by September 1. A severe earthquake ran through the smartphone game area, no, the game industry. This is because a limited-time collaboration event with “Chiikawa” has started in Cygames’ digital card game (DCG) “Shadowverse” (Shadova).
DCG “Shadova” has been developed for multiple platforms for about six years since 2016 and has also been made into an actual card game and a TV animation. Illustrator Nagano started serialization in 2020, and the manga “Chikawa” (somewhat small and cute) has a faint horror taste in its cuteness.
The unexpected encounter between the two works attracted a great deal of attention from Shadowverse fans and the non-gamer community. It greatly influenced the increase in Shadowverse users and the influx of comeback users. In addition to being a trend on Twitter, it is still fresh in our memory that many users turned their attention to the “character defeat performance.”
As mentioned above, IP (intellectual property rights) collaboration that transcends the boundaries of media and works can sometimes produce results that exceed expectations. Speaking of specific figures, there is also a questionnaire survey in which about 80% of the respondents to the questionnaire, “Will you be more motivated to play when a collaboration is held on the app game you are playing?” ( Reference: game biz). Although it does not necessarily work positively, many users have expectations for IP collaboration.
So, what are the characteristics of IP collaboration? In this article, we will look back on the examples of the two works and consider the differences in themes and the merits of IP collaboration.
“Fortnite” is an indispensable title in IP collaboration cases around video games. This royal battle game operated by Epic Games includes movies such as “Marvel,” “Star Wars,” “Batman,” games such as “Street Fighter,” “Tomb Raider,” “League of Legends,” etc. I have worked with a wide variety of content. The sight of players wearing Iron Man and Stormtrooper skins running around the field is enough to have an impact. The first time I saw it, I couldn’t get it out of my mind for a while.
“Fortnite” will continue to focus on IP collaboration in 2022, and on August 16, a collaboration event with Japan’s world-famous manga “Dragon Ball” was held.
This was done in conjunction with the promotion of the movie “Dragon Ball Super Super Heroes,” during which a unique field appeared in the game, and main characters (skins) such as “Son Goku” and “Vegeta” also appeared. Furthermore, in addition to being able to shoot the familiar special move, Kamehameha in the original, popular episodes of the TV anime “Dragon Ball Super” (2015-2018) were screened in the game, which is often seen at collaboration events. As a result, the gorgeous content, not limited to limited skins and limited quest implementation, became a hot topic.
In addition to IP collaboration cases, “Fortnite” has been actively held with live music performances by famous artists such as Kenshi Yonezu and Gen Hoshino and promotional screenings of new movies. Recently, it has been attracting attention as a new market for the Metaverse, and a production studio specializing in the Metaverse area has been established in Japan. Therefore, this work will continue to have opportunities to collaborate with various hit content coupled with such cases.
Regarding IP collaboration around games, including the “Shadow” mentioned at the beginning, many people probably have a strong image of smartphone apps (mobile games). However, it’s probably challenging to figure out the number even for those in the know.
This is because, as of September 2022, collaboration events are being held every day for some mobile games, and sometimes past events are revived over time (reprint).
Because collaboration events in line with the movie “ONE PIECE FILM RED” released on August 6, are being held in multiple mobile games, the writer’s mind is a straightforward expression that “the world is just a big collaboration era.” Maybe you are not wrong.
Back to the topic. I want to mention the mobile game “Granblue Fantasy,” which also had a collaboration event with the “One Piece” movie. Under the slogan “genuine smartphone RPG,” the service has been operating since 2014. Unlike the collaboration examples of “Fort Knight” and other game works mentioned above, the collaboration scenario and accompanying production are incredibly focused.
The deployment that I put in is conspicuous. Instead of simply turning the copyrighted characters into skin items, the copyrighted characters and the characters in “Granblue Fantasy” are closely related, and the story is spun in harmony with the worldview of both works. “Uma Musume”, “Idolmaster”, “Love Live”, “Detective Conan”, “Doraemon”, “Gintama”, etc. Characters from games, manga, and anime with different styles are reincarnated in another world in the sky of “Granblue Fantasy.” However, he overcame the crisis despite the circumstances and returned to his original world.
In addition, in terms of “reproduction of the original work,” which is emphasized in IP collaboration, “Granblue Fantasy” seems to have put much effort into it. A notable example is the “Bobobobo Bobobo” collaboration event held on April 1, 2021 (April Fool’s Day).
In addition to generously incorporating the outrageous gag elements of the original work, the legendary story “Turtle Wrap” that hasn’t faded even after nearly 20 years has been “included in a double feature that is newly recorded and newly illustrated just for ‘Granblue.'” With such a commitment, fans of the original work praised it on the Internet, saying, “It’s crazy (in a good way).”
In IP collaboration, there are always problems such as “how to reproduce the taste of the original” and “how to depict the copyrighted characters in the world of the collaboration destination,” but the example of “Granblue Fantasy” is one answer to such problems. At the same time, it can be considered that it contributes to the expansion of recognition, such as “fans of copyrighted works know about ‘Granblue Fantasy'” and ‘Granblue Fantasy fans are interested in copyrighted works.
As a surprise to users or from a marketing perspective, IP collaborations often unfold due to increased users and various circumstances. If you are interested, why not look at the collaboration events of the games you usually play and the collaboration examples of the games you have not played?
