The Rock & Roll of Gen F(ortnite

A thinkpiece by Stephan Huber

Swoosh! And suddenly the topic was omnipresent beyond the special interest bubble. Gaming and fashion form the bright new star in the emerging meta(uni)verse. Fortnite teams up with Balenciaga and Moncler, following an earlier lead by Animal Crossing and Marni – Gucci was, of course, involved too. It goes without saying that LinkedIn is exploding. All this offers great entertainment and hype value, but it is only the lush and dazzling surface of our attention economy. It should not distract us from the fact that it is of paramount importance to engage deeply and openly with gaming, e-sports, and, more broadly, gamification. The direct and indirect influence on consumer behaviour, communication, and ultimately economic success simply cannot be overestimated. The good news (and as all readers of style in progress know, the good news is the kind that moves us forward): nobody is excluded, everyone can participate in a manner that suits them or their companies best. We invite you to read, see, and feel how multi-faceted, and thus rich in opportunities, this environment is in this edition. But first, a thought that I consider essential in terms of context: more than 80 percent of Gen Z play online regularly. In the following Gen Alpha – defined by a technologically completely different, interactive, and increasingly personalised hybrid environment – it will most likely be almost 100 percent. I can vividly hear the horrified groans of many readers. O tempora, o mores! The youth of today! That is, among other factors, precisely the point.

Gaming is the rock & roll of Gen F(ortnite). Finally, there is something that parents do not understand and/or really hate. Their own codes, own language, and – coming in hot – own style. “How can you sit and play this nonsense all the time?” is the new “How can you listen to this horrible music all the time?” of today. Gaming is spearheading pop culture. As a result, it is evolving from a niche with great economic importance to an industry with outstanding economic significance. You need an emblematic example? “The International 2021”, a Dota 2 tournament held in Bucharest, paid out almost 40 million Euros in prize money. That is roughly as much as Wimbledon, the world’s most famous tennis tournament, offers. Is it all about money again? No, well yes. But that is the wrong question to ask. The important question to ask is how to reach the consumers of tomorrow. This question is as old as the market economy itself, so VERY old. The answer, however, has to be found anew again, and again, and again…