Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Night Eternal Confusion



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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