A company underleveraging a brand came
from Cryptozoic with its Night Eternal game. The company kindly sent us (and
anyone else who asks) a demo copy of the game, which looks really nice, which has
high quality components giving a nice heft to the box. I almost passed on asking for a copy though,
as I had no idea regarding the topic of the game nor gameplay. Also, nowhere in
the email asking us to request a copy did it mention that Cryptozoic has
licensed HBO’s True Blood series and based
Night Eternal on a similar game played by characters on the show. That’s
right. Unless you follow the series, nothing
in the email, nor for that matter on the front cover of the box, indicates any
connection with True Blood. Not until you flip the box over and read the
BACK cover do you see the True Blood
logo. For a company that uses licenses as heavily as Cryptozoic does (DC
Heroes, Penny Arcade and Walking Dead come to mind) and plasters logos and
illustrations from said licenses freely over all sides of the game box, to not
put the True Blood logo front and
center on the box mildly confuses me.
Maybe there is something in the licensing contract but as willing as
Cryptozoic has shown itself to leverage its other licenses, I do not understand
why the company had played down this one.
Much like Games Workshop re-launching White Dwarf, if you have a well-known
brand, especially one that you did not grow yourself but to which you bought
access, leverage it as much as you can.
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