The intensity and commitment of the players with certain video games is such that they want to dress their avatars the same as they would in real life, or even better, since the prices are more affordable. A trend that they have tried from Louis Vuitton, with its association with League of Legends, to Marc Jacobs, Valentino and Gucci with Animal Crossing. Also Balenciaga, who once again takes his designs beyond the border of reality with a collaboration with Fortnite , the famous video game with more than 350 million fans.
In Fortnite, as in real life, status matters, which is why some players spend thousands of euros to customize their avatars by acquiring skins , extras and accessories related to the physical appearance of the character. With this new collaboration, the maison owned by the Kering group offers fans of the famous video game a personalized Balenciaga dance and sweatshirts, T-shirts, jackets and caps inspired by the FW21, SS21 and SS20 collections.
On this occasion, collaboration is not limited to the virtual world. Those Fortnite fans, and also those not so gamers , can buy these garments designed by Demna Gvasalia in the physical stores of Balenciaga. But let no one make the mistake of thinking that the prices are going to be the same: while in the video game a sweatshirt, jeans and cap look costs 15 euros, in real life the sweatshirts are around 600 euros . A detail that does not seem to matter to fans of fashion and video games, since the collection has been sold out like tickets to a concert before the pandemic.
It is not the first time that Balenciaga has entered the virtual world. Previously, he worked with the company owns Fortnite, Epic Games, in the design of the game Afterworld with the maison French presented his autumn-winter collection 2021.
It is a beneficial collaboration for both the firm and the video game. In the case of Balenciaga, it opens the doors to a sector that moves close to 200,000 million euros a year and brings it closer to its goal of taking fashion to new dimensions. For its part, Fortnite manages to enter the lexicon of haute couture, according to Vogue.
Fornite does not return to Iphone, for now
This collaboration comes at a delicate time for Forrnite. Despite Epic’s attempts to get the Apple App Store to restore its development account, necessary for the game to work with iOS, it doesn’t look like that will happen anytime soon.
After the trial between Apple and Epic Games, by which the latter must pay to break the contract with the App Store and introduce a direct payment system in Fortnite for iOS, the developer company has sent a letter to the manager of the App Store of Apple, Phil Schiller, in which he ensures that Fortnite will adhere to Apple’s guidelines when they are updated . That is, the video game asks that you skip the platform’s payment system.
In response, Apple’s attorney noted that Fortnite’s reinstatement will not be considered until the legal dispute between the two companies is finally over. A process that could take up to five years , according to Business Insider.
Growing sector in Spain
As is known, the first months of the pandemic brought many hours at home, especially in front of the computer or television. Given this situation, almost a million became fond of video games, causing the sector’s turnover to increase by 18% compared to 2019 , to 1,747 million euros, according to figures from the 2020 yearbook of the Spanish Association of Videogames (Aevi).
For the first time, internet sales overtook physical sales , reaching almost 1,000 million euros in turnover. On the other hand, physical sales grew 4.8% despite the temporary closure of the stores.
The sale by units maintained almost the same levels of 2019 and the commercialization of video consoles was not affected by the launch of the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X.
Consoles consolidated as the most used platform for gaming (25%), followed by mobile phones (20%), computers (18%), tablets (10%), iOS devices (9%) and portable consoles (7%) ).