Big Franchises – What’s The Deal?
One of the major functions of video games – for their developers at least – is the possibility of “branding”, something which has dominated the landscape of just about everything commercial in recent years. Corporate sponsorship has meant that logos turn up anywhere that they might benefit the strengthening of a brand, and video games are absolutely no exception to the rise of branding. It has meant that any company which can benefit from the release of a tie-in game has at the very least looked closely at the possibility of doing so.
One of the major examples of this is sporting bodies. The NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL and, further afield, FIFA and the Olympics have tie-in games which are released whenever it is relevant to do so. For the earlier mentioned ones, that is once a year, and for the Olympics it is every four years. The game is something fun for gamers to play and for the organization it means that they are getting their brand front and center, in front of people with disposable income.
Other examples of this use of video games as promotional tools are seen with movies and the current, highly popular “Rock Band” franchise which allows individuals to test themselves as musicians in groups as diverse as Nirvana and the Beatles. However, it works both ways, as the most popular games tend to become brands in their own right, spawning imitators and attached cultures of their own. One has only to Google the names of the most popular games to see examples of this.