Allied Global Marketing: video games generating increase in Latin American IP

AGM’s chief strategy officer Adam Cunningham at Content Americas

CONTENT AMERICAS: Video game franchises are set to foster an increasing amount of original Latin American TV content and IP in the coming years, according to analysis firm Allied Global Marketing (AGM).

Speaking at C21’s inaugural Content Americas in Miami yesterday, AGM’s chief strategy officer Adam Cunningham presented data revealing the Lat Am gaming industry grew by 17% year-on-year from US$7.2bn in 2021 to US$8.4bn in 2022.

“Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico all over-indexed immensely in this sector. This is going to become an increasingly important place for people to pick up IP,” Cunningham explained. He said the versatile nature of game IP makes it an enticing prospect for players in the regional and global TV industry, as the IP can be used beyond a simple TV adaptation.

“It’s not for nothing that Netflix has purchased multiple gaming studios and that gaming is now part of the subscription. This convergence is very real. Take the Lat Am market, where the audience is going to use a mobile device as their native device, it’s very easy to put people into these new experiences,” he told delegates.

Most recently, HBO’s adaptation of popular video game The Last of Us premiered with rave reviews.

However, turning video games into TV shows has historically proven to be a challenge – as evidenced by the multiple box-office flops of prior video game adaptations. But the success of The Last of Us may provide the TV industry with the blueprint for how to successfully break the video game curse.