How to Build a Cross-Platform Franchise

Remember when MyGames first introduced War Robots over a decade ago? Back then, things weren’t so rosy. But fast forward to today, and the game has turned into a franchise available on multiple platforms and is extremely successful with over 250 million registered users and continuous growth in certain markets.

Now, Pixonic – the team driving the game forward – has launched not one, but two new games with the War Robots IP. This means more robot time, on more platforms.

Sola Saulenko, CMO at Pixonic, delves into the path to continued franchise growth, discussing preconditions, challenges, and the vital role of product passion in establishing a sustainable game franchise in a chat with Mishka.

Listen to it on your favourite platform below.

It’s good to see My.Games truly allow the teams the freedom to make games they are passionate about. Sola noted an interesting divide among her colleagues: the younger ones are all about creating Little Big Robots, a fun mobile shooter game, while the older crew prefers the intense battles of War Robots: Frontiers on PC and console.

We at Deconstructor of Fun are truly impressed with both games from the same studio, offering two completely different experiences while featuring robots. This speaks volumes about the team's versatility and their relentless pursuit of creating great products.

Little Big Robots

Sola shared that Little Big Robots stemmed from the team's profound love for robots and their eagerness to showcase them in every possible way. The developers envisioned the characters as charming little robots that would inject humour and excitement into the genre by downsizing the abilities, behaviours, and weapons of larger robots while retaining the cherished core traits.

After reaching a point where the team was proud of the game's content and believed it offered weeks of engaging gameplay, Little Big Robots was soft-launched in its key market a year ago, in 2023, making it still a very new game. Needless to say, the team diligently gathered all the performance data, critical for future refinement, created marketing campaigns, made daily optimisations, and conducted continuous testing. 

Although Little Big Robots has yet to fully realise its potential, Sola remains optimistic and excited about its future and is confident that all vital insights to make the game even better were gathered throughout the last year of testing.

War Robots: Frontiers

War Robots: Frontiers, however, departs from Little Big Robots’ whimsical universe opting instead for a grittier, more intense gameplay.

As is the case with any cross-platform game, the development of War Robots: Frontiers is a true team effort. The Pixonic team is being combined with a group of fellow devs from My.Games who have combined their collective experience to build a PC and console experience.

Pixonic leverages some of the insights from the War Robots mobile game and other games that have been developed by this team to foster efficient resource pooling and team collaboration. As might be expected, this type of game will be targeted at a very different type of audience, so it’s a project that requires a unique and diverse skill set in the end. It’s clear from the early look and feel that this title has the potential to meet with great natural success and continue to help Pixonic build its reputation as a game developer that can deliver unique, high-quality experiences across a range of different platforms.

3 Reasons Behind the IP expansion

1. It started with organic growth. Initially, the team had been enjoying the process, experimenting with ideas much like they did with their first game, War Robots. As Sola puts it, it all happened naturally. As time went on, a desire to explore new avenues and delve deeper into game development emerged, leading them to consider expanding their franchise.

2. Then came the diversification strategy that welcomed new demographics into the brand and broadened its overall portfolio. Sola emphasizes its importance:

“By introducing Little Big Robots, we're opening doors to a younger audience while also broadening our overall portfolio. We want to ensure that our games cater to a diverse range of players, not solely focusing on one demographic, such as males under 32”.

3. Navigating the Post-Privacy Landscape

​​Just like any other game developer, My.Games have been affected by the "IDFA apocalypse," as they call it, in the post-privacy era. Acquiring players in mobile gaming has become increasingly challenging due to limited tracking and rising costs. Despite these difficulties, they've faced them head-on and embraced the fact that Recognisable IPs can help reassure users and increase downloads, making them more important for game marketing than ever before.

It's worth noting, however, that even with established brands like War Robots offering strategic advantages, teams still encounter learning curves in adapting to PC marketing and efficiently managing their marketing budgets.

Sustaining a decade of growth

The War Robots franchise couldn't have come this far without a shared commitment to collaboration, genuine audience listening, and love for their product. Sola is quick to point to cross-team collaboration between product and marketing teams as the bedrock for everything, supported by a dedicated analyst team that has prided itself from day one on understanding their business goals.

But even beyond the numbers lies their story. At their core, they've made listening to the audience a priority. Engaging them in conversation, asking for feedback in regular surveys, getting close to their support team and, not just confining this online, but taking it out into the world, forging partnerships, hosting real-world community events and bringing them together in the most meaningful ways you possibly can.

What binds all of this together, though, is something much deeper than strategy - a love for their product. It is this very love that breathes life into their games that has resonated with their audience long after the launch.