The Collision of Pop-Culture & Gaming

Do you remember what you were doing on March 15, 2018?

Don’t worry… neither do I. But what I do remember from that day is one of the coolest and most eye-opening things to happen to the world of gaming in a long time. If it hasn’t quite hit you yet, I am talking about the day that THE Drizzy Drake and Ninja (alongside major superstar Travis Scott) linked up live on Twitch.tv to play – you guessed it, Fortnite.

Why Was It So Significant?

Two years later this moment may have been forgotten but we are still feeling the impact of this event today. Hip-hop and Drake were cool and popular before this day, and to the world of Gaming, Ninja and Fortnite were cool and popular as well (just on a smaller scale… your mom and dad didn’t know who Ninja was before this date). The collision of these two cultures took over the internet for quite a while after it occurred, and people were actually bummed out that they missed the live spectacle. And although the record setting stream numbers are great, and Ninja gaining an exponential number of followers and subscribers is awesome (secure the bag homie) … the real impact of this event is what it did for the gaming community as a whole, especially content creators.

Ninja essentially became the poster-boy and lead ambassador for gaming content creators and honestly gamers around the world. He was sent on multiple media tours and appeared on main-stream TV & News on multiple occasions, everyone was talking about Tyler Blevins (Ninja). In my opinion, this sparked new conversation around gaming and content creation being a viable career for young kids and adults who looked up to people like Ninja. This proved that it wasn’t “just playing games” and that there was serious potential for consistent and strong income streams. The conversation amongst parents began to shift. And all of that is awesome, but what I was truly excited about was the collision of pop-culture and gaming, this would go on to spark some really cool event concepts and some of the best live-content ever. As much as Ninja & Drake made it cool to be a gamer, the spawn of so many pro athletes and music artists who were always gamers at heart, would soon come out publicly and begin to collaborate with existing gaming superstars and organizations. I mean who wouldn’t want to play ‘chel’ with NHL players, or Fortnite and Call of Duty with NFL players and music stars (just to name a few of the cool new things that happened and are still happening today)? All of this to say, the world of gaming content has been changed forever as a result of the event that took place on March 15, 2018 … but what does the future look like?

My 2 Cents (What’s Next?)

Ninja and Drake playing some Fortnite was great for the culture and made for some pretty awesome content to say the least. However, the reason I even decided to write this blog is because of the doors it has opened and the potential future opportunity it has created. Since that day, there has been some insane out of the box non-endemic brands trying to get their hands dirty in gaming, pop-culture icons who have started up their own gaming content channels, and tons of collisions between gaming and other parts of culture, from hype beast apparel to full on college programs dedicated to gaming.

Now none of this happened overnight, despite the extreme rise in international coverage as a result of this day, these new and creative things have been happening to gaming for a while, so it begs to ask the question… what’s next?

Take this all with a grain of salt, as it is my opinion (with some support of some pretty involved peers of mine), and strictly my opinion on where I think things are headed, more specifically for live events & live content.

Gaming & Music go hand in hand, especially at live events.

We’ve already seen it start to happen, event organizers are constantly looking for new ways to add more value at their events for the attendees and to separate themselves from the rest. Brands like Sony Entertainment are also signing strategic partnerships with gaming organizations. Gone are the days of showing up to a gaming tournament and simply watching players play (+competing yourself) or roaming through the vendor highway getting sucked in to buying something you probably don’t need (trust me, we’re all a victim of it). It started with the Fortnite World Cup, then it moved to Lollapalooza, and now we are starting to see it happen in other platforms like the Call of Duty league, League of Legends events, and so many other competitive tournaments. Offering the attendees of an event the opportunity to not only see their favourite gamer’s or streamers but their favourite music artist all in the same event, is truly a dream come true for many. Picture this, the grand finals of a major gaming title happens on main stage, and later that night, someone like Deadmau5 or Logic or Justin Timberlake comes out and performs on stage to cap off the entire event. What about if you got the chance to play against one of these superstars? The bridge between a music festival and gaming convention/competitive tournament has already begun and I truly think it is only the beginning of what’s to come.

What do you think is the next big thing to happen to gaming? I would love to hear your thoughts and hot takes. Feel free to hit me up on social media or via email davidbellocchi@gmail.com.