From Books to Games: Why the Future of Children’s IP Is Transmedia

I recently had the opportunity to contribute to a discussion featured in an article about the evolving ecosystem of children’s entertainment during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the world’s most important event dedicated to children’s and young adult publishing.

For more than sixty years, Bologna has been the epicenter of children’s literature. But what is happening there today tells a much bigger story about the future of storytelling.

Books are no longer the only starting point.

Cinema, television, podcasts, toys, and now video games are increasingly part of the same creative ecosystem. The fair itself reflects this shift: after opening dedicated spaces for audiovisual content, it recently introduced a space specifically focused on games, acknowledging how deeply interactive entertainment is shaping the way younger audiences discover and experience stories.

This transformation is not accidental. It is a response to a profound change in how children and teenagers engage with culture.

The Era of Transmedia Storytelling

Today’s audiences rarely encounter stories in a single format. A character might appear first in a game, then in a television series, then in books, toys, or social media.

This is what we call transmedia storytelling—an ecosystem where narratives expand across multiple platforms, each contributing to a broader universe.

In the article, I highlighted how audiences themselves are now an active force in shaping this ecosystem:

“Storytelling today is interactive, collaborative and multiplatform. Audiences are no longer passive; they actively influence how narratives evolve.”

This shift means that companies must listen more closely than ever to their communities. Fans are not just consumers—they are participants. The strongest brands today are the ones that cultivate those communities and allow them to shape the future of the story.

Why IP Matters More Than Ever

Another major theme discussed in Bologna is the growing importance of intellectual property.

In an entertainment landscape that is more crowded than ever, familiar worlds and characters offer a powerful advantage. Research presented during the fair shows that a significant share of family content produced in recent years originates from existing IP.

For creators and studios, this means that building a strong narrative universe can open the door to multiple formats: books becoming films, games becoming series, or digital characters becoming global brands.

Examples are everywhere. Iconic characters such as Sonic or Hello Kitty now move seamlessly between games, merchandise, television, and publishing. Their success comes not from a single medium but from their ability to exist across many.

The Responsibility Behind the Opportunity

However, with this opportunity comes responsibility.

Transmedia strategies can easily drift into exploitation if they focus only on monetization rather than meaningful storytelling. As I pointed out in the discussion:

“There is a real risk if transmedia experiences are not managed ethically.”

Children are among the most engaged audiences, but also among the most vulnerable. The challenge for creators and rights holders is therefore not simply to expand stories across platforms, but to do so thoughtfully—respecting attention, creativity, and well-being.

The best projects are not those that try to capture every minute of a child’s time, but those that create experiences worth returning to.

A New Reality for Storytelling

Walking through the halls of the Bologna fair, one thing becomes clear: the book is still alive and well. Beautiful illustrated albums, pop-up books, and tactile storytelling continue to fascinate readers.

But the cultural ecosystem around them has expanded.

Stories now travel between pages, screens, games, and communities, creating richer worlds and new creative possibilities.

For those of us working at the intersection of licensing, gaming, and interactive media, this is not a distant trend—it is the reality we help shape every day.

And if Bologna is any indication, the future of storytelling will not belong to a single format. It will belong to those who understand how stories can live everywhere.