Senior VP Publishing @ Jagex | ~ Revenue Growth ~ Product Management ~ Marketing ~ Analytics ~
🚨 Can Nostalgia create a path back to games industry growth? 🚨 💡 ⤵ I went to watch Inside Out 2 with my daughter on Saturday (well worth a watch!) and one of the new emotions was Nostalgia. Whilst only playing a minor role for 13 year old Riley in the film, it is an emotion increasingly being felt by publishers and gamers. Whether it be big scale returns of old PC classics or emulator apps cropping up on mobile, it is clear that many players are looking for a Nostalgia hit! But Why? Well for me retro gaming scratches a number of intrinsic needs; 1. Familiarity - An old pair of slippers, moulded to you, is just more comfortable than a shiny pair of Air 1s. 2. Mastery - No one likes being a noob. If players can skip learning and get straight to the fun, they will. 3. Community - Who doesn't love getting the old gang back together... Reminiscing. Laughing. Smiling. From a publisher perspective it makes a lot of sense too. Large amounts of the initial development costs have been sunk already, you have a clear target audience to go after and you have the opportunity to turn back the clock and learn from last time. Nostalgia doesn't have to stunt innovation. In Old School RuneScape we have worked with our community to create entirely new quests, game modes and map expansions whilst staying true to the retro vibe players are looking for. And there are more games coming.... I saw today a 2005 server save of Habbo Hotel is being dusted off and relaunched tomorrow with a community-led voting approach.... sounds familiar 🤔 Good luck Sulake. Hope the launch goes well. So we have Old School RuneScape and now Old School Habbo... Come on Lance Priebe lets get the band back together with some Old School Club Penguin! 🐧 🐧 🐧 What other retro games do we need next? #nostalgia #gaming #mmo #gamesindustry #insight
I wrote my Master's dissertation on Oldschool Runescape and the effect of nostalgia marketing! I got some very interesting results, if you'd like me to send over a copy of it I'd be more than happy to do so, just drop me a dm! 😊
Lance Priebe
1mo
Absolutely!
Looking for a position in the game industry.
1wI think it may not be just the nostalgia, I think a lot of these games felt like games. Where as now a lot of games feel like experiences that require a lot of attention and focus. Sure very deep games can be fun and amazing but I think especially for an older audience that has less time we may be craving simpler things?