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From Publisher to Studio: Lessons Game Companies Can Learn from Vice’s Reboot

UUnknown

2026-02-05

10 min read

Vice’s C-suite hires offer a blueprint for game studios diversifying into production, branded content and live events in 2026.

Hook: If your studio is tired of patch notes and boxed sales as the only growth levers, take note — Vice’s reboot shows how one media brand rebuilt as a production studio by hiring the people who know how to finance, package and sell content. Game companies weighing a jump into production, branded content, or live events can learn concrete, operational lessons from those executive moves.

Game studios face a common set of pain points in 2026: saturated storefronts, shrinking UA efficiency, and pressure from publishers and platforms to find new revenue streams. Diversification into TV, branded content, and live events is a natural path — but it’s also a discipline. Vice Media’s recent C-suite hires (including a former talent-agency finance chief and an NBCUniversal biz-dev veteran) offer a playbook for studios ready to make the leap without blowing up their balance sheets or alienating players.

Why Vice’s reboot matters to game companies in 2026

Vice is rebuilding as a studio. After bankruptcy and a pivot away from pure production-for-hire, the company doubled down on experienced executives to manage a slate-driven strategy. That’s a useful mirror for game companies: the competencies needed to run a successful content studio are different from those needed to ship patches or run seasonal monetization. Games companies must think like studios — from finance to distribution, from talent deals to measurement.

Three big trends in 2026 make this relevant now:

Streaming services and streamers continue to buy and co-produce game IP. Game-adjacent series remain high-value anchor content for platforms seeking captive audiences.
Live and hybrid events regained scale post-pandemic, with sponsorship and content licensing models maturing into predictable revenue streams.
Generative AI and advanced tooling compress preproduction and localization timelines, letting smaller studios iterate faster on transmedia concepts — but also raising the bar for executive oversight and IP governance.

Lesson 1 — Hire a production-savvy CFO: why Joe Friedman’s move matters

What Vice did: Bringing in a finance chief with agency and packaging experience signals a shift from ad-dependent revenue to slate financing, pre-sales, and rights packaging. A CFO with entertainment deal fluency knows how to construct co-productions, manage residuals, and model cash flow across long production cycles.

Takeaways for game companies

Hire finance talent with media project experience, not just game accounting. Entertainment finance uses different levers: tax credits, pre-sales, equity slates, and distributor minimum guarantees (MGs).
Create a production finance playbook. Standardize budget templates for short-form, series, and live event slates. Include contingency lines, incremental marketing budgets, and revenue waterfalls for partnerships.
Build a slate model early. Treat content initiatives as a portfolio: some projects are UGC-driven, some are premium IP adaptations, some are co-productions with a platform. Forecast expected returns, downside scenarios, and break-evens.

Actionable checklist

Audit your IP for transmedia potential and tabulate licensing value by region.
Map potential co-production partners and their typical MGs and recoupment schedules.
Model three-year cash flow under scenarios: self-funded slate, co-pro with pre-sale, and sponsor-driven content.

Lesson 2 — Build real biz-dev muscle: what Devak Shah’s hire signals

What Vice did: Hiring an executive with NBCUniversal studio and business development experience gives Vice someone who can negotiate platform deals, distribution windows, and strategic brand partnerships. For game companies, biz dev is the bridge to streamers, sponsors, promoters and non-endemic brands.

Why this matters

Creating a show or event isn’t the same as shipping a game. Distribution and monetization require bargaining with studios, platforms, and sponsor teams that evaluate content using different KPIs. You need people who can speak both languages.

Practical tactics

Map partner archetypes — streamers, linear platforms, broadcasters, sponsors, promoter networks. For each, document decision-makers, budget cycles, and content windows.
Pitch packages that speak platform language — short slates, talent attachability, audience overlap metrics, and clear recoupment splits.
Develop non-dilutive sponsor frameworks — tiered integration options, measurable activations, and co-owned IP clauses.

Lesson 3 — Put studio leadership at the top: the Adam Stotsky play

What Vice did: Bringing in leadership with TV network experience signals a cultural and operational shift. Studio leaders embed production rhythms, content slates, and distribution-first thinking into the org.

For game companies that want to diversify

Create a dual-operating model. Keep the game studio focused on development cycles while creating a separate production unit that follows media KPIs and timelines.
Appoint a studio head with cross-industry credibility. That leader needs to translate game metrics (DAU, retention, ARPPU) into content metrics (reach, completion, licensing value).
Establish reporting cadences. Weekly production standups, monthly finance reconciliations, and quarterly slate reviews help catch schedule and cost overruns early.

Lesson 4 — Build a production-native operating model

Production brings its own rhythm: preproduction approvals, shooting blocks, postproduction, delivery specs, and rights clearances. Game companies must develop processes and vendor relationships to match.

Core components

Production playbook. Greenlight criteria, expected run rates, vendor procurement, postproduction review cycles, and localization SOPs.
Legal and rights governance. Clear definitions for adaptation rights, underlying IP, merchandising rights, and sequel options. Avoid one-off ad deals that cede long-term value.
Talent and agent relationships. If you’re attaching creators, actors, or directors, work through agents early. Packaging matters in talent-driven negotiations.
Tech and tooling. Adopt cloud editorial, dailies, version control for assets, and metadata-driven localization pipelines. Generative AI can accelerate concept art and script iterations — but lock down IP usage rules.

Lesson 5 — Design monetization and measurement for diversification

One of the biggest mistakes new studios make is treating content like a marketing channel. It’s not. Content is a revenue product with its own LTV calculus.

Monetization levers

Direct monetization: ticket sales, streaming licensing fees, VOD purchases, branded content fees.
Indirect monetization: uplift in game sales, DLC, merchandising, in-game event passes tied to shows.
Sponsor and integrated revenue: branded integrations and sponsor tiers for live experiences and series.

Measurement framework

Define KPIs by stakeholder: CRO wants revenue per project; Head of Community wants retention lift; Marketing wants UA cost vs LTV delta.
Track both content-level and portfolio-level metrics: reach, engagement, view-through, incremental revenue, and marginal cost per incremental user acquisition.
Instrument rights to support attribution: unique promo codes, vanity URLs, event UTM parameters, and in-game pass redemptions tied to viewership events. See lessons from physical–digital merchandising to align fulfillment and attribution.

Lesson 6 — Live events: partner before you promote

Live events can be lucrative but are capital intensive and high-risk. Vice’s pivot underscores the need for production and promotion chops. Most game companies overestimate ticket demand and underestimate operational complexity.

Operational playbook for live events

Partner with experienced promoters. Co-promote with firms that own venues and sponsor networks to avoid reinventing logistics; portable power and set strategies are often the difference between a profitable run and a loss (see pop-up power playbooks).
Test small and scale. Start with pop-ups or regional activations to validate demand and content flow before committing to multi-city tours.
Design hybrid-first experiences. Combine physical presence with broadcast-quality streams and monetized on-demand windows (hybrid premiere tactics).
Insurance and contingency budgets are non-negotiable. Venue issues, talent cancellations, and production overruns happen. Budget for them.

Lesson 7 — Branded content needs community-first creative

Branded content works only when it feels native. Gamers are especially sensitive to forced brand placements. Vice’s strategy to hire storytellers and dealmakers reminds studios: keep authenticity at the center.

Creative rules for branded content

Start with gameplay, not logos. Build integrations that amplify player experience — e.g., a sponsored in-game challenge that maps to a short-form doc about the creators behind it.
Co-create with creators and players. Use creative councils made up of community leaders to vet branded concepts before they go live. For community playbooks and micro-event design, see creator communities playbooks.
Measure creative impact. Use control groups and A/B testing to show sponsors the direct effect of branded content on purchase intent and engagement.

“Diversification isn’t expansion for its own sake — it’s about building sustainable, complementary revenue channels without diluting the core IP.”

Operational checklist: 12 steps to start a studio arm

Perform an IP readiness audit: rights, clauses, and gaps that block adaptations.
Hire a CFO or finance lead with entertainment and packaging experience.
Create a 3-year slate model with conservative and upside cases.
Recruit a biz-dev lead with platform and sponsor relationships.
Set up a legal framework for adaptation, talent, and merchandising rights.
Build a production playbook covering budgets, vendors, and schedules.
Run a pilot project: short-form documentary, live experience, or branded series under $250k.
Instrument attribution and measurement across game and content products.
Partner with promoters for any live event initiatives.
Implement IP governance for AI tools and third-party vendors.
Create a community advisory panel to vet content authenticity.
Establish quarterly slate reviews with finance and strategy present.

Advanced strategies and future-proofing for 2026+

As Vice’s hires show, the future of studio operations blends old-school dealmaking with new tools. Here are advanced levers game companies should consider.

1. Slate financing and SPVs

Use special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to ring-fence production risk. Co-investors often prefer slate-level exposure to single-project bets. This gives you runway for longer-term IP plays.

2. Data-first content design

Leverage first-party game telemetry to inform content decisions: which characters drive retention, which story beats map to spikes in engagement, and which regions prefer serialized vs. event-driven formats.

3. AI-enabled localization and iteration

Generative AI in 2026 shortens localization turnaround and helps generate alternate edits for regional platforms. Lock governance and usage rights in your contracts to avoid downstream IP disputes.

4. Regional slates and co-productions

Local content often outperforms global content on regional platforms. Co-produce with local studios and talent to capture market share and favorable tax incentives. Pitch tactics for regional platforms and linear buyers are covered in platform-pitch playbooks like Pitching to Disney+ EMEA.

5. Creator-led IP incubation

Use creators as incubators for IP: short series or live formats that can be fast-failed or scaled. Offer revenue shares and sequel rights to retain creator incentives. Read how creator-driven companies scaled paying audiences in case studies such as Goalhanger’s growth case study.

Risk management: what to watch for

Reputation risk: Bad branded content or tone-deaf activations can alienate players. Use community gates early.
Financial exposure: Avoid over-levering on single project bets. Diversify across short-form, series, and live events.
Labor and union issues: Production unions and guilds are now central to negotiations. Budget for compliance and residuals.
IP leakage: Guard against loose licensing that erodes long-term merchandising value.

Closing: The bottom line for game companies

Vice’s C-suite hires aren’t window dressing — they’re a blueprint. If your studio wants to act like a producer, you need production people: a CFO who understands entertainment finance, biz-dev that can cut platform and sponsor deals, and studio leadership that can marry creative risk with portfolio discipline. Diversification can unlock new, higher-margin revenue — but only if it’s run with production-level rigor.

Start small, invest in experienced hires, and treat content as a portfolio asset. Do that, and your studio can move from being a publisher to a resilient studio — monetizing IP across screens, stages, and platforms without losing the players who made you successful.

Call to action

Ready to map your IP into a production slate? Download our studio-launch checklist or sign up for our upcoming webinar where industry CFOs and biz-dev veterans break down sample term sheets and co-production models in detail. Don’t diversify blind — do it with the right team and the right playbook.

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Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.