Highlights
- A new Barbie mobile game by Rollic is coming this year.
- The potential connection to the movie could boost game sales.
- The game aims for an immersive experience, tapping into hyper-casual and live-service gaming markets.
There is a new Barbie mobile game on the way, and it will be released relatively quickly. Fans of the 2023 movie may have something to look forward to, along with fans of the Barbie brand altogether. Zynga-owned developer Rollic is attached. Last July, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie went on to make $1.4 billion. It is easy to understand why Mattel wants to capitalize on the success of Barbie, as the movie appears to have revitalized interest in the Barbie, and Mattel brands and there is plenty of material to draw from.
Whether or not director Greta Gerwig or lead actor Margot Robbie will be attached to the project is still unknown, but it will be interesting to see details of the game closer to release with that in mind. The involvement of Gerwig and Robbie would undoubtedly drive sales and bolster fan confidence in the product. As for the game’s premise, the world presented in the movie could offer plenty of opportunities for new and interesting plots to arise, either parallel to or after the film’s plot. The hype may be hard to recreate, though, without a trend like “Barbenheimer” to carry it as far.
Barbenheimer Can’t Be Replicated (But Hollywood Will Try)
Hollywood studios are already trying to replicate the Barbenheimer phenomenon but it can’t be copied because it wasn’t a conscious marketing strategy.
Mattel announced its partnership with Rollic, owned by the popular mobile gaming company Zynga. According to the announcement, the new Barbie game will launch this year. Mattel Global Head of Digital Gaming Mike DeLaet outlined an interest in bringing “immersive entertainment for fans of all ages,” as Rollic, developer of games like Block Breaker Miner, Arrow Fest, and Block’em All, has previously had 22 titles in the US Apple Store’s #1 and #2 spots. The statement details a vision to tap into the market of hyper-casual and live-service gaming.
Will the New Barbie Game Tie Into the Movie?
Burak Vardal, CEO of Rollic, mentioned that this partnership is focused on bringing “the latest iteration of this icon to mobile gaming,” so the likelihood that the game will tie into the movie is high. To what extent and the types of scenarios that it will produce, however, is unknown. Of course, regardless of the game’s focus on the world of Barbie, there are many ways that it could interact with the lore of previous Barbie movies.
Considering the interest that Rollic and Mattel share in pulling in a wide audience, keeping fans hooked for an extended period of time and constantly providing interesting things to do, it is easy to look at this and see parallels to games like Pokemon GO, or even the newly announced Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. Mattel recognizes how big Barbie is and how much bigger it could be, and it does not want to lose out on that opportunity.
