Pretty easy to me. Why would the manufacturers pay license fees if they did not increase the sales of games?

Great recent example:

Legends of Valhalla.

Maybe one of the most interesting recent games to come out. Great shots, excellent sound track , fun rules. The Deluxe is priced well considering the going price of the high end versions of games today. The game was announced in October. 500 Deluxe models announced and the distributors are still trying to sell out the original 500 here 6 months later. I bet if the same game was licensed under the "Vikings" TV show and the actor that played Ragnar Loth brick were doing the callouts, people would be dreaming that there were only 500 Deluxe's and going crazy on the lack of a topper on the to be announced base model .