Gaming isn’t famous for being fashionable. One of the most best-known characters is Nintendo’s Mario who wears a red shirt, a red hat and a pair of overalls. Mario did look good when game graphics weren’t as advanced but now that we have 3D, photorealistic graphics, Mario wouldn’t be found on many catwalks.
However, new games and game characters are doing much more with fashion. Game fashion is now seeing players dress up as characters, sell merchandise, and more.
Game Developers Work With Fashion Brands
One way that gaming is doing this is by developers working with fashion brands. For fashion brands, it allows them to get their clothes and their ideas in front of a new audience. Gamers are young, affluent, and are happy to hear new ideas and new trends which makes them a great target market.
For developers, working with fashion brands gives them a new way to design their characters. It also helps to legitimize a game series and make it go mainstream. These partnerships can also be lucrative and can be good marketing for the developer and the brand. When Final Fantasy character Lightning became a virtual model for Louis Vuitton, it made headlines around the world.
Why Games Sell Character Outfits
However, the clothing worn by game characters can also be profitable for a game developer when they make it themselves and haven’t worked with a brand. Many games offer in-game purchases called microtransactions, with one of the most popular transactions being the character skin or costume unlock.
These skins give a character a fun new look and are a great way for players in multiplayer games to stand out. League of Legends developer Riot Games makes more than a billion dollars a year from the sale of these character skins, with other games such as Fortnite which offers character skins and emotes making that sort of money too.
Does Fashion Matter With Branding?
Developers are also thinking more about the clothes that their characters wear because it helps fans to connect to their series and the characters in them. It can also tell players about a brand. A fantasy RPG with extravagant clothing may offer incredible battles and brilliant crafting gameplay as you create that outfit for your character. In the Mr Green online casino, the character 0f Mr Green wears a total green suit, bowler hat and umbrella and looks the part. The character’s stylish appearance has become the main branding element of a casino which wants to look sleek and professional. Mr Green’s live dealers also wear sleek suits, as it reassures customers that they’re playing with a serious company.
In video games, the most important part is gameplay and how fun it feels to play. However, fashion helps to fill in the gaps of the story and can provide a richer story, a more entertaining setting and a world that players would want to explore.
