In the gaming industry the synergy can come up in many ways. For example a couple years ago the game Battlefield: Bad Company 2 had a promotion with Dr. Pepper. Basically you would buy a bottle (or more) of the beverage and in return gain a code(s) which you could redeem over a website to get free downloadable content (DLC) for in game use. EA the owners of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 used the same cross-promotion for free DLC with other games like Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2 (I’m sure it’s only coincidental that all my examples are sequels).
Another big way for synergy to work in the industry is film. Resident Evil seems to be one of the most successful examples of this happening. This series has made (or is in the process of releasing) twenty games and five live-action films; along with some novels, some comics, some CGI films and loads of other merchandise. Developed by Capcom, the Resident Evil premiered on March 30, 1996 for the Sony PlayStation. Three years late Pre-production for a Resident Evil movie began in 1999 when Sony green-lighted the film. On March 15, 2002 the film would be released. The film was distributed by Screen Gems an American movie production company and a subsidiary for the company of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Here we can already see the relationship. People play the game made by Sony, Sony makes money. People see the film made by Sony, Sony makes money. People see the film because they played the game, Sony makes double money. It’s not the hardest train to follow why a deal like this is good for business.
The game itself has made a lot of money in its time. Before the film the first Resident Evil game sold 2.75 million units and an addition 1.35 million units when it was re-released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. The sequel which was released in 1998 was even more popular with 4.96 million units sold. The film was also successful making $102.4 million worldwide after spending $33 million to make it. Now when you consider the fact that both the GameCube re-release of the game came out the same year as the film you can see another link between the two products.
It’s easy to see that even if you were not familiar with the series but saw the film you might go out a purchase this “new” Resident Evil game that has just been released. Or possibly the film might stir up nostalgia for the original game film viewers played eight years before on their PlayStation. Either way it’s safe to say that going to the film most likely acted as advertisement the movie audience paid to watch.
This kind of cross-promotion doesn’t always work. In fact films like BloodRayne, Super Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within all lost insane amounts of money. The biggest failure being Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within; after spending $137 million on the film in only made $32.1 million domestically and $85.1 worldwide; Equaling grand loss of around $52 Million. That’s almost twice that of the entire budget of Resident Evil the film.
It’s hard to know why one film made it and another flopped. Maybe it’s because Sony doesn’t own the complete rights to the Final Fantasy Series and the two haven’t always had the best relationship. And somewhere along the way it takes true synergy to make both products sell. Regardless make sure that before you go see a film about your favorite childhood video game you know that every second you watch is a second the company is trying to sell you something.
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