The gaming business is an absolute monetary juggernaut lately, with online game corporations developing with progressive methods to develop its price and attain a wider viewers. One such method has been driving on the phenomenon that’s the Korean Wave – the dramatic rise of recognition for Korean tradition world wide. It’s sparked many collaborative efforts between the large hitters of gaming and the Okay-pop sector in recent times.
So, with out additional ado, let’s take a look at 5 of the most effective and most attention-grabbing Okay-pop x Gaming collaborations.
League of Legends x Okay/DA
Kicking off the checklist is Riot Video games and their ventures with digital woman group Okay/DA. Yep, these do exist.
Earlier than immediately you may need thought Okay/DA was merely referring to your kills, deaths and assists stats in Name of Responsibility. Properly Okay/DA additionally refers to a Okay-pop group composed of Champions from the League of Legends online game – Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai’Sa.
Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai’Sa are merely avatars nevertheless, for the voices are supplied by actual singers. Whereas Miyeon and Soyeon of (G)I-DLE, Madison Beer, and Jaira Burns, are the common members offering these voices, different artists have taken on the roles too together with a number of girls from TWICE. Their mixture of kinds ensures an excellent mix of wonderful vocals and terrific rap, all wrapped up along with a wholesome dose of perspective.
Since Okay/DA’s creation by Riot Video games in 2018, the four-piece act have launched quite a few singles together with ‘Pop/Stars’ and ‘The Baddest’. Each tracks reached primary within the World Digital Track Gross sales chart, thus bringing extra consideration to LoL. Moreover, they’ve been the main focus of in-game beauty skins primarily based on the band’s aesthetics within the music movies, hoping to get followers to spend further money to indicate off their love for them.
Having additionally featured within the Simply Dance collection, Teamlight Techniques and Legends of Runeterra, who is aware of the place or when Okay/DA will exhibit their fierce perspective subsequent.
We may all use some MORE Okay/DA in our lives.
PUBG x NewJeans
Image this: You’re scouring the battlefield with an assault rifle in hand once you see a vibrant playground within the distance. Upon nearer inspection, there’s an precise music stage stuffed with different gamers, dancing and having fun with life with no care on the earth. That’s the NewJeans impact!
The oldsters behind the battle royale extravaganza PUBG: Battlegrounds actually haven’t been complacent for the final seven years. With new maps, modes and different content material often launched, Krafton Inc have stored the sport alive by numerous means. Their newest effort to interact its participant base entails a partnership with the most popular Okay-pop woman group for the time being, NewJeans. It’s not just some skins nevertheless, oh no, they got here and completely took over.
A lot to the delight of their bunnies (the lovely title given to the fandom), the Taego map turned a magical place for survivors to roam. There’s a elaborate stage, music retailers stuffed with duplicate merchandise, jukeboxes, billboards and rabbits. On a wider scale, a bunch of costume units, faceplates, sprays and weapon skins let avid gamers equipment out their characters. Being able to take pleasure in a number of NewJeans tracks, like ‘Ditto’ and ‘OMG’, whereas taking part in is simply the icing on the cake.
Don’t be Tremendous Shy, go test it out earlier than the crossover involves an finish.
Overwatch 2 x LE SSERAFIM
It’s one factor for artists to have in-game themed objects, however LE SSERAFIM took it up a notch by having their very personal limited-time recreation mode in Overwatch 2.
On the again finish of 2023, woman group LE SSERAFIM launched a music video for ‘Good Night time’, a tune celebrating nights out with mates. The girlies have been in real-life kind alongside animated fan-favourite Overwatch 2 heroes, who’re racing to a LE SSERAFIM live performance. It marked the beginning of a collaboration which even noticed the group carry out a thirty minute setlist at BlizzCon, that includes ‘ANTIFRAGILE’, ‘Unforgiven’ and extra.
This all led to the inception of a brand new recreation mode, Live performance Conflict, which was obtainable to play for a number of weeks. Primarily, it was a 3v3 mode that had you battling for tickets to a fictional LE SSERAFIM live performance. Not solely did you need to destroy ticket machines in Busan and outscore the opponent, however you additionally needed to cope with the AI managed Fawksey James (Junkrat) stealing from each groups. Absolute carnage.
In fact, new cosmetics have been on provide to buy equivalent to legendary skins Dazzle D.Va, Traysi Tracer, Kira-Kira Kiriko, BB Brigitte, and Slay Star Sombra. It wouldn’t be a themed occasion with no victory pose, an emote, a reputation card and a appeal, offering extra LE SSERAFIM-inspired incentives to encourage gamers to spend cash.
Whereas it didn’t final lengthy, a minimum of the music video lives on for us to take pleasure in till LE SSERAFIM embark upon their subsequent enterprise into gaming.
Fortnite x BTS
In an inventory stuffed with insanely gifted woman teams, it takes a particular Korean boy group to have the ability to declare a spot. It’s none apart from the Bangtan Boys, BTS!
From Goku and Batman, to John Cena and Lara Croft, the quantity of crossovers there’s been in Fortnite is past perception. Reasonably than sticking to the pattern and including BTS into the sport as skins although, EPIC GAMES ready one thing a bit totally different in 2020. The Okay-pop group debuted a choreography MV for the smash hit single ‘Dynamite’, permitting individuals to observe it premiere on the socially-focused celebration royale island.
That wasn’t all although, with a Dynamite-inspired emotes bundle obtainable in change for V-Bucks within the Fortnite retailer to indicate help for the group. It will need to have gone down effectively as a result of BTS acquired one more emote in 2023 known as Run It Down, that includes a snippet of music from the hip hop monitor ‘Run’.
If there have been nonetheless anybody who hadn’t heard of BTS, their involvement within the massively well-liked Fortnite, in addition to their stints in Simply Dance and restricted version BT21 Amongst Us outfits, would have certainly helped increase their reputation additional.
PUBG x BLACKPINK
A number of Guinness World Information, numerous music awards, honorary MBEs from King Charles, and endorsements galore with Adidas and Samsung, however BLACKPINK craved extra. They wished that Rooster Dinner!
BLACKPINK set the usual for gaming crossovers, with PUBG and PUBG Cell benefiting massively from the partnership. Individuals who had by no means picked up a controller earlier than have been downloading the cell model in 2020 upon studying that Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa and Rosé often play PUBG. To not point out the truth that the themed occasion meant you could possibly use the lightstick hammer as a weapon, take heed to ‘Lovesick Women’, and help them in-game to earn rewards for your self.
In the course of the preliminary collaboration, and quite a few occasions since, they’ve turned crates pink, graffitied partitions and launched a cool helmet. A complete host of outfits have made an look too, enabling BLINKS (the fandom) the possibility to decorate up in what was worn in a few of the official music movies.
Nonetheless clearly unhappy, BLACKPINK launched a music video titled ‘Prepared for Love’, with all 4 members reworked into in-game characters. This was merely a taster as they then carried out a digital live performance that includes a compilation of hits – ‘Ddu-Du Ddu-Du’, ‘Kill This Love’, ‘How You Like That’, and ‘Prepared for Love’. In keeping with studies, over 15 million gamers attended the live performance, whereas the music video for ‘Prepared for Love’ has breached the 80 million viewer mark.
The continuing success of the PUBG x BLACKPINK partnership certainly proves why we’ll undoubtedly see many extra crossovers with the Okay-pop business.
And there you may have it – arguably 5 of the most effective Okay-pop x Gaming collaborations thus far.
Be happy to depart your ideas on them, share any others that didn’t characteristic on the checklist, or inform us what collaborations you hope to see sooner or later.
