Up next in 10
Are there too many crossovers in video games? - Hot Topic
3K views
May 12, 2024
Collaborations between pop culture icons and video games isn't entirely new to the industry. But lately there has been a MASSIVE uptick in these kinds of events. So today we wanted to discuss this idea of if there is just a little too much of this going on in today's most popular titles! Head to Game Sandwich for articles: https://www.gamesandwich.com/ Follow us and let's talk about video games, their stories, and the people that make them! 📱Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@game.sandwich.official ✖️Socials: https://twitter.com/TheGameSandwich 🎮Join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/6GrQYXYdSf #fortnite #warzone #callofduty #fortniteclips
View Video Transcript
0:00
Lately we've seen collaborations between some of pop culture and gaming's biggest properties
0:05
Today we wanted to sit down and discuss this idea of if there's just a little too much of
0:09
this happening nowadays. Now, why are we doing this? Well, that's because this is a Hot Topic
0:22
What's up guys, this is Kalo and normally I'm here to give you the lowdown on all things gaming
0:26
but welcome back to another episode of Hot Topic and I'm joined today by Aiden. Why don't you say
0:32
what's up? Hello. So today we're going to be, I'm not going to say we, I'm going to say I'm going
0:40
to be doing the impossible. That reaction already. We're starting off hot. Yep. Just don't get the
0:50
bat out. That's all I'm asking. But today we're going to be talking about crossovers in gaming
0:57
You've seen them all in Warzone, in Fortnite, and I'm going to be doing the impossible here
1:04
I'm going to defend Fortnite here and say these crossovers, these different things, you see the
1:11
the brand synergy in gaming. I'm going to say it's a good thing and you are avidly against this
1:18
I mean, I'm not a fan of Fortnite. I'm, I applaud them for being able to become like the
1:24
monumentous thing that they've become, but like I'm just not a fan of the game. I think it's a piece
1:30
of trash. Well, Fortnite has taken on different forms and it's been a tower defense game. It's
1:40
been a battle Royale. It's like a guitar hero clone thing. It's a racing sim. There's creative
1:48
mode. And I think crossovers and what this game has become now is the key point to all this
1:56
It's not just that simple battle Royale game. They would, I wouldn't say they would, would you
2:02
you'd classify this as like a metaverse type deal, right? Yeah. I mean, really the key to
2:10
their success at this point, I'd say is literally that they've been able to do so many cross. So
2:15
if it was the same game, like war zone or the fallout battle Royale that happened, like if it
2:25
was the same and didn't keep evolving and just kept doing seasons and didn't have like, Oh
2:33
avatar come in or star Wars or anything like that. It would have probably failed like five
2:41
years ago. I agree. It's what keeps people coming back. And I find myself in this weird situation
2:50
where whenever there's a IP involved that I like being star Wars, Marvel, I'm basic like that
2:58
I would look at the game, hop back in and see what's up. Like my first battle pass I've ever
3:05
bought off fortnight was the first time they did the Marvel stuff. And I thought it was cool again
3:12
with battle passes and stuff like that. It's very grindy and I kind of get over the game as time
3:17
goes on. But the first thing, this first crossover I can recall is whenever they did the Thanos
3:23
crossover where he had the infinity gauntlet, this was like end game infinity war era. And
3:30
that was big. Like that was a lot for the gaming world. That's all people ever talked about was
3:36
Thanos being in fortnight. And I think with this game specifically, it has to be a delicate balance
3:46
of who you include and what you include. I think with Thanos, it fits the game. He's kind of
3:54
you know, he's a violent character. He'll battle. You can see him in that situation
4:00
But if you take a character like, are we going to say Winnie the Pooh? Because he's in public domain
4:08
that could happen. Yeah. I mean just take the murder of Winnie the Pooh. It could happen
4:15
It could very well happen. Hey, I've, I've mentioned it to you before. They need you Mickey
4:21
Mouse. Mickey Mouse is public domain. Just do a whole thing. I think at this point, Oswald would
4:30
be public domain too. Old characters like that old, like 1940s characters, bring them back
4:38
have it be like, oh, hey, let's do a crossover with like all animation styles and have them go
4:46
like go around with like finger guns. And the worst part is like, you can laugh and think it's
4:53
not. That could work. It could all work. Legal stuff is the biggest hurdle they got to get over
5:00
And now that the characters in the public domain, you can just kind of do it. Like Epic can sit
5:05
there and they have that partnership with Disney, right? Or they bought stake in the company
5:10
like a huge part of it. Yeah. Yeah. Disney. Well, no, Disney bought a stake of like Epic games
5:17
How long are we giving them? They're invested here, man. They are. Now, how long are we taking
5:25
or we're going to place a bet on a timeframe. How long until we get a Disney princess? I don't know
5:33
which one. Mulan. I was going to go the one from Brave. I can't remember her name off the top of
5:40
my head. Merida. Merida. Cause she's like, she's got the bow and arrow. I could see that. Now
5:50
hear me out here. Stitch. I know that's not a Disney princess, but Stitch. He's got blasters
5:57
It could happen. Hey Epic, we're here. We got ideas. We can do this. Perfect pitch here. Like
6:03
I said, perfect pitch here. We just do like Oswald, like old school Mickey Mouse, like Steamboat Willie
6:08
style. We do the old school, like Pete from that and everything. Bring all those characters back
6:14
like original animation styles, throw them into the game, throw in special power-ups, like
6:20
like big glove hands that you can have for like guns and everything. And then also do cartoon
6:28
portals, make paint, make paint that you can like do something on a wall that ends up like being
6:35
able to fool people or they can like smash into things. Looney Tunes. Like the old Wile E. Coyote
6:40
on that. And then also cartoon holes, like portable holes, like throw them onto the ground
6:49
teleport. It works. It works for this game. They got the Porter riffs where you jump down and you
6:56
you land somewhere else, man. I think I will take my $100,000. Just right here. Just drop a comment
7:03
real quick. Tell us what's up now. I want to ask we've had with crossovers, not just skins and
7:13
whatever have you, we've had actual events within the game, a Travis Scott concert, Eminem performed
7:21
Marshmello, Billie Eilish. And there's probably another one in there that I'm forgetting
7:26
but those are moments that don't involve the game, but like you load into the battle royale
7:32
it takes you to a certain place and you watch this cinematic thing unfold
7:37
That's also a big part of this. What Fortnight is it's the metaverse type deal where you pop in
7:45
and you live a life, I guess. I don't, do you live life in Fortnite? Are you
7:50
is that where you're going to be doing now? Like is with Lego, maybe go into the simulation within
7:56
the simulation. It's now it's getting real meta. It's getting real, getting real wild
8:03
but I brought up Lego too. That is a huge thing for them to get. Like Lego mode specifically
8:13
is a big deal. They just did the Star Wars thing. Everything. How does that work? Lego has everything at this point. So like realistically everything's Fortnite
8:26
Wow. Realistically, everything is not Fortnite. We're uncovering a lot here. Maybe this is just
8:32
like a big conspiracy. This is what it's turned into. That stupid Polly pocket Lego set. That's
8:39
that's Fortnite now. That's, that's what makes things weird for me because it's like
8:47
all right, they did the, whenever there's like a Star Wars character, I have a few skins of those
8:53
and you go into the Lego mode. There's a Lego specific person, but with the Marvel stuff
8:59
there's not that many characters that translate to Lego and blah, blah, blah
9:04
That is where things get interesting because like you said, there's a Lego set for practically
9:09
every big movie, every big show, whatever. And it's like, all right, between Lego and Fortnite
9:17
having the deal, does that include other IPs or is it more or less kind of the ones that are
9:24
pretty much in Fortnite right now, they get the Lego stuff added on. So it'd probably just be
9:30
what they have in the game already. I mean, I doubt that other companies would want involved
9:35
and be like, Oh yeah, we're totally fine with you taking our, my little ponies and putting them in
9:42
Fortnite just because there's a Lego set on them. You know, that's, that would do it now
9:49
I know with this crossover stuff, it can get to be a little too much. We can see
9:56
crossovers happen that just don't fit the game. But I, at the same time, I'm looking way back
10:03
when we had all these different like movie games type deal where like a Charlie and the Chocolate
10:10
Factory game came out. Who's really asking for that? I don't know. Did you play any of those
10:17
old like campy games back in the day? I played the old Harry Potter ones. Okay. Some of those
10:23
are good. I'll give them that. Back when Hagrid was like flat faced and like. I love that meme
10:29
I love that meme so much. But like, I think today, 2024, a Fortnite skin or a collab with Warzone
10:42
or whatever have you, that is the modern day version of that. Things have changed as far as
10:48
game development goes. We don't see studios really investing in smaller, quick games like that
10:54
They're more invested in these AAA, big budget, blah, blah, blah. Not going to bore you with all
10:59
that information, but they can see like, Hey, the next, what's the next popular movie coming out
11:07
Well, we'll just go off of what's happening right now. It was May the 4th and they did a Star Wars
11:14
thing in Lego. They can see that coming up and it's like, Hey, let's drop some more Star Wars
11:20
skins. Let's drop Ray in the game or whatever have you. That's a lot easier to kind of just get out
11:26
the door real quick, make a lot of profit because there will be people there to buy it. There's
11:32
always going to be those big sharks. I have fallen to that. Really with the latest thing
11:39
it's like you said, you don't see those games anymore where like they make a game for a movie
11:45
like you don't have Eragon anymore making a video game movie. I was thinking about that game
11:53
I was thinking about that game. I played it. I love it. Yeah. Like as much as I love that
11:58
like you're not going to have that anymore. The most you're probably going to get is Lord of the Rings games at this point, because that can be bonded to many RPGs. But I mean
12:09
really when you think about it, like they're going to follow the money they're going to
12:15
and what brings them money is a partnership with one of those big games that's already guaranteed
12:20
to get money. So like COD, for instance, like they did the, they did that whole King Kong thing
12:31
for Warzone. People hated it. They didn't like the idea of spending money on it. I'm sure that
12:38
there were probably people who did and those who did gave money to Universal or whoever it is that
12:44
owns King Kong and Universal, all they had to do was just sign over the rights for a little bit
12:51
I mean, that's, there you go. You're getting a ton of money just from doing that simple action
12:57
right there. Fortnite, I guarantee you, they're getting like millions upon millions of dollars
13:04
for every single IP that they take on. And I guarantee you that Disney has profited like
13:11
at least a couple million from all the different IPs that they've given to Fortnite
13:18
Hey, I'm trying to remember. I'm going to list off a few. They did Dragon Ball Z, Star Wars
13:24
Marvel, DC, Michael Jordan and like Jordan Brand did a collab there. Marshmallow, he was a skin
13:33
with a hammer and all that. Let's see what else. My Hero Academia, trying to think of other anime
13:41
ones. Naruto, I led with Dragon Ball. It's that thing where I see, and I'm going to put it in the
13:51
thumbnail because I like controversy. They put Master Chief in the game, right? A Microsoft-owned
13:57
IP. And then they put Kratos in the game, a PlayStation IP. It's things like that. They're
14:05
kind of off-putting because normally you're used to seeing these two separate. You think, all right
14:11
that is totally never going to cross over in any way. But then much like the Fairly Odd Parents
14:18
and Jimmy Neutron crossover back in the day, it happens. You see it on your TV and you're like
14:24
wow, we're living in this age now. You brought back so many memories with that one
14:30
The Jimmy Power Hour. Oh my God. Peak TV right there. I tell you. That was peak TV
14:40
We need more stuff like that. Now all I can think is they're ruining the Fairly Odd Parents with
14:46
making another one. But, oh well. As far as collabs go, I'm looking at them. Yeah, the first ever one
14:56
was the Infinity Gauntlet. Then they did NFL. They did a Wreck-It Ralph one that I didn't even know
15:02
about. There's Marshmallow. They had the Avengers Endgame. They did a Nerf one. Star-Lord. John Wick
15:15
Stranger Things. The Air Jordan one. Major Lazer. They did Borderlands. I didn't even know that they did Borderlands
15:27
It's crazy. They did DC Comics as well. They did Star Wars. This doesn't even list all of them
15:33
That's just some of them right there. That's just season one, I think. Yeah. Then they did
15:38
the Mandalorian, God of War, Halo, Walking Dead, Predator, Terminator. It's crazy. I mean
15:48
they have done it. It's like they have all of these IPs. I don't know how the legal stuff works
15:58
on the back end of this all, but they can be like, hey, it's been five years since we dropped Kratos
16:05
into Fortnite. Do we just flip the switch and drop them again on the shop real quick? I don't know
16:12
We could. That's what makes it scary. The Amazon Prime TV show is apparently in the works
16:22
Expect that. Perfect example. Oh, no. It's going to Call of Duty. I was just about to say Fallout
16:28
Fallout is the hot property. There's a rumor going around that there will be a Call of Duty
16:35
and Fallout collab with Warzone. See, that one would work. That one would. I think that would
16:41
work actually pretty well when you think about it. But I don't know. Just whenever they do a
16:48
crossover, they just need to make sure that they're doing it correct and not doing something
16:52
stupid. Serial killers and stuff, for instance, those work for Call of Duty. They do. They're
17:01
violent. They make for a hell of a fun time to play. Back whenever in Call of Duty Ghosts
17:08
they did the whole crossover with Michael Myers and they had the run around and stab people
17:13
game mode. That one. Absolutely great. But like and like Super Smash Brothers does it all the
17:21
time with intent, like with it's made by Nintendo, but they've done like Sega properties like with
17:28
Sonic. They also do Square Enix properties with Sora and everything. What's Metal Gear? They did
17:35
Metal Gear of all games. And they also did. And speaking of Metal Gear, like, well, actually
17:43
that just makes me think of the Tom Clancy stuff like Splinter Cell and everything. And from that
17:48
like they did a crossover into Rainbow Six with that. But like, you know, all of those, all of
17:53
those make sense. Like as long as you're not doing something stupid and bringing up my little pony
17:57
into a war zone map, then you're good. The bronies might like that. You know, there might be an
18:04
audience there. I, the day that I'm murdered by like whatever ponies like Sparkle Power or whatever
18:13
I'm done. I, I remember back in the day I played NBA Street and I think it was V3. A crossover
18:25
that blew my mind back in the day was Nintendo, including a team of Luigi, Peach, and Mario
18:33
in an actual licensed NBA game. They were dunking, they were crossing over people. It was absolutely
18:42
insane. We used to play it in the senior lounge of my high school too. And you best believe that team
18:48
was overpowered. It's, it's fun things like that they could do. And then like you said, and the
18:56
news came out recently too, that the NBA star Devin Booker from the Phoenix Suns, he's going to be in
19:02
the game, but he's not in his basketball attire. Obviously I don't think he would be. He's like a
19:10
head, like they CGI'd his head and just put it on like what would be an operator body, like full
19:17
military outfit. That's a little off putting. That's a little weird. It's like, I know the face, but
19:23
like, would you really be wearing all that stuff? Like Snoop Dogg's in the game too? See that, that
19:30
one's odd to me. I could definitely see like real world people being in it just because like
19:37
I mean, celebrities endorsing things is already a huge thing. I mean, you see it all the time in
19:44
advertisements. I mean, Call of Duty is, every live action trailer for Call of Duty has had some sort
19:51
of celebrity in it. That is true. I don't recall a time where they haven't had a celebrity or like
20:00
brought in a band to crossover. I mean, they brought in a Bench Sevenfold
20:05
for like four of the Call of Duty games and then Eminem for one of them
20:11
And those kind of fit the aesthetic of the game too. So it's like, oh, you know, I used to watch
20:17
the Call of Duty clips back in the day, the Modern Warfare 2 ones. It was always a Bench Sevenfold
20:22
as the background music. So gamers are bringing it, bringing it to life now
20:29
Hey, I remember, I remember Modern Warfare 2 and I was one of the best when it came to that
20:34
quarry map. Cause I would just sit on the, I would sit on that scaffolding or both the catwalk or
20:40
whatever in the higher up warehouse. And I would just sit at the window, noob tube in hand
20:48
and just like snipe whoever would be sitting there in the catwalk on the lower warehouse
20:57
You're part of the problem. That's what we're learning today. That's exactly what we're
21:02
learning. But to kind of like tie this all together, I think because a game like Fortnite
21:09
evolved into something other than a Battle Royale, I think that's why we're seeing more of this. I
21:15
think they're definitely going to push this going forward as far as we're not just a Battle Royale
21:22
We're a Guitar Hero Sim. We're a racing game. They have the concerts where you can buy music
21:29
and perform it. It's crazy stuff. And I think that's why we're going to see more of this
21:34
Will they do the Sims? Will they cross it over to the Sims? Make a life simulator
21:43
Honestly, the way things are shaping up for that game specifically, I think that could happen
21:51
Like you can already build your own maps and like do stuff. Like why not
21:56
No, I want my character in Fortnite to be able to build their own house and live in it
22:04
and then have a job. I don't. I want that to happen. But at the same time, I don't because
22:12
there are periods in my gaming life where I like I hyper fixate on a game like Two Point Hospital
22:19
or any of those Two Point games and I play them for hours and hours and hours. And if Fortnite
22:26
did that where you can kind of go in, have a life, make whatever, build your own property
22:31
Oh, you probably won't see me in these videos for like two months. I'll just be in this dark
22:38
room with the lights cut off playing that game mode. No, you do that. Get that one in there
22:45
And then next you need something that's like a nice cozy game like Stardew Valley
22:51
I love cozy games. That's that's what we're here for. That's what we're here for. The cozy games
22:56
Banana Man comes to the island and now you're in charge of like making it better
23:05
There's gonna be like a ready player one like moment where all games just come together
23:13
Everything, everything's just gonna be right there fighting each other. Yeah, I mean
23:18
eventually it will. I mean, someone's already working on the Oasis. So like, I mean, for Christ
23:26
sake, I just want something like that. Just give me all the crossovers in the world, just all
23:30
together, all in one place. And like a nice central hub where everyone can just be who they want to
23:38
be. I mean, you give me a headset. I'm not paying the seven, $800 for it. But if it just happens to
23:47
fall into my lap, upload me to the matrix. I'm in there. I will be there day one for all of this
23:55
Hey, I'm ready for your day. So we're prepared, but what I mean, I've shot my arm off. Give me
24:01
a metal one. You know, I honestly, as long as it's not the arm where I invested my tattoos in
24:09
I can lose my left arm, right? You got you have on both. Okay, the better one can stay the one
24:16
where I like kind of did a Dr. Seuss tree that one can, uh, that one can like give and take
24:22
That's all it's all about. But we're gonna give this chance to you guys, the audience, let us
24:28
know your thoughts on crossovers within gaming. Of course, if you want to talk more about this
24:33
stuff and you want to just talk about video games, why don't you join our discord? It's in the links
24:38
in the video description down below. We're always talking about games. We're always debating things
24:43
So you might want to find a home there if you can't find one in Fortnite or the metaverse or
24:49
whatever they're calling it lately. But, uh, that about does it for this episode of hot topic
24:55
We hope you guys enjoyed and we'll see you guys next time. If you enjoyed today's debate or want
25:00
your weekly dose of gaming news content, consider subscribing to game sandwich for content just
25:05
like this and we'll see you guys next time
#Computer & Video Games
#Games
#Gaming Reference & Reviews
#Massively Multiplayer Games
#Online Media
#Virtual Worlds