If you follow The Meta closely, it is no surprise to you that the smash battle royale game has gotten the attention of Hollywood’s biggest hit-maker. It may surprise you, though, to hear how this partnership came to be: with Marvel approaching Epic, not the other way around. From Joe Russo, co-director of Infinity War:

“Over the past few months, while we were editing ‘Infinity War,’ we’d take breaks to hop on and get in a few games, and then we started thinking, how cool would it be to have some kind of ‘Avengers’-‘Fortnite’ mashup? So we stalked [Epic Games creative director Donald Mustard].”

The limited time collab — which will feature a special game mode called “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” and is available to play now — includes an Avengers tie in through villain Thanos’s Gauntlet. The first player on the map to find Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet can equip it and transform into Thanos himself – and wield the power of all six Infinity Stones.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but from a macro standpoint, one thing is clear: Fortnite is the game of the moment…by a significant margin. I would not be surprised to see continued partnerships like this between tier-1 movie studios and tier-1 game publishers, although it’s fascinating to note how embedded this specific collaboration is. Typically, game publishers protect their in-game universes to the nth degree, and Epic’s willingness to include an in-game integration with the Marvel Cinematic Universe speaks to their openness to create amazing experiences for their players, and also to their respect for the legendary franchise.

One thing is certain: this announcement made waves well beyond each property individually and collectively, Epic and Marvel have a lot to be proud of.

One of the advantages of the NBA 2K League (as opposed to the NALCS, for example, which keeps its arena sponsor-free) is their ability to utilize physical and digital space for their sponsors.

Digital Alienware advertisement on the half-court signage below: 

Endemic HyperX Headset Integration in live player shots:

Alienware in-arena digital signage:

Alienware in-arena computer integration (to the right of the monitor): 

The NBA 2K League hit a perfect balance of authentically integrating their founding partners without over-saturating or over-commercializing the product. As the 2K League continues to grow and adds additional sponsors who are not endemic (like Alienware and HyperX are) this will become a recurring challenge of balancing between an authentic product and proper monetization. Some additional league categories to keep a look out for:

• Apparel
• Auto
• Beverage
• Gaming Chair
• QSR
• Telecom

Not to mention all the potential on-site activations that will be possible when each of these teams is operating out of their own arenas. Overall, a strong start for the NBA 2K league from a sponsor perspective thus far with a ton of room to grow.