How game studios can benefit from video game concerts

gamesindustry.biz:

We're in a golden age of video game concerts right now. Masses of fans have flocked to concerts such as Final Fantasy's Distant Worlds and Final Symphony, Genshin Concert Tour, the Game Music Festival in London featuring performances of Baldur's Gate 3 and The Last of Us, and Stardew Valley's Festival of Seasons.

A growing number of video game companies are now hosting and uploading full-length concerts for fans around the world to enjoy online as well.

Although this sudden explosion of game concerts might seem like a relatively new phenomenon, their history dates back to 1987 with Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama's Family Classic Concert in Japan. It wasn't until 2003 that video game concerts finally hit Western shores with Thomas Böcker's 2003 Symphonic Game Music Concert in Germany, where their popularity has been growing ever since.

While there are more video game concerts than ever before, pulling them together isn't easy.

But don't let that deter you. Regardless of how big or small your studio is, there's always a way you can embrace game concerts. With that in mind, I wanted to share some of the key things I've picked up over a decade of producing and creating video game concerts, as well as highlighting the benefits that game concerts can bring to your studio.

Video game concerts require expertise across a number of roles and responsibilities including licensing, production, booking, marketing/branding, orchestration, health & safety, merchandising, and financing. Some game studios might have in-house teams to handle some of this (like licensing), but they'll still be required to hire and manage relationships with external partners for the areas they don't.

You'll need to start by choosing the IP you're basing your video game concert on. This can be fairly straightforward if you're working in-house at a game studio and simply want to build a concert around a single franchise, but you'll still need to consider an overarching theme for your concert: is this