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Why did Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Launch a Joint Venture for a Video Game IP?
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) has launched Palworld Entertainment, a new joint venture with Sony subsidiary Aniplex and game developer Pocketpair to expand business opportunities around Pocketpair’s hit video game, Palworld. According to the press release: “The JV will be responsible for developing the reach of the intellectual property and for expanding commercial business endeavors, including the global licensing and merchandising activities associated with "Palworld," outside of the interactive game.
EXP: Palworld is a multiplayer open-world survival game that surpassed 25 million players in its first month on Xbox and Steam (PC). Due to its similarities with Pokemon, it quickly captured the attention of the press and players, leading to it being dubbed “Pokemon with Guns” as legal experts weighed in on the debate around potential IP infringement. Those who spoke to gamesindustry.biz believe Palworld doesn’t infringe on Pokemon, but the character designs “fly a bit close to the sun…” And Sony obviously wouldn’t touch this if they didn’t think it was watertight from a legal perspective.
Either way, Palworld’s popularity means there’s a lot of licensing potential for the IP. While there’s been some great reporting on why Sony is betting on Palworld as a rival franchise to Pokemon (which generated $11.6 billion from licensed products in 2022), I haven’t read anything analyzing the music potential, such as how Sony could use music to expand the Palworld IP with reference to what The Pokemon Company has been doing since day one. So, here are my thoughts:
Pokemon has always been synonymous with music through its games, anime and films. 2 B A Master is one of the earliest albums featuring music from the TV series and became a platinum-selling record with more than 3 million copies sold as of 2003. If the Palworld IP is adapted for film and TV (which it will be), SME is perfectly positioned to produce and distribute these albums. Fun fact: SME has actually been producing soundtracks for The Pokemon Company since 2012 when the parent company of its record label, Pikachu Records, was acquired.
There are plenty of SMEJ artists with music that resonates with gamers, so it makes sense for SME to use Palworld to push new music releases through collaborations and wider partnerships. Yoasobi already has a Pokemon collaboration under their belt. How long until we see something like The Stray Kids in Palworld?
SMEJ could use music for Palworld as a separate strategy to engage with younger audiences – something it can’t do with the game at the moment due to its PEGI 12 rating. Wanna know what the most popular Pokemon videos on YouTube are? It’s not anime episodes or clips from video games. It’s kids content from the Pokemon Kids TV channel (18.7m subscribers).
The Video Games Your Favourite Bands Play on Tour
I really enjoyed reading this NME feature by Tom Regan, who sat down with a load of bands on the 2000 Trees Festival line-up and asked them what their favourite games are. With the amount of time that artists spend on the road, it’s no surprise that bands such as Boston Manor and Movements are spending most of their travel time playing video games.
EXP: It’s not unusual for features such as this to get shared in Discord servers or Reddit posts if a certain band bigs up a certain game, which can result in them gaining new fans. This stuff is also important context for people working in partnership roles (such as myself!) as it provides an insight into who’s playing what and where the potential partnership opportunities might be.
What is Nerdcore and why should you care?
A recent article in The Guardian explores the rise of nerdcore from the perspective of a ZX Spectrum Noel Edmonds, a Mr Blobby-themed grindcore band, and a lady who performs the script to Theme Hospital. Yes, it’s probably the most unhinged article I’ve ever read in The Guardian. It’s also a bloody brilliant read about how video games and geek culture are permeating music, especially in the underground scene which often goes underreported, so shout-out to The Guardian for shining a light on why people are doing this.
EXP:“I’m not on Tik-Tok, but a video of me doing Theme Hospital has got more than 450,000 views,” voice actor Sarah Green tells The Guardian on her viral video of the Theme Hospital script reading. Nerdcore music explores a range of ‘geeky’ themes from anime and video games to sci-fi and comics. Artists such as the American rapper Mega Ran (pictured above) have built careers around music that celebrates the things they love most. Don’t underestimate how popular these seemingly weird music niches can be. They’re often the first to find viral fame on social media platforms.
DJ Mag Speaks to Pizza Hotline About Video Games and D&B
DJ Mag published a great interview with jungle/drum & bass producer Pizza Hotline, whose music has been finding a massive audience on YouTube thanks to its similarities with ‘00s gaming culture and soundscapes, as well as the resurgence of “intelligent d&b” as a new generation of game-centric listeners that missed the ‘90s discover artists like LTJ Bukem for the first time.
EXP: As well as making his own music, Pizza Hotline also curates mixes of his favourite jungle/D&B soundtracks from video games and posts them on YouTube, where they’re picking up millions of combined views. Video game soundtracks from the ‘90s reflected music tastes at the time, but we don’t really hear club music in modern video games. With game soundtracks growing in popularity, there’s a growing audience of younger gamers who are seeking out soundtracks for the games they missed.
Need For Speed Mobile Collaborates with Chinese singer MaSiWei on New Music Video
Need for Speed Mobile is a new free-to-play mobile game based on EA’s popular racing series, Need for Speed. The Chinese version of the game is developed by TiMi Studio Group, a subsidiary of the game’s publisher, Tencent. To promote the game’s launch in China, Tencent teamed up with Chinese rapper Masiwei to create a new song and music video based on the game. You can watch it here.
EXP: This new version of Need for Speed Mobile is only available in China at the time of writing. If the game gets a global release, I wouldn’t be surprised to see EA pushing the game with music partnerships in other regions. Music collaborations can be a cost-effective UA campaign for game developers, while artists, labels and managers benefit from getting their music in front of highly engaged gaming audiences.
Theatrhythm Developer Indieszero is The Team Behind Nintendo World Championships
Nintendo works with a variety of third-party developers on its games but often doesn’t disclose who works on what. That said, a recent data miner has found Indieszero, the same developer who worked with Square Enix on the incredibly successful Final Fantasy rhythm game series Theatrhythm, is responsible for the upcoming Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.
EXP: It was a very clever move by Square Enix to release a rhythm game series dedicated to the music in its beloved Final Fantasy games, and I’m surprised Nintendo hasn’t done the same yet. Hopefully this partnership with Indieszero is the sign of things to come…
‘Deep Rock Galactic’ Unveils New Music Collaboration with Dwarf Metal Band, Wind Rose
In what might be one of the greatest music and gaming collaborations to ever exist, Nuclear Blast’s dwarf metal band Wind Rose have teamed up with the developers of Deep Rock Galactic to release a new single, Rock and Stone. Wind Rose are best known for the viral hit Diggy Diggy Hole (“I am a dwarf and I’m digging a hole. Diggy diggy hole… diggy diggy hole…”)
EXP: Are we in the golden age of power metal and video game collaborations? Metal is a great fit for video games due to the fantasy themes of various sub genres like power metal, battle metal, viking metal, pirate metal and now, dwarf metal! More of this, please.
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