Glu has become famous as the publishes that’s been bringing celebrities to the App Store, with Kim Kardashian leading the way and Katy Perry following. However, while the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (Free) game is still very popular, the Katy Perry Pop (Free) game showed that Glu’s strategy might be failing since the game didn’t reach the heights of Glu’s earlier celebrity games. Glu, however, isn’t giving up the dream and has decided to double down on the celebrity thing by bringing the (like it or not) megastar that is Taylor Swift. The game should be coming out late 2016, and Glu plans to bring new gameplay elements to the game that utilize Taylor’s creativity. Glu and Swift hope to both benefit from this deal since Swift’s name should help Glu get the game on many players’ phones while Swift is getting both a cut of the revenue as well as free publicity.
Still, the popularity cycles of pop celebrities have been moving faster and faster in recent years, and there’s the danger that Glu’s game falls relatively flat as was the case with Katy Perry Pop. When the Katy Perry game was announced, Perry was in the news daily and her brand was hot; however, by the time the game had actually come out, Perry wasn’t the star she used to be merely a year ago. The same might happen with Taylor Swift’s game, and I wonder how many bets like this one Glu can make before having to go a different route. Unless, of course, the games still make a ton of money regardless.
[via VentureBeat]
