Opening the Steam hot play list at this moment, you may wonder whether you have traveled back to eight or nine years ago: “Fallout 4”, a pure stand-alone game released in 2015, has made its way to the top 10 of the list. The peak number of online players once exceeded 160,000, which is second only to the new game “Hell Diver 2” released in February this year among the paid games on the Steam platform. According to foreign media reports, the sales of “Fallout 4” in the European market have been rising recently, with an increase of more than 7,500%.
Not only “Fallout 4”, but also all the games of the Fallout IP have soared along with it. Launched in 2020, “Fallout 76”, which once had a bad reputation due to its poor initial quality, not only broke into the top 30 of Steam’s most played list 4 years after its release, but also set a new career record for the number of people online at the same time. According to Bethesda, the total number of online players in “Fallout 76” in a single day has exceeded 1 million. SteamDB data shows that “Fallout 4” and “Fallout: New Vegas” are the two most purchased single-player games by players in recent weeks. On April 24, Bethesda announced that nearly 5 million players had played all Fallout games in one day.
For such eye-catching data, Xbox officials also issued a message of congratulations: giving a million thumbs up to everyone who joins Wasteland.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Fallout IP suddenly regained its popularity, giving B Club a new life after a serious fall due to “Starry Sky”. So here comes the question: Why are these “old antiques” that have been on sale for so long become popular again?
Fallout game IP and film and television dramas: Dozing off and touching the pillow
In fact, the entire series of Fallout IP games has been revitalized thanks to the “wealth and wealth” brought by the hit American TV series “Fallout”.
Since its broadcast on April 10, the eight episodes of the show have played a total of nearly 2.5 billion minutes in one week and been viewed approximately 5.2 million times; at the same time, the Rotten Tomatoes rating is 93%, the audience score is as high as 88%, and it has been well received by critics. and unanimous praise from the audience. In China, the first season of “Fallout” has received a total of more than 30,000 comments on Douban, with a score of 8.6 – the film and television drama adapted from the game has received such high reviews that even Todd himself would have to consider the production plan. Kilter Films and director Jonathan Nolan collided.
However, for players who are familiar with the “Fallout” series of games, it is not surprising that the series adapted from its IP suddenly became popular. In the nearly 30 years since its birth, during the iteration process of several generations of works, the “Fallout” series has created an extremely excellent world view and story background. It is highly praised by players for its futuristic science fiction elements.
It is no exaggeration to say that almost even the story and stage of “Fallout” are ready-made: the nuclear weapons that destroy the world fall, the protagonist wakes up from the shelter, sets foot on the long wasteland after the catastrophe, and keeps wandering among several major forces. Looking for loved ones.
In a science fiction TV series, it is conceivable that the above-mentioned apocalyptic landscapes of vicissitudes and depression will create heart-stirring scenes in film and television lenses, and write heart-stirring plots. Coupled with the fact that Jonathan Nolan, who directed “Westworld”, is personally responsible for the production and Kilter Films is responsible for the production, the quality of the “Fallout” series is guaranteed from the beginning.
For the entertainment industry, games, as a rich media, also have content value that cannot be ignored, especially science fiction works with novel settings and diverse themes. They are the most worthy game category for directors and screenwriters to explore deeply. After all, whether in the animation or film and television industries, although there are many excellent original scripts, there are not many original IPs with mature worldview structures and strong plasticity. This is why excellent science fiction novels from ancient times such as “Dune” and “The Man in the High Castle” are still available today. Highly respected by film and television practitioners, the sequels of “Mad Max” and “Avatar” are still popular among movie fans after many years.
Animation and TV series: a booster of second life for game IP
This is not the first time that animations and dramas adapted from game IP have brought unexpected popularity to the game itself. From “League of Legends: Battle of Two Cities” to “Cyberpunk: Edgewalker” to “The Witcher”, animations and dramas have actually become the most topical and attractive outside of the game itself. It is one of the content carriers with extremely high conversion efficiency.
Among them, “Edgewalker” created by Trigger Club directly feeds back to the original game “Cyberpunk: 2077” with its excellent plot. Data shows that after the broadcast of “Edge Walker” in September 2022, the number of people online on Steam for “2077” exceeded 80,000 for the first time in a long time, becoming the only stand-alone game among the top 10 online players on Steam during that period – you need to know that “2077” 2077″ was once criticized by players as “one of the most disappointing masterpieces” due to a poor initial experience.
CDPR later recalled that they found that the sales of “2077” increased almost immediately after the animation was aired, and continued for a long time after the popularity of “Edge Walker” gradually died down.
If we turn our attention back to the domestic game industry, although our game IP popularity, animation, film and television industrialization capabilities are not enough to compare with Europe, the United States and Japan, adapting game IP into animation and film and television works is still a good way to amplify the IP’s reputation.
Take the newly popular “Meet Xiaoyao Again” as an example. Although the show may not bring a considerable number of new players to the “Legend of Sword and Fairy” series at the moment, the enthusiasm from major social groups such as Weibo and Tieba is high. Judging from the discussion, it has undoubtedly played an important role in the survival and evolution of Xianjian IP products and even the vitality of Xianjian IP.
Regardless of whether the Fairy Sword IP will continue to launch stand-alone sequels in the future, I believe that in this content-first era, as long as we are willing to focus on continuing to build IP content through animation, drama series, and any other media, the efforts made by the IP side will never be in vain.
