Great! I've spoken up many times about how bad the fashion industry is in terms of waste, so having game companies not produce a bunch more clothing that will eventually fill up landfills is a...
Great!
I've spoken up many times about how bad the fashion industry is in terms of waste, so having game companies not produce a bunch more clothing that will eventually fill up landfills is a good thing. Best of all the demand for these clothing is providing income for the people willing to make those hypothetical designs into reality. Everyone wins!
I'm particularly glad that these clothing items don't get made because while fashion is known for changing on a dime, it's got nothing on how fast opinions change on video games. Imagine for a moment an alternate reality where Square Enix had released a clothing line to launch alongside Forspoken. It did have some wickedly awesome fashion in the game - I felt like I wanted to buy it just to see those designs! But the game tanked, and the clothing line would have likely failed as a result.
As a gamer, I also wish for more fashionable game merch. As a small indie fashion brand owner and gamedev, I have some ideas as to why a lot of official game merch are just low-effort t-shirts. If...
As a gamer, I also wish for more fashionable game merch.
As a small indie fashion brand owner and gamedev, I have some ideas as to why a lot of official game merch are just low-effort t-shirts.
If the game company is making merch to supplement income, they'll want merch that maximizes profit. The more complicated a design is, the more difficult and expensive it is to develop, source, sample, manufacture, do quality control, store, package, and ship. It's much simpler and easier to just slap a design on a t-shirt and call it a day. One might think that something like a split t-shirt design (as shown in the article) should be simple enough to fabricate, and yeah, it's not the most complicated outfit, but pretty much any deviation from standard corporate promotional materials will mean specialized sourcing and manufacturing rather than just going to a print-on-demand company. For example having two types of fabric in the design, instead of just one type of fabric, already complicates sourcing and fabrication. The game company probably prefers to spend its resources on game development.
One reason why in-game fashion can look so cool is because digital fashion designers are free from the constraints of pesky things like gravity, material durability, manufacturing expense, etc. Being able to illustrate cool-looking outfits is one thing; actually producing them in a commercially viable way is a whole other thing.
Even if the game company collaborates with a fashion brand, both parties will still want to maximize profit, and profit percentage is already reduced by having to split it between the two parties, if they agreed to do it as profit-sharing. If it's not profit-sharing, then either the game company is fronting R&D / production costs (so they are taking on additional risk and expense in an area they don't have expertise in), or the fashion brand is fronting fees to license the game IP (so this product line is significantly more costly compared to the fashion brand's in-house IP). When a product costs a lot to produce, it's possible for it to get sold out and still not be profitable.
It would be possible for a game company to just consider fashionable gaming merch as a marketing expense rather than a way to supplement income. It might have limited effectivity as a marketing campaign though because it might only appeal to the existing fanbase, rather than attracting new players. It might be viable for games that are subscription-based / already sell in-game collectibles. But a game company might prefer to just use simpler marketing options with a faster and higher ROI, such as sponsoring streamers / influencers.
And re. merch that's only available in one country. It's much easier to distribute a digital product (such as a game) globally, compared to a physical product such as clothing. International shipping itself is expensive (and many fashion brands subsidize shipping costs because customers hate paying for shipping), but what's really tricky is handling compliance with various countries' regulations on imported goods (taxes, labelling laws, etc).
Great!
I've spoken up many times about how bad the fashion industry is in terms of waste, so having game companies not produce a bunch more clothing that will eventually fill up landfills is a good thing. Best of all the demand for these clothing is providing income for the people willing to make those hypothetical designs into reality. Everyone wins!
I'm particularly glad that these clothing items don't get made because while fashion is known for changing on a dime, it's got nothing on how fast opinions change on video games. Imagine for a moment an alternate reality where Square Enix had released a clothing line to launch alongside Forspoken. It did have some wickedly awesome fashion in the game - I felt like I wanted to buy it just to see those designs! But the game tanked, and the clothing line would have likely failed as a result.
As a gamer, I also wish for more fashionable game merch.
As a small indie fashion brand owner and gamedev, I have some ideas as to why a lot of official game merch are just low-effort t-shirts.
If the game company is making merch to supplement income, they'll want merch that maximizes profit. The more complicated a design is, the more difficult and expensive it is to develop, source, sample, manufacture, do quality control, store, package, and ship. It's much simpler and easier to just slap a design on a t-shirt and call it a day. One might think that something like a split t-shirt design (as shown in the article) should be simple enough to fabricate, and yeah, it's not the most complicated outfit, but pretty much any deviation from standard corporate promotional materials will mean specialized sourcing and manufacturing rather than just going to a print-on-demand company. For example having two types of fabric in the design, instead of just one type of fabric, already complicates sourcing and fabrication. The game company probably prefers to spend its resources on game development.
One reason why in-game fashion can look so cool is because digital fashion designers are free from the constraints of pesky things like gravity, material durability, manufacturing expense, etc. Being able to illustrate cool-looking outfits is one thing; actually producing them in a commercially viable way is a whole other thing.
Even if the game company collaborates with a fashion brand, both parties will still want to maximize profit, and profit percentage is already reduced by having to split it between the two parties, if they agreed to do it as profit-sharing. If it's not profit-sharing, then either the game company is fronting R&D / production costs (so they are taking on additional risk and expense in an area they don't have expertise in), or the fashion brand is fronting fees to license the game IP (so this product line is significantly more costly compared to the fashion brand's in-house IP). When a product costs a lot to produce, it's possible for it to get sold out and still not be profitable.
It would be possible for a game company to just consider fashionable gaming merch as a marketing expense rather than a way to supplement income. It might have limited effectivity as a marketing campaign though because it might only appeal to the existing fanbase, rather than attracting new players. It might be viable for games that are subscription-based / already sell in-game collectibles. But a game company might prefer to just use simpler marketing options with a faster and higher ROI, such as sponsoring streamers / influencers.
And re. merch that's only available in one country. It's much easier to distribute a digital product (such as a game) globally, compared to a physical product such as clothing. International shipping itself is expensive (and many fashion brands subsidize shipping costs because customers hate paying for shipping), but what's really tricky is handling compliance with various countries' regulations on imported goods (taxes, labelling laws, etc).
All that said, I would personally love to see fashion brands take more inspiration from in-game looks! Some examples of brands I can imagine doing this:
https://www.instagram.com/manieredevoir/
https://www.instagram.com/fashionbrandcompany/
https://www.instagram.com/snk.atk/