The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0006
Andreas Rauscher
{"title":"From Cineludic form to Mise-En-Game: The Ludification of Cinematic Storyworlds in the Star Wars Video Games","authors":"Andreas Rauscher","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Andreas Rauscher analyzes the complex convergence of film, video games, and other media within the Star Wars franchise. He argues that stylistic influence within the franchise extends in multiple directions, as while the games bear cinematic elements, the recent film entries remediate ludic concepts. Overall, he notes that the remediation of ludic structures and situations provides a key aesthetic element to Lucasfilm and Disney’s recent Star Wars films.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122112687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0004
Heather Lea Birdsall
{"title":"The Happiest Plays On Earth: Theme Park Franchising in Disneyland Video Games","authors":"Heather Lea Birdsall","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Heather Lea Birdsall explores the Disney theme parks as a branded franchise space through a number of its video game appearances, including Kinect Disneyland Adventures (Microsoft Studios, 2011) and its 2017 re-release Disneyland Adventures. Her essay makes clear that franchise management unites multiple physical and digital spaces in its strategic global expansion. She argues that tracing the history of Disney park-based games and apps, and considering other ways that the parks have been ‘gamified,’ reveals an ever-deepening trend of using digital game modalities to expand the Disney parks beyond their physical limitations as a means by which to establish and further them as a super-media franchise.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133779554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0010
M. Sandler
{"title":"Network Streaming: TV Broadcasters in the Digital Space","authors":"M. Sandler","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Monica Sandler focuses on subscription video on demand services, using the case study of Comcast NBCUniversal’s failed SeeSo platform. Her essay examines how television networks themselves can cultivate a franchise identity for themselves by expanding their brand into emerging formats. The essay questions how old media incumbents like NBC can compete against big data-based entertainment companies like Netflix and Amazon.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"54 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121001758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0009
J. Gillan
{"title":"TV Brand-Casting, Svod, and Ott at Comcast and Disney","authors":"J. Gillan","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Jennifer Gillan’s chapter looks at how television sitcoms have become another promotional arm by which parent companies prop up their franchises. She considers how sitcoms can play a part in what she calls ‘transmedia marketing circuits,’ looking specifically at the content-as-promotion strategies connected to Black-ish (ABC, 2014-Present) and Parks and Recreation (NBC, 2009-2015). The essay demonstrates that, with the rapid spread of subscription video on demand services that are either directly owned by or are supplied with content from the studios, television content is but one group of repurposable and reusable assets in massive, integrated platforms.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126515764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0011
B. Hartzheim
{"title":"Transmedia-To-Go: Licensed Mobile Gaming in Japan","authors":"B. Hartzheim","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Bryan Hikari Hartzheim examines how a growing number of top-grossing and popular mobile game titles are extensions of larger media franchises that also stem from other media properties. He posits the licensed mobile game as a flexible, promotional paratext within Japanese video game and anime transmedia franchises such as Dragon Ball and Final Fantasy. As such, his chapter considers the increasingly important role of ancillary, low-budget texts and how they can quickly adapt to changing market conditions to effectively monetize audience interests.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130354057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0005
M. Payne
{"title":"“Now They’re Playing with Power!”: Nintendo’s Classics and Franchise Legacy Management","authors":"M. Payne","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Matthew Thomas Payne’s chapter considers the role of franchise management through video games. He uses the case study of Nintendo’s NES and SNES micro-consoles. His essay posits that franchises can refer to both software and hardware, as the built-in games on Nintendo’s mini-consoles function as a form of franchise management and corporate canonizing by privileging certain video game texts over others.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128216070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0002
James Fleury, Stephen Mamber
{"title":"The (Im)Perfect Organism: Dissecting the Alien Media Franchise","authors":"James Fleury, Stephen Mamber","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This essay works toward a definition of the media franchise and uses the Alien franchise (1979-Present) to consider how digital technologies have influenced a shift in franchise management from multimedia to transmedia. The Alien franchise illustrates how the transition from multimedia to transmedia has brought new demands, such as stricter continuity among texts, stronger collaboration between licensors and licensees, and regular engagement with fans. The authors argue that Hollywood’s turn from multimedia replication to transmedia expansion has led to conflicts of textual continuity, creative ownership, and public relations within the Alien franchise. The chapter dissects these conflicts through the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega, 2013) as a case study of media franchise mismanagement.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122934978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0012
A. Champlin
{"title":"Locating Esports Spectatorship—Studio Audience(ing) and Sites of Speculation","authors":"A. Champlin","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Alexander Champlin focuses on esports, one of the fastest-growing entertainment markets today. His essay specifically analyzes the relationship between esports franchises (i.e., teams), branded esports studio spaces, and video game franchises. Based on five years of site visits, Champlin examines the history of the North American League of Legends Championship Series studio and, to a more minor extent, the Blizzard Arena.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125316942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0001
James Fleury, B. Hartzheim, Stephen Mamber
{"title":"Introduction: The Franchise Era","authors":"James Fleury, B. Hartzheim, Stephen Mamber","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"The introduction chapter provides an overview of the key elements of media franchises in the context of ongoing digital technology developments. In particular, the chapter explains the history of media franchising and how technologies like video games and streaming video have encouraged a shift from multimedia to transmedia franchise management. A summary of significant shifts in contemporary media franchising follows, including a lack of mid-budget projects in favor of blockbusters, the replacement of stars with characters, experiments with cinematic universes instead of just one-off “tentpoles,” the role of television within franchise management, the pursuit of global audiences, and the entrance of Silicon Valley technology companies into Hollywood. The chapter concludes with a summary of the main ideas of each essay within the edited collection.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130635029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Franchise EraPub Date : 2019-05-01DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0007
Brian Ruh
{"title":"Ghostly Boundaries: Transnational Tensions and Adapting Animation in the Ghost In The Shell Franchise","authors":"Brian Ruh","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419222.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Brian Ruh’s essay analyzes the representational politics in the Japanese-originated Ghost in the Shell franchise (1989-Present). Media franchises continue to struggle with representation, both in front of the camera (e.g., the marginalization of LGBTQ characters in franchise films) and behind it (e.g., a lack of female directors on franchise projects). As Ruh explains, Rupert Sanders’s 2017 American, live-action Ghost in the Shell adaptation sparked a controversy in representation after casting Scarlett Johansson in the lead role of Motoko Kusanagi.","PeriodicalId":115209,"journal":{"name":"The Franchise Era","volume":"174 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121809632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}