From Lionhead Studios:
A lot of people have been asking us in recent months about Fable II clothes for their Xbox360 avatar. Well, you’ll be happy to learn that we’ve got something coming your way! It’s not going to be a single shirt but a whole package of clothing! It will be available for a few Microsoft points from Marketplace at some stage this month… We’ve got one teaser image showing you a shirt, but there are boots, shirts and hats! No underwear though…
Fable II came out last October to a solid critical and commercial reception, but this recent post on Lionhead s community forums shows how today’s games have very different opportunities to market to gamers, even if significant amount of time pass.
These virtual goods will be on sale soon on the Xbox 360 avatar marketplace, and Fable II will be one of a few games that have virtual shirts, pants and more for sale. Other games at launch will include Gears of War and Halo.
This kind of development presents a few clear opportunities for marketers and publishers alike.
Firstly, it s a great source of additional revenue by way of microtransactions with very minimal cost to produce.
Secondly, it bumps up the game in question in the minds of consumers; Fable II came out almost one year ago, but these new threads have the game get into the conciousness of gamers who may have even forgot about the popular game during the busy holiday season in which it was released.
Most importantly, though, it bolsters the Fable name and brand just by being connected to gamers, tugging at their passion points and really engaging fans of the series to promote the brand to the friends they have on Xbox Live.
We look forward to seeing how the avatar marketplace goes when it launches later this year with a new Xbox 360 dashboard update.
