMW launch decal contest for Rocket League

• 5 clubs launch Adidas Originals kits

• Man City & GenG renew esports partnership

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!