Delphi Interactive is suddenly fielding calls from some of the world’s biggest brands, and it’s all because the publisher chose to make games for fans rather than for a narrow slice of hardcore gamers. After the success of 007 First Light (a James Bond adventure built Alien: Isolation-style immersion) and FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition (a Netflix-distributed mobile title that reached a global football audience far beyond EA’s usual base), CEO Casper Daugaard told a panel at The Paley Center for Media that “there’s been quite a few conversations with some of the most iconic brands in the world.” The pitch is simple: make interactive experiences that serve the IP’s existing fandom, not just the subset of gamers who already buy every licensed tie-in.
Delphi’s model flips the standard publishing playbook. Instead of chasing the same audience that buys annual Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed entries, the company targets the broader, often more casual, fanbase of a movie, sports league, or cultural property. “We said to the family and to MGM, ‘We’re not making this James Bond game for gamers, we want to make this game for James Bond fans,’” Daugaard explained. For First Light, that meant including driving, social stealth, flirting, and the MI6 program — everything a Bond fan would expect, packed into an “interactive experience.” For the FIFA project, it meant designing a casual, accessible game that any football fan could pick up, not just the competitive crowd that had stuck with EA’s predecessors.
From Bond to Brands: How Delphi’s Strategy Works
The results speak for themselves. 007 First Light was developed by Activision Blizzard-partner IO Interactive and launched to positive reception from both critics and Bond fans. FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, published by Delphi and built by Refactor Games, marked the first FIFA-branded release since the split from EA Sports in 2022, landing two weeks before the rival FIFA Heroes. Neither title tried to compete with the likes of Among Us on raw player counts, but each carved out a dedicated audience that the IP holder saw as valuable.
This “fan-first” language might sound like marketing fluff, but Daugaard insists it has “huge implications for how we got into business.” The logic works like this: big publishers like Activision Blizzard tend to prioritize their own franchises (think Call of Duty, Overwatch, or World of Warcraft) or a handful of licensed behemoths like Marvel. Third-party IPs — especially those tied to a single movie, book, or sports event — often get neglected. Delphi fills that gap by becoming the dedicated partner for those iconic brands, offering development funding, licensing expertise, and a clear vision catered to the property’s existing fans.
Why Now? The Post-EA Splinter and Streaming’s Hunger for Content
Delphi’s timing is no accident. The 2022 split between EA and FIFA opened a licensing window, and Netflix’s expanding push into games created demand for shorter, lower-barrier-to-entry titles that could attract non-gamers on mobile. For the FIFA project, Daugaard noted that Netflix “saw the potential” and agreed to back the game despite an extremely tight timeline, because the goal was “something that was actually also a bit more casual and something that anyone could access.” That speed and flexibility are rare among bigger publishers, whose approval processes can kill a project before it starts.
At the same time, major studios have been closing internal teams that handled licensed games. Activision, for instance, shuttered Alpha Dog Games and other support studios after the Microsoft acquisition, reducing the pool of developers eager to tackle third-party IP. Delphi president Andy Kleinman framed the opportunity directly: “Maybe they’re not prioritising some of those third-party IPs as much. That opened the opportunity where we said, ‘You know, there are huge brands that people love. This product doesn’t exist. We should make it.’”
The Downside: Not Every Brand Is a James Bond
Of course, the fan-first model isn’t a guaranteed hit. Many licensed games have bombed because the game itself wasn’t good, even when the brand was beloved. Alien: Isolation succeeded precisely because it respected the source material’s tone — a lesson Delphi seems to have absorbed. But replicating that quality across a portfolio of licenses will require disciplined development and consistent investment. Smaller publishers can stumble if they take on too many projects at once, or if the IP owner micromanages the creative vision.
There’s also the question of commercial scale. A game designed for James Bond fans might sell 2-3 million copies, which is a win for Delphi but a rounding error for Among Us or EA Sports FC. Major brands like Disney or Warner Bros. may still prefer to work with big publishers for blockbuster tie-ins, reserving smaller projects for partners like Delphi. The company will need to prove that its fan-first approach can deliver both critical acclaim and healthy profit margins to sustain those relationships.
What’s Next for Delphi Interactive?
Daugaard and Kleinman haven’t revealed which new brands are in discussions, but given the CEO’s claim that “some of the most iconic brands in the world” are intrigued, we can expect more announcements this year. The company’s mission, as stated to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this year, is to “license, finance, develop, and publish games built around the world’s most iconic IP.” That could mean anything from a TV series tie-in to a sports league that wants its own interactive experience.
If the next few Delphi titles maintain the same quality as First Light and the FIFA release, the industry may finally see a viable alternative to the “make it for everyone” philosophy that often waters down licensed games. Instead of trying to be Among Us or Call of Duty, Delphi is betting that fans of a brand will show up if you treat the IP with respect — and that’s a bet that’s drawing attention from the biggest names in entertainment.
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