Intellectual property licensing company Spaceport Technologies announced today that Toei Animation has chosen Twin Atlas to develop a new experience for Roblox for Toei’s upcoming film, Hypergalactic. The game, Hypergalactic: Monkey Quest, launches in November 2024 and will be a hub for a larger cluster of Hypergalactic games on the platform.
Twin Atlas was 2023’s Roblox Studio of the Year, and has created UGC content such as Robloxian High School, Dragon Adventures and Drive World. CEO Samuel Garcia said in a statement, “As a studio that respects and admires Toei’s creative legacy, we are proud to contribute our expertise to help connect players to the Hypergalactic universe. We look forward to seeing the incredible creations that the Roblox community will bring to life as part of this experience.”
Spaceport’s platform allows brands such as Toei to build out their intellectual property into platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, by offering it to smaller creators at scale. By bringing Hypergalactic to these platforms, it drives interest in the brand among younger audiences who have an existing affinity for anime.
Brands and building IP-based experiences
Le Zhang, Spaceport CEO, told GamesBeat in an interview, “Traditionally, IP owners, especially larger IP owners, are very protective of their IP — for good reason! There was never a class of creators that could create fun and compelling and engaging content that could compete with these centralized triple-A game studios. IP owners in the past have dealt with only a small handful of these creators, which means licensing — the sharing of the rights with other companies to expand into other verticals — would take a really long time.”
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Zhang said that the industry has since shifted in favor of smaller creators on platforms such as Roblox, and that fans can often create experiences that feel authentic to other fans. “Let’s take a step back from setting all these guardrails and restrictions for exactly how this game is created. Let’s let the fans and developers come up with these concepts.” Spaceport provides assets for the titles under the licensing agreements, including environments and sound effects.
Yoshinori Ikezawa, Toei’s lead producer, said in a statement, “At Toei Animation, we deeply value the support of our fans, and this partnership is a great opportunity to collaborate with UGC creators, fans, and the broader community. Their creativity and passion are what make both Roblox and Toei Animation’s IPs so special, and we’re excited to see the incredible content that will emerge from this collaboration. Spaceport allows us to explore these new dimensions of fan engagement and content creation.”
