Super Smash Bros. She was released in 1999, and at that time, almost no game on the market would collect characters from different franchises in one place. And today, crossover is a common part of most game genres. Information port Howtogek.com speakWhy do they become popular and they are properly criticized.
Crossover has been part of the game industry since the 1980s, but it is undeniable that they mostly debt Super Smash Bros. Although the legendary Nintendo game is not the first game of a type, this project has been revealed about the creative potential of the characters.
The live copy of Smash Bros., such as Multiversus or PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, goes the same way and places heroes from adult games in a space with cartoon characters. It is noteworthy that crossover is not limited by any genre. Similar intersections of the series can be found in almost all other gaming areas, from Arcad (Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing) to the role-playing warriors (Kingdom Hearts).
Recently, Crossover has gained a different form. Many games many popular and mobile users provide users with temporary promotions in which you can buy unique cosmetic objects and other awards. Therefore, died by daylight and Fortnite regularly arranged crossover with comics, movies, other games and celebrities from real life. Moreover, if the first time he often focuses on horror people, the second time does not seem to have a limited patent. Fortnite appeared characters in Marvel films, famous clothing brands and even Sitcom El Chapulin Colorado films since the 1970s.
Fortnite is not the first game to think about selling cosmetic objects using crossover, but a combination of the famous brands that are easy to identify and franchise inspired many similar actions in other games. Similar events take place in Gacha projects, royal battles and MMOs. Even in single games, from Final Fantasy XV to Dave the Diver, sometimes similar promotions are held.
Why is that? The fact is that crossover is the easiest way to attract public attention to any new game, pulling a part of the audience of something bigger. Soul Calibur II has tried to attract The Legend of Zelda fans with the image of the link on the cover for GameCube. And Ehrgeiz: God Blas the Ring, the defeat of Square Enix, has caused a lot of noise due to the presence of the characters of Final Fantasy VII.
Crossover is an effective tool for advertising campaigns that have been cleverly used before and continue to use to this day. The only difference is that newer games depend more on creative actions rather than it seems. Except for Multiversus, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and other games, completely built on the idea of a major intersection, most of these events fall into the service program created with long -term support calculations with content.
For living services, nothing is more important than the player's ability to keep the player and crossover is a simple method to attract users' attention. They are not only able to attract a new object, but also encourage the existing player to return to the new content. Normally, houses including cross are limited in time, which creates an additional fear of missing something interesting-called FOMO phenomenon, or fear of missing, but many game services are active. But don't think that all the crossovers in such games are ugly. For example, in the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, there are a series of raids based on Nier: Automata, and the plot written by the creator of Yoko Taro.
But this is if we talk about “content” interference more important. If you disassemble cosmetics, then they are increasingly criticized, because in the effort to sell nonsense to players, developers often destroy one of the most important factors of any video game – visual identification. Graphic style and handwriting typical of artists form a unique aesthetic, the recognizable appearance of the game. If you just lost and added a virtual world of characters clearly not him, they would be too typing in the context of others.
Fortnite is trying to deal with this issue, redrawing all the guests in their own style – often the artists do it, but the bizarre blend of game characters, cartoons and celebrities really lead to inconsistency. And Call of Duty: Warzone does not even try to maintain the immutability of style. Photorealistic graphics are suitable for characters created on the basis of living people, but in terms of classification is not suitable for, for example, anime. That is why the interference with the Titan anime attack has caused such a contradictory reaction.
Of course, Crossover is not always harmful to the image identity of the games – sometimes they, on the contrary, is perfectly embedded in the new art style. Capcom is added to Street Fighter 6 Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury, and their images are perfectly combined with other fighters. Even the appearance of Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI in Tekken 8 does not cause too many questions, because he does not stand out on the basis of other characters, no less great.
But the most important thing – Crossover, most ideal, should create games, if not better, then at least more attractive. It sounds like a clear thought, but in reality, not all developers follow this truth. Therefore, in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will appear as much as two real celebrities: football player Cristiano Ronaldo and DJ Salvatore Ganacci. And the two occupied the slots that could go to other fighters from the Fatal Fury universe, because the fans they created the game.