Following our training courses at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne dedicated to video game and esports law, Mr. Chomiac de Sas led a workshop at the Paris campus of Game Quest (Gaming Campus) to offer second-year Gaming Business students a module on the law of entrepreneurs.
Focusing on the digital and gaming sectors, the students spent ten days auditing various companies and products to identify their business models, growth drivers, challenges, and legal disputes.
Gaming Companies: Unique Challenges and Perspectives
Focusing on the digital and gaming sectors, the students spent ten days auditing various companies and products to identify their business models, growth drivers, challenges, and legal disputes.
After ten days of research, analysis, and structuring their topics, they presented their findings in English in a professional format, covering a range of engaging themes:
- The Webedia Group
- Games Workshop and the Warhammer license
- Riot Games
- EA Games
- Nintendo
- Clair Obscur and the Sandfall studio
Congratulations to all the students who dedicated themselves to these projects. Discover the various selected topics analyzed through a legal lens:
Webedia – “I always dreamed of founding a media chain… and I did it.”
Webedia has established itself as a key player in the French digital landscape thanks to a targeted acquisition strategy and the building of a vast portfolio of online media. Since its creation in 2007, the group has integrated strong brands such as Allociné, Jeuxvideo.com, Purepeople, 750g, and EasyVoyage, thus consolidating a dominant presence in the entertainment, film, gaming, food, and lifestyle sectors. This growth also relies on the production of digital content through its in-house studios and on partnerships with creators and influencers, allowing it to control the publishing, distribution, and monetization of content. Webedia is thus positioning itself as a media-tech company capable of exploiting digital platforms on a large scale, drawing on more than fifteen years of expertise in audience analysis and the creation of engaging content.
This momentum is accompanied by significant economic strength and growing ambitions in the audiovisual sector. A subsidiary of the Fimalac group, Webedia benefits from stable financial support and a network of diversified subsidiaries, ranging from audiovisual production (Elephant, IDZ Prod) to data and digital marketing. The group employs approximately 2,000 people and generates an estimated revenue of €400 million, with a net profit of around €60 million, demonstrating sustainable profitability. Its current strategy aims to strengthen its resilience against digital giants, develop new acquisitions, and invest in artificial intelligence and premium video formats. Recent partnerships, notably with M6+ to enhance the distribution of film and series content, illustrate this desire to become a key player in the French audiovisual and streaming market.
Nintendo’s empire: “Niiiiiiiintendoooooooo!”
Nintendo has established itself as one of the historical pillars of video games thanks to a model based on the creation and complete control of its own universes. The company develops and distributes both consoles—from the NES to the Switch—and games from franchises that have become global cultural touchstones, such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Metroid, and Super Smash Bros.
This vertical integration allows it to control the user experience from end to end, from hardware design to gameplay storytelling, while consolidating a portfolio of cross-generational franchises.
This unique positioning ensures remarkable economic stability: its franchises are regularly renewed, its consoles are massively successful, and its strategy relies more on gameplay innovation than on the race for technological power. Nintendo thus occupies a singular place in the industry, distinct from Sony and Microsoft, by prioritizing creativity, accessibility, and the strength of its brands.
This strength does not preclude structural risks, which Nintendo is addressing cautiously. The company cannot be acquired because it is owned by a group of Japanese institutional investors—banks, industrial conglomerates, and domestic investors—who guarantee its strategic independence but also limit its financial flexibility.
It must contend with increasing technological dependence, online infrastructure that is less competitive than that of its rivals, and a sometimes conservative positioning, particularly in esports and online services. Its rivals are numerous: console manufacturers, PC platforms like Steam, mobile games, and live service giants such as Fortnite and Roblox, which capture a significant share of players’ attention.
Nintendo’s future will depend on its ability to invest in cloud gaming, integrate AI into its development tools, strengthen the appeal of its franchises in the face of mobile competition, and maintain player engagement in a market where attention has become a scarce resource.
Games Workshop: Warhammer
Founded in 1975, the British company Games Workshop initially specialized in manufacturing board games. It distinguished itself by becoming the leading importer of Dungeons & Dragons and later a publisher of its own wargames and role-playing games, competing with companies like Privateer Press (Warmachine/Hordes) and, more broadly, the board game and miniatures lines of Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast.
The development of their licenses has followed a controlled transmedia strategy: Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 remain at the heart of their business, through game rules, miniatures, and books, but also lead to numerous licensing partnerships for video games, novels, comics, and related merchandise. Games Workshop licenses its universes to third-party studios for video game adaptations (for example, the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine or Total War: Warhammer series), allowing it to reach a much wider audience while retaining control over the visual and narrative guidelines.
This strategy strengthens the value of its intellectual properties: the universes become cultural brands in their own right, capable of generating recurring revenue both through direct sales of miniatures in its own retail network and through licensing royalties.
Economically, it’s clear that Games Workshop enjoys a near-monopoly in its sector. In 2025, the group posted revenues of approximately £617.5 million, up 18% compared to 2024, with a net profit of around £196.1 million and a margin of approximately 32%.
These figures demonstrate the remarkable economic stability of the model: a loyal global fan base, control of the value chain, and the ability to monetize licenses digitally. This suggests favorable prospects for organic growth (new editions, new games) and geographic expansion, despite increased competition in miniature wargaming and the rise of 3D-printed alternatives.
Riot Games: You’d die for the cause, but you won’t fight for one
Inspired by the legendary Defense of the Ancients, Riot Games grew from a single title, League of Legends, launched in 2009, to become a major player in the global competitive gaming scene. The company has progressively expanded its expertise by creating a true ecosystem around its flagship game: professional leagues, international championships, community tools, and narrative content.
Following Tencent’s investment in 2011 and its complete acquisition in 2015, Riot accelerated its diversification with Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, and transmedia projects like the Arcane series. This evolution has transformed Riot into a structured multimedia group, while maintaining an identity based on a “player-first” approach and esports as its growth engine.
For Tencent, Riot Games holds a strategic position in a global vision to dominate the video game industry through investment, consolidation, and control of competitive ecosystems. The gradual acquisition of Riot—from the initial investment in 2008 to the full takeover in 2015—is part of a strategy to acquire key studios in order to secure global licenses, strengthen its presence outside of China, and develop technological and commercial synergies.
Riot is one of the pillars of this strategy: League of Legends is one of the most popular PC games in the world, and its esports model serves as an international showcase for Tencent. The integration of Riot enhances the group’s competitiveness and supports its global expansion, while also being part of a long-term strategy to strengthen its efficiency and dominant market position.
Electronic Arts: From California’s Apple to Saudi Arabia’s PIF
Founded by former Apple executives, Electronic Arts occupies a central position in the industry thanks to its role as a global publisher, structured around the production of AAA narrative games, the exploitation of renowned licenses, and the management of vast online communities.
As a publisher, EA handles and controls the distribution, marketing, licensing, and commercial exploitation of its franchises, allowing it to secure stable revenue and structure the ecosystem around its flagship titles such as EA Sports FC, Madden, and Apex Legends. Live services now constitute the majority of its growth, supported by a marketing strategy that transforms each annual release into a platform for continuous engagement.
This publishing power is based on a policy of acquiring and integrating studios that has long shaped the group’s identity. Historically, EA has acquired studios to secure expertise (BioWare for RPGs, DICE for FPS games, Respawn for action-adventure and multiplayer), but also to lock down strategic licenses. This strategy allows for the industrialization of productions, the pooling of technologies, and ensures commercial consistency across the different divisions.
This vertical integration reinforces its position as a dominant publisher, capable of simultaneously managing creation, distribution, and exploitation.
Finally, EA is one of the most emblematic players in monetization experimentation, a field where it has often been a pioneer… and sometimes controversial. The company has progressively shifted its business model towards live services, seasonal content, premium passes, and microtransactions, which now constitute the majority of its revenue.
Sports licenses, in particular, serve as a testing ground for these models: collectible cards, persistent competitive modes, live events, and content refreshed each season. This strategy aims to transform each game into a sustainable platform, maximizing retention and value per player. It is part of a vision where the publisher no longer sells just a product, but a complete, connected, and long-term monetized ecosystem.
The $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts by a consortium led by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF repositions the publisher as a major strategic lever in the Kingdom’s transformation towards a digital and entertainment economy, offering a complete gaming ecosystem from esports to development studios.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – An “Indie” Game or an “AA” Game?
A major French video game success, “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” published by Sandfall, exemplifies a hybrid production model that challenges the traditional definition of an “indie game.”
From an artistic standpoint, the studio retains creative control of the project through artistic autonomy and the absence of direct control from a (major) publisher: art direction, narrative, gameplay, and development.
However, from a financial and economic perspective, the difference between the announced development budget—less than $10 million—and the total estimated budget—$15 to $25 million—far exceeds the usual indie game standards, traditionally ranging from €20,000 to €500,000.
This ambiguity led the students to question an intriguing issue: is the media image of a “French indie miracle” a form of narrative embellishment?
Sandfall benefited from massive financial and logistical support: French public funding (CNC, tax credits, regional subsidies), the Epic MegaGrant, and especially the support of Kepler Interactive, which handled international marketing, distribution, QA, localization, and legal support.
Sandfall remains legally independent; its success relies on a structured international ecosystem, prestigious partners, and strategic outsourcing. The use of top-level talent (such as Andy Serkis) and an artistic direction influenced by inspirations that are not exclusively French reinforce the idea of a more globalized project than presented.
