Why Celebrating Gaming Anniversaries Is Important?
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As the current generation of consoles continues on, companies should do well to remember to honor the past by celebrating upcoming franchise anniversaries!
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While not quite old as other industries in the world, video games have formed a large base of users thanks to pioneering companies like ‪#‎Atari‬, ‪#‎Nintendo‬, and ‪#‎Activision‬ to name a few. Gamers are typically passionate about franchises, which makes celebrating certain achievements like anniversaries an important step. Just this year, Nintendo helped its most well known character and company mascot, Mario, celebrate his 30th anniversary, with two special ‪#‎amiibo‬ figures and a community driven website all culminating in ‪#‎SuperMarioMaker‬ – a Wii U exclusive that allows players to build their own stages using themes and items from four iconic Mario games.
Believe it or not, ‪#‎Ubisoft‬ also fits into this category as well. Long before they were known for the Tom Clancy games or mega franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft plucked the limbless hero ‪#‎Rayman‬ from the creative mind of Michel Ancel. 2015 marks Rayman’s 20th anniversary and to celebrate Ubisoft announced smaller items such as fan driven contests, an infographic, and a brand new game called Rayman Adventures – the latter of which was greeted with ample excitement. Unfortunately, after watching the debut trailer, it was revealed that Rayman Adventures was a mobile based game, and not a traditional game in the same spirit as the well regarded Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. The comments under that YouTube trailer spoke volumes as almost universal disappointment quickly set in with fans. At the very least, this shows that fans are hungry for another traditional Rayman game.
Companies also find ways of promoting games by using tie-in methods with these celebrations in hopes of utilizing that fan base excitement to purchase merchandise. Back in 2011, Nintendo used the Legend of ‪#‎Zelda‬’s 25th anniversary to help promote ‪#‎TheLegendofZelda‬: Skyward Sword with special edition ‪#‎3DS‬ consoles, merchandise, and released a special edition bundle with a gold ‪#‎Wii‬ controller and a CD featuring classic Zelda music performed by a live orchestra. Meanwhile, Sony celebrated the PS4’s anniversary with an incredibly limited PS1-themed console and controller.
Most would argue that declining sales are the biggest reason why franchises are left behind, causing companies to shy away from creating new entries in a series. To me, the bigger issue here is that companies are completely missing out on golden opportunities by not taking franchise anniversaries seriously. Gamers tend to be a nostalgic bunch, so on one level, celebrating a big milestone will immediately resonate with a faction of gamers. Not only does this attention help with the IP itself, but it reinvigorates the fan base as well.
What about you? Would you like to see more thoughtfulness and care put into celebrations that honor beloved franchises?
‪#‎Game‬ ‪#‎Ranter‬ ‪#‎Banter‬, Mario, ‪#‎PC‬, ‪#‎PS4‬, Rayman, Wii U, ‪#‎Xbox‬ One
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[By Derek Nichols]