Gamers love crossovers

2 rules for successful IP mashups

Gamers love crossovers, if done right.

There's nothing new about brand collabs or crossovers, but IP mashups seem to really be hitting their stride, particularly in games, and it's something that players love. I think we'll be seeing this a lot more as companies harness what I call metafandom—a higher bound of love for an experience when multiple fandoms collide.

Lay of the land and the rules that make for the greatest success:

The Past 
Super Smash and Mario Kart are some of the OGs of multiverse gaming. Sure, they are all under the Nintendo umbrella, but by bringing beloved characters with their unique attributes from different worlds into a singular play experience, they struck a positive chord that made for a megahit and ongoing franchise.

Lots of other games have had crossovers: Marvel vs Capcom, The Walt Disney Company x Kingdom Hearts, etc. But in the past decade+, games have become playgrounds for beyond-gaming/media IP to reach consumers in very fun ways.

The Present
The elephant in the room is Fortnite. I've said it before, but as someone who has worked with brands and IP in games for a long time, their ability to have competitive brands play nice side-by-side—even sometimes in lore-breaking ways a la the recent Star Wars collab—is nothing short of incredible. And it speaks to the power of Fortnite and its audience.

IP has found its way into games via embedded ads (like EA's F1 games), or building branded experiences on top of Roblox, Minecraft, and others.

Multiversus from Warner Bros. Games felt like a promising Super Smash alternative for non-Switch users, but they angered fans when pulling the beta until 2024.

The Future
It feels as if things are just getting started. Mattel and Hasbro, frenemies in the toys world, are teaming up for co-branded gaming. Call of Duty is throwing Kevin Durant into Warzone. 

And there's more on the horizon with UEFN, various metaverses like Yuga Labs' Otherside, and opportunities in user generated content.

As more IP and devs team up for these experiences, there are a few rules that I feel are prerequisites for success:

1. Irreverence.

It's a sentiment that goes over very well with players. Some tongue-in-cheek knowing winks not only hit the right feels with gamers, but also open up the ability to do a lot more interesting things that push the lore, voice, and design boundaries of the original IP to better fit into the game's universe.

This can be a harder for brands, but I urge creativity: consumers will reward you for it. It's why we love covers of songs so much—familiar, but with a new twist.

2. Authenticity.

Balanced with irreverence is a need for cross-IP gaming to feel accurate to the IP/brand's universe as well as the game. Star Wars skins in Fortnite feel like any other, but they can also scoop up lightsabers and force abilities. Zelda's link in Super Smash doesn't have generic powers and weapons, but brings the iconic ones from the original game.