Last week, we saw no less than three announcements of MMOs and MMO-adjacent titles collaborating with musical acts and pop stars in their worlds. Fortnite played host to BTS, PUBG Mobile is working with BLACKPINK, and Roblox is holding an album launch party with Ava Max.
I’m of multiple minds about this. There’s the cynical side of me that wants to eyeroll at collabs and marketing ploys and attempts to swap audiences for the obvious stunts that they are. Then there’s the part of me that knows damn good and well that if my favorite band showed up in an MMORPG, I would lose my damn mind. The pragmatic part of me thinks these are smart and safe venues for live acts during a pandemic, so I’m all about that. But then the snarky part rears its head again and wants to side-eye shallow titles like battle royales for trying to rewrite what they are on the fly. We already had online games where you can put on stage acts, guys. We call them MMOs. (Roblox gets more of a pass on that front!)
What’s your opinion on these types of promos, and which musical act do you wish would show up in your core MMO?
We’re going to be singing all the way home 🎶
Thanks to everyone who joined the crowd for the rebroadcast of “Dynamite” MV (Choreography ver.) and to @bts_bighit for bringing the fire! pic.twitter.com/f1iwYoO7S3
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 26, 2020