Mobile gaming is growing quickly right now. Developers have caught on to the fact that it is more affordable and accessible than console gaming, allowing them to reach a wider demographic and make money. It might surprise those of us who are dropping $60 on a console game that is broken on release, but the most lucrative gaming format in the industry right now is gaming.
This all explains why you might have seen a Call of Duty mobile edition, a Grand Theft Auto V mobile edition, and why companies like Netflix had the instinct to turn to mobile gaming before they thought to release any console or PC games.
But is there another way for mobile games to expand? Well, if you know anything of movies, TV shows, comic books, and past games, you know that there is one tried and true method that gets tongues wagging: the fabled crossover. Take a look at our guide to why the crossover is so effective, complete with examples.
Audiences want to see something they’ve never seen before
Let’s get this out of the way first: audiences will love it. It harkens back to the arguments you had on the playground with your dolls: could Spider-Man beat Batman? We’re never going to see Spider-Man beat Batman, at least in an approved feature film, but we might see the result of whether Batman could beat Superman, both from DC, hence the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice movie.
It’s the same sort of idea. That movie was… not good if Rotten Tomatoes and general meme culture are to be believed, but everyone wanted to see the crossover movie, so it made money. It’s telling that the critics' score is 29% but the audience score is as high as 63%. A better example is the Spider-Man: No Way Home movie, which is considered a cultural highlight due to bringing together three famous Spider-Men – and was good!
When it comes to games, the most famous example has to be Street Fighter, which regularly partners with Tekken, Marvel, and Resident Evil. You can find free browser games like them here.
It’s like an easter egg for the audience
Even if the crossover isn’t as blatant as Street Fighter, fans will appreciate it. If, for example, Bender from Futurama were to pop up in The Simpsons Game, fans are going to spot it. In fact, Futurama is a testament to the power of easter eggs. Swathes of blogs and videos have been made about the background alien languages and math equations that are on the posters of the show.
A crossover in your mobile games, even a small one, is likely to incite a lot of content of people spotting and explaining the easter egg they found.
It allows companies to merge and share audiences
The crossover is really everywhere in marketing because it is effective. It’s in social media marketing for example, but there it’s called “collaboration”. The crossover has the same benefits: two brands share an audience. One brings audience members that were not there before to the other, and vice versa. Both audiences grow with new players that might not have been aware, or at least aware enough to be fans, of the other brand.
As mentioned, it’s a common social media marketing tactic. Users discover a new brand that might appeal to them and that they trust because it’s presented by a brand that they already trust. So, a lesson to take from marketing is to appeal to the same demographic. Street Fighter shares a lot of gamer fans with comic book fans, and Resident Evil covers both games and movies.
It theoretically means two sets of audiences are buying the product
It goes without saying that if you have two sets of fans buying the same product, sales are going to rise. Not double, because fans have a wide palette. They might already love both of the featured brands of the crossover, but definitely rise. You’re giving your fans two reasons to buy rather than just one – and one is all they need.
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