Fashion and gaming might seem strange bedfellows, but their combination is the next logical evolutionary step for the industry.
Fashion and gaming seem like strange bedfellows as far as their perceived compatibility is concerned.
Here’s the thing, though: the best brands in the fashion industry spare no expense in developing communications in a tone designed to speak to their customers in the most contextually relevant and accessible way possible.
That’s always been the case for fashion – and you can believe that fashion brands won’t be leaving money on the table as gaming becomes more mainstream than it has ever been at any given point in its existence.
Case in point: Amsterdam-based market research firm Newzoo predicts that the number of gamers worldwide will reach the 3 billion mark by 2023 with US$200 billion in gaming revenues thanks to mobile games, demographic upheaval, and increasing purchasing power.
Make no mistake about it, the fashion industry is taking notice in a big way. For instance, high-end fashion brands have begun introducing interactive gaming to their brand experience by providing a bespoke and sophisticated in-store experience or promoting their brand values that customers will want to identify with through games.
Last December, Balenciaga announced its Fall 2021 ready-to-wear collection by releasing Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow. The game featured avatars decked out in the latest digital Balenciaga collection from head to toe.
The fashion giant’s foray into gaming provided just a little taste of what can happen when the worlds of fashion and gaming synergize, creating the next logical step in the fashion industry’s evolution as we know it. We’re seeing the gamification of fashion starting to come to life before our very eyes.
This generation of gamers has proven itself to be sophisticated fashion and beauty conscious ready to throw cash at products, in-game and real-life alike.
Shocking? It shouldn’t be. As gaming has seen a staggering demographic shift in women’s favor. Women account for 64% of all mobile gamers, and here’s the telling statistic: 79% of them are more likely to make in-app purchases.
Gaming is no longer the stereotypical teenage geek’s exclusive secret treehouse club. The community has never been this diverse. Plus, fashion lends well to gamers who incorporate topics such as style and fashion into their streams.
In the end, industries have always followed the customer – and the demographic has swung massively in favor of women.
The numbers don’t lie, and they say gaming is going to be where it’s at in the near future.
As our society’s digitalization continues to expand into 3D environments, so does the need for self-expression and a sense of identity. That’s where digital fashion comes in.
While fashion brands approach gaming as a powerful marketing tool capable of telling unique, immersive, and personalized stories, one project is ready to revolutionize the as-yet budding industry by taking digital fashion and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in this burgeoning market segment as the name to watch in the budding industry.
San Francisco-based digital fashion NFT platform, DIGITALAX has laid down the foundations of a standardized digital fashion landscape.
In essence, designers and fashion brands collaborate with DIGITALAX to create digital fashion NFTs that are then listed on the DIGITALAX marketplace for sale. These digital fashion NFT skins can be authentically owned by a player and taken in-game for unique casual play experiences in DIGITALAX’s ESPA indie and modded esports platform— which focuses heavily on recognizing the value of modded content in the broader gaming industry and what it means for maintaining novelty in content for self-expression.
The digital fashion in ESPA has direct functional utility for the players as in-game identity markers and authenticators— verifying a player’s in-game status and scoring them on a leaderboard during the tournaments. Players are able to engage in “casual play” and start earning value for themselves, going from amateur to pro as they work their way up the ESPA meta leaderboard.
With these skins as NFTs, players are also able to engage in a holistic value experience where they are granted true ownership of the asset— meaning even if the game stopped running the player would still own their content.
Our possessions are part and parcel of our identities, representing our unique realities across the physical and digital worlds. DIGITALAX is one startup to watch at the intersection of fashion and gaming as this space continues to move at lightning speed ahead.