Christian Fonnesbech is a well-known title within the North European video games business. He was beforehand head of IP growth at Nordisk Movie Video games, however in 2019 he based Leverage in Copenhagen to assist recreation studios develop their IP.
Down the years, he has labored as a guide on video games of all sizes, though non-disclosure agreements forestall him from saying rather more. What he can say is that amongst many others, he has labored with the groups behind Lifeless Island, Metro, Conan Exiles, Dune Awakening, Exoborne, and the Darkish Footage Anthology – though not essentially on these video games. And he thinks there’s one key factor that studios get unsuitable: switching main characters for a sequel.
Fonnesbech factors out that though it’s miles from the one element, the main character might be probably the most valuable aspect of any fledgling IP. “Gameplay, firstly, is a enormous a part of each franchise, in fact,” he tells GamesIndustry.biz. “The world is a enormous a part of it as effectively. However the character is the best factor to personal in a courtroom of legislation. It is the place folks join emotionally. It is a enormous a part of the expectations now we have coming again to a franchise. So mess with it at your mortal peril.”
His logic is that even attending to the purpose the place an IP connects with an viewers is extremely tough, so it is a enormous danger to mess with the components. “I feel the baseline problem is that inventive folks suppose they’ll make hit after hit, however most of them cannot,” says Fonnesbech. “Connecting emotionally with hundreds of thousands of individuals is so tough, it is nearly unattainable, and you may be fortunate if you happen to get one hit.”
The press might spotlight uncommon success tales, studios which might be capable of launch hit IP after hit IP – however that is not the truth for most builders. “Do not examine your self to Landfall or Blizzard: that is not how the world works.”
For these fortunate few studios that start a hit recreation, Fonnesbech thinks they need to guard the IP jealously. “Should you discovered one thing that connects, you’ve gotten proof that, hey, this works: it is not simply success, it is proof. And if that emotional connection sits in a character, you need to be actually, actually cautious about throwing it away, as a result of what you are giving up is that this factor you discovered that works, you are giving up the amassed time folks have spent with that character.
“You are making a actually large wager that you are able to do it once more, and also you’re hoping that even if you happen to do do it once more, you do not break what labored within the first place.”
Main draw
The main character offers the participant’s chief reference to a title, thinks Fonnesbech. “The gameplay shapes the emotional journey you are having, however the factor is, while you’ve performed that recreation for 500 hours whereas within the firm of, say, Agent 47 from Hitman, then you possibly can’t actually separate these two issues in your head. That character has change into that emotional feeling. The character is what you relate to.”
The game’s character can also be one thing that travels throughout the assorted features of a franchise, whether or not it is merchandise or films, so Fonnesbech thinks it is sensible to keep up continuity.
However what about video games which have switched main characters? Hades 2 involves thoughts, the place the participant controls Melinoë, sister to the protagonist of the primary recreation, Zagreus. That recreation has clearly been a large success, so what’s the issue?
“Nicely, there’s two various things right here,” says Fonnesbech. “First off, now we have to grasp that there is artwork and there is enterprise. And if you happen to make a creative option to say, ‘We wish to do a feminine character,’ extra energy to you. However that is a creative selection, it is not a enterprise selection.
“So brief time period, it labored high-quality: they acquired one other hit. However what’s the Hades IP actually about now? Within the first Hades recreation, which was good in each method, I feel they hit each goal on the gameplay, on the character, on the world.
“Artistically, I feel it was a good selection. Enterprise-wise, I am not so positive”
“However it was about a younger man rebelling in opposition to his father and slowly discovering what a tousled household historical past he got here from, and that he needed to break the sample. That was a actually clear emotional journey about leaving dwelling – and Hades 2 is about discovering dwelling. It is a completely different emotional journey. Similar good gameplay, however now we’re a little uncertain what Hades is about. Artistically, I feel it was a good selection. Enterprise-wise, I am not so positive.”
Hades 2 is way from the one big-name to modify main characters: the upcoming titles Management Resonant, God of Battle Laufey, and The Witcher 4 are all altering their leads. Are they making a mistake?
“I feel in some instances greater errors than others,” says Fonnesbech. Within the authentic Management, he factors out that main character Jesse Faden had a clear emotional journey the place she was wanting for her brother, however within the sequel, her brother Dylan takes the lead.
“Tens of millions of individuals spent a lot of hours with Jesse, so that is an IP asset that has monumental worth out there. So why swap to the brother? Let’s suppose again: what would Tomb Raider appear to be immediately if recreation two had been about Lara’s brother?”
“The issue is that we’re coming for Kratos”
Once more, he says, he understands the creative impulse to attempt one thing new. “However from an IP and franchise perspective, you’re messing up what folks count on from that franchise. Would you be completely happy to go to the following James Bond film if it wasn’t about James Bond?”
God of Battle Laufey faces a related state of affairs. “The issue is that we’re coming for Kratos,” says Fonnesbech. He factors out that the collection did one thing “very uncommon and good in video games” by rebooting the franchise in 2018 and giving Kratos a son, which created a contemporary emotional journey whereas conserving the identical character.
“And Laufey could be simply as good, however it’s not Kratos, it is a completely different character. I feel even if you happen to stated it was Kratos’s brother, that may be a mistake, too. The issue is, within the web debate, it rapidly turns into, ‘Why cannot now we have a girl?’ Nicely, these are two completely different points. I feel we should always positively have extra girls in video games, however I do not suppose we should always pull out the tentpole that is holding up current franchises.”
Acquainted floor
Fonnesbech says the key to profitable franchises is familiarity. “We’re reducing our buy danger by shopping for one thing we all know,” he says. “We all know what we’ll get quality-wise, we all know what it is about, we all know we join with it, we all know that is going to be satisfying.”
Altering the main character generates friction and dangers messing with that familiarity, that identified amount. However sticking with the identical folks would not essentially imply the franchise turns into creatively stale. By means of instance, Fonnesbech factors to Hollywood’s periodic reinvention of Batman with completely different actors and completely different tones. He thinks we are going to see extra of this in video games, with the 2018 God of Battle reboot offering one of many first examples of a character refresh.
However what about different examples from Hollywood, like Star Wars? Is not that franchise an instance of maybe the way it’s extra necessary to construct the world, creating a place for completely different tales to be set, slightly than reheating the identical outdated characters many times?
Fonnesbech notes that Star Wars did not begin out like this. “Initially, it was Luke and Leia and Darth Vader, and for three films, that was it.” There’s a level, he says, the place an IP can cease being concerning the emotional journey of a handful of characters and as an alternative evolve into extra of a model or ecosystem – however that time comes a great distance down the road. “That is not 10 million followers, that is a hundred million followers.”
“I feel it could be stronger if they’d a recognisable tentpole character”
He says that this world-focused technique is one thing that Cyberpunk 2077 is attempting comparatively early within the franchise’s life. “They do not have a tentpole character, it is principally an anthology set in Night time Metropolis, and I am undecided it is one of the best technique. I feel it could be stronger if they’d a recognisable tentpole character, however they’re doing completely different characters in the identical metropolis on completely different media.
“However you must discover that when Cyberpunk: Edgerunners got here out on Netflix, a lot of individuals went again into the sport and killed the villain in Edgerunners, so even when you do not pursue the character technique, that is what individuals are latching onto. We recognise people, we relate to characters.”
Contemporary eyes
Fonnesbech notes that one argument for switching main characters is that the sport can probably attain a new viewers – however in actual fact, the other can occur.
“I feel there’s a actual hazard that what you are truly doing is addressing a subset of your authentic viewers,” he says, the place you find yourself slicing your viewers “thinner and thinner” with every launch.
The secret’s consistency, he says. “Constant world, constant characters, constant emotional journeys, constant battle, constant themes, constant gameplay.
“One factor I see fairly a few occasions in my consulting work is folks saying, ‘So we have got a universe, can we do a completely different sort of gameplay inside this IP?’ And my reply is normally, ‘be actually cautious about that’, as a result of when Star Wars does it, they have a billion followers. So even when they solely hit 5%, they’ve nonetheless acquired a affordable turnover for that recreation. However if you happen to’ve solely acquired, what, 5 million followers, and also you now swap from FPS to RTS, what are you going to promote? 200,000? It is not the identical IP anymore. Do we actually go to Halo to play an RTS? No, we do not.”
Builders can get away with making a turn-based ways recreation like Star Wars: Zero Firm as a result of Star Wars is a completely monumental IP, he says. “It is simply a utterly completely different beast.” However from a enterprise perspective, he says, it is typically not a good concept to maintain switching between genres utilizing the identical IP, giving the Halo Wars RTS titles for instance. “All people agrees they have been good video games, however it’s not why we purchase Halo, is it?”