Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. Today, we tweak the format slightly to talk to two globe-trotting professionals shaking up the industry in the U.S. and internationally: Thomas Benski, the former CEO and co-founder of Pulse Films who now heads up his new talent and IP-led group Lumina, and Anne-Margot Rodde, co-founder of Fortnite UEFN studio Creators Corp. They talk about their collaboration and belief in the opportunities to be had in an increasingly multi-platform media and entertainment ecosystem.

With the cost of a weekend at Coachella skirting at least $2,500, not everyone can afford to join the celebrity and influencer crowd at the music and arts festival in the Southern Californian desert. But L.A.-based games studio Creators Corp.’s newest Fortnite game Coachella Pillars, launched at the same time as the 2025 edition this April, offers a virtual alternative.

The immersive contest set within the world of Coachella and its different stages, involves two to 12 players standing on ‘Pillars of Sound’ from which they attempt to knock one another off, using 30 customized tools inspired by musical instruments. The winner ends up on Coachella’s main stage.  

Coachella Pillars is among 23 games and experiences developed for Epic Games’ Fortnite platform by L.A.-based games studio Creators Corp. since its launch in 2023.

The studio is the brainchild of globe-trotting video games, digital media and metaverse pioneer Anne-Margot Rodde, who was first introduced to the gaming world when she joined a marketing agency and ended up working with brands like Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation.

She went on to create her own experiential marketing agency WePlay, which worked with clients such as EA, Riot Games, Nexon, Epic Games, and IGN, before segueing into the content creation side of the game world in the wake of the pandemic.

Creators Corp. creates games within the Fortnite Creative UGC game engine, launched in 2018 to allow players to create their own worlds and battle arenas, using the Unreal Editor For Fortnite (UEFN) application. It bills itself as “a leading Fortnite UEFN studio”.

It has a special focus on the sports and entertainment worlds, working with digital influencers, athletes, sports brands and entertainment studios, which have included sports and comedy group Dude Perfect, NBA champion Steph Curry and the U.S. Open.

Rodde and her team have had to be quick on their feet. The Fortnite platform is an ever-evolving environment. Since its creation in 2017, it has gathered an estimated 650 million registered users, and today draws more than 60 million daily active users worldwide. In 2019, Netflix famously admitted in a shareholder letter that it competed and lost to Fortnite more than HBO.

“Fortnite Creative is the user generated game platform for Fortnite and it’s part of the creator economy,” says Rodde. “It was built by Epic Games to allow anyone to build and monetize mini games. That’s what we do at Creators Corp. Essentially, we’re a mini studio. There aren’t any big studios in this space. Every creator is either a solo creator, or a mini studio like us with around 15 people. It works a little bit like YouTube. You make a game, you launch it, and then you monetize it through the platform.”  

Its innovative strategy and Rodde’s track record recently caught the eye of Thomas Benski, the former CEO and co-founder of Gangs of London producer Pulse Films, who has made a $2 million strategic investment in Creative Corp. via Lumina, his new talent and IP-led media group which launched last year.

Creators Corp. revenue is generated through payouts from Epic Games on a pay-per-play basis, based on a percentage of profits from players buying the skins, i.e. virtual costumes and props, related to its games.

“If a kid buys a skin playing our game, our payout is higher, and if they haven’t, the payout is lower,” says Rodde.

A key pole of Rodde’s strategy is forging partnerships with sports and entertainment brands to create games spinning off their IP.  She cites Creators Corp. game Dude Perfect Dodgeball as an example of this.

“We found there was a huge crossover between the Dude Perfect audience and the Fortnite audience,” she says of the collaboration with the sports and comedy brand and YouTube channel created by a group of former college roommates, and revolving around trick shots.

Dude Perfect Dodgeball was created as supporting content for the re-launch of the Dude Perfect Gaming YouTube channel, a spin-off of the main Dude Perfect channel, which has some 61 million subscribers worldwide.

Set on a Caribbean resort island, the two to 16 player contest revolved around a dodgeball game unfolding against the backdrop of its golf course, yacht harbor, jungle and beaches.  Launched in May 2024, it generated 1.5 million plays and gathered more than 1.500 concurrent players (CCUs) on launch day, according to Creator Corp.’s own figures.

“This is the perfect type of partnership we’re looking. Because we know that when we partner with them, we get access to their audience, and that helps the launch of our games,” says Rodde. “In the UGC space, your main marketing tool is influencer marketing, getting influencers to tell their audience to go and play this game.”

Rodde also cites Steph Curry’s Run The Ring, which won the company its first Webby Award in 2024.

“It’s a classic game Fortnite game. His IP was widely used in the game. We did a marketing campaign which was leaning on his social channels a lot, it did extremely well. I think his Twitter post on that day was his most liked and viewed post in six months. People were really excited,” she says, adding that while it was not their most successful game in terms of numbers it helped boost Creator Corp.’s visibility.

Creators Corp. also makes its own original games such as Weapon Tycoon, which generated 4.5 million plays and counting, as well as Card Chaos, which was played some 10 million times.

Benski’s investment in Creators Corp. marked the media and entertainment entrepreneur’s first foray into the game world. It was unveiled last December as part of the announcement of his new New York, Paris and Los Angeles-based talent and IP-led venture Lumina.

Other investments include consumer brands like Metier, DAACI and Lumina has also launched a new multi-disciplinary film studio, Magna Studios, led by former Pulse Films co-founder Marisa Clifford and Global President Davud Karbassioun.

“What we’re trying to build at Lumina is a multi-layered ecosystem, really backing brands and founders that have a very clear vision on that intersects or are adjacent to the things we know,” says Benski. “Lumina is not a consolidating media empire. It’s an investment vehicle that deploys capital across specific very themes.”

“When I met Margot, I was extremely impressed with the fact that in a very nascent industry, or vertical of the industry, she had a very clear view of how to professionalize and how to create a functioning studio there,” he continues.

“For us, we saw our value as the ability to kind of cross some bridges with some talent or IP or any of those multipliers that could help some of these games cut through.”

Benski shares Rodde’s bigger long-term vision that bigger entertainment brands and pieces of IP increasingly need to exist in a multi-channel ecosystem.

“Any entertainment brand should have extensions that go way past their linear output. This is not revolutionary. Netflix is doing that. Disney’s took a big bet on Fortnite. They are a big investor in Epic. We think if you’re a fan, you’re part of a community, and you would want to engage with your favorite characters, your favorite IP across different touch points,” says Benski.

Rodde says many big linear IPs are already benefiting from organic Transmedia exposure, citing the example of Squid Game, which spawned unofficial games on Fortnite Creative and viral content from YouTuber Mr. Beast.

“The Creator game got 25 million plays in two weeks and its still going, but I was thinking how come all these kids know about this IP. I was going to Halloween parties and seeing all these kids dressed up in Squid Game costumes. Then it clicked, I realized they didn’t necessarily know the show but rather the Mr. Beast video,” she explains.

Rodde says that often big studios do not ask creators to take down games using their IP without permission because they know it is good marketing.

Benski says Rodde’s views around IP chime with his own and his plans for Lumina: “As storytellers, not only is there opportunity but there is a need to think about IP and talent in a Transmedia perspective. It’s such a shame to stay in one lane. Take the example of Gangs Of London, the audience is very passionate, but then the show doesn’t happen for two years.”

“We really believe in the idea of brand and the idea of an IP being something that has definition. We believe in community and broader revenue streams for IP that could include gaming, that could include consumer. Not everything, but the right projects should benefit from opportunities that exist across the reality of the media landscape today, as opposed to the very rigid structure that existed for 30 years.”

Beyond Lumina’s investment in Creators Corp., Rodde is hoping its connections will open doors for her company to other potential partnerships in the media and entertainment world.

“We spend a lot of time explaining the space, which makes sense because it’s completely new and not a lot of people are aware of it, and that’s part of our growth,” she says.

“Thomas and his team have great relationships in this space, while it’s harder for us as a smaller business to start this conversation and pitch to the relevant people. The hope is they can carry our message, and unlock some opportunities, whether its with studios already under Lumina, or elsewhere.”

By Melanie Goodfellow