You can Play a Virtual Celebrity

Celebrities are no longer mere models for game promotion. Rather, they have been created into actual game characters that run through the game. Korea’s Asian pop star “Rain” had been first to be embedded as a character in the popular FPS game “Sudden Attack,” in December 2008. Rain’s game character has reaped about $210 million in sales, which projected the beginning of a new trend in the gaming industry. Following up, popular Korean boy group “Big Bang,” which includes five characters, did even better with $280 million in sales within 9 months of character release in Sudden Attack. Girl group “2NE1” also in Sudden Attack, had $210 million in sales like Rain, but actually scored the highest monthly sales. The upcoming next celebrity character on Sudden Attack has been decided as Hollywood model Jessica Gomez.

Left Korean Asia Pop star ‘Rain’, Right Hollywood star ‘Jessica Gomez’

The transformation of celebrities from simply being models into actual characters in the game itself has given gamers a new surreal attraction, and also created a new trend amongst gamers and the gaming industry. Furthermore, the game companies have positive outlook with this new marketing step, which they expect will further permeate along with the Korean wave (popularity of Korean culture in Asia) in Southeast Asia, Japan and China. Much can be expected with this new marketing model, perhaps even a new wave of gamers. I am sure lots of gamers will be eager to have a chance to play as Scarlett Johansson or Jessica Alba next on Sudden Attack.