This year’s VidCon event is taking place this week in Anaheim, and several of the larger content creators are in attendance. However, several game publishers are also putting in an appearance, taking advantage of the presence of so many creators to show off some of their products. The list includes Nintendo, Paramount Games and MilkPep, all of whom will have products to show off at VidCon.
Nintendo and Paramount Games each have booths at the event. Nintendo’s booth will feature Mario Kart 8’s latest DLC courses. Paramount Games offers an augmented reality experience as well as the chance to view a selection of its latest games, including Star Trek Resurgence, SpongeBob SquarePants Cosmic Shake and TMNT: Splintered Fate. MilkPep will show off its new activation, Zany Ziplines, a game concept from the Fortnite community.
Doug Rosen, SVP of games and emerging media at Paramount, told GamesBeat in an interview that VidCon is part of the company’s strategy to expand its presence in the games industry: “When we looked at the show this year, we decided to do our own installation and really bring all our IP to the show. We wanted to have a place where we could bring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob and all of our properties there to showcase.”
As for why show these products off at VidCon, Rosen said that one of the benefits is fostering relationships with creators. “It’s a great place for us to find new partners that grew up loving our IP and wanna work with us. That’s been the most rewarding part, finding people who look at, say, SpongeBob, and say, ‘This is a show that I’ve loved for 20 years, and I have an amazing idea. How do we work together on it.’ The beauty of it is they come with their perspective as a creator, not just a game creator. There’s that, and there’s obviously finding creators who are excited about the games themselves and want to play them and create content around them. That’s something every gaming company is looking at.”
VidCon 2023 runs through June 24.