505 Games to Create Games, Virtual World Based on Fashion Week
MediaPostreports that 505 Games is going to co-develop a series of video games with IMG based on Fashion Week.
"It's a perfect opportunity for the girl next door who wants to enter the fashion industry, but won't have the chance to come anywhere near it," says Adam Kline, president of 505 Games U.S. "Now she has an option to touch it, learn it and play it."
The Fashion Week series aims to attract females ranging from preteen to 30-something -- the sweet spot between ages 16 and 22. Kline says about 35% of woman who play casual video games tend gravitate toward the iPhone, compared with 65% for casual online games.
The article says virtual goods in the game could "serve as the debut of various products." It would be impossible to time anything that would appear in a video game with a new design being unveiled in Fashion Week. The game would need to be a virtual world and not a boxed game release for this to be possible. A Gamasutra article says an online world is one of the ideas being considered.
"We're going to have an online game where we'll have designers from around the world creating things online that may or not be sold in the real world, and you can buy it as a virtual good," Kline says, for example.
And users who can create and sell their own fashion items alongside expert-created ones will be at least entertained, if not inspired, he adds. The online game will join other planned Fashion Week tie-ins for console, PC and iPhone.
IMG owns not only an eponymous major modeling agency, but also the Fashion Week show portfolio, which comprises events around the globe "from New York to Miami and from Moscow to Mumbai." The company already serves fashion content across multiple platforms including online, iPods and mobile devices.
Virtual runway shows in virtual worlds could certainly work. Designers would have the opportunity to create some wild looks. Launching virtual fashion products and designs is nothing new. There are already many graphic designers creating hot looks for characters in virtual worlds like Second Life. To time a game or event in a virtual world so that it is cohesive with events taking place in Fashion Week would be considerably be more complicated, but not impossible.
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