In a recent interview, Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida said it would be better for developers and players if games didn't have to straddle competing platforms from rival companies.
Hyper Games' mission to bring Moomins to the masses
27.07.2023 - 13:19 / gamesindustry.biz
There’s only two types of people in the world. Those who couldn't imagine growing up without being aware of Tove Jansson’s Moomin series, among the very best of children's literature, and those who have no idea who Tove Jansson even is.
Describing Jansson’s universe to someone who’s never read anything from the renowned Finnish author and artist feels like a difficult task. It’s poetry, it’s melancholy, it's queerness, sometimes it’s darkness and fear — but it’s also unaltered joy, an unbreakable bond with nature, the celebration of one’s self in its entirety, honouring the small things of life. It’s wind howling in the trees, hearing a harmonica in the distance, summer on a small island of the Gulf of Finland, rolling down a snowy mountain without fearing the consequences – but never ignoring the consequences. Jansson’s work — both her children's literature and adult novels — is a must-read that I will never stop recommending to people.
It’s also difficult to explain how much of a cultural phenomenon the Moomin series is to people who are unaware of it. Nine books (translated in 44 languages and having sold over 15 million copies as of 2014, according to the BBC), several picture books, over 20 TV adaptations across Europe and Asia, a theme park in Finland, and more.
"There's a lot of Moomins fans all over the world. It's huge in the Nordics, in Asia, in Mexico, it's big in a lot of the European countries," says Are Sundnes, co-founder of Norway-based developer Hyper Games. "But in the US, for instance, it's not very well known at all. It's very much a niche thing."
Different countries have engaged with different aspects of the universe, too. The US is slowly getting introduced to the Moomins via its books and merch; for instance, Barnes & Noble highlighted Tove Jansson's work this year in what is described as the first real foray of the series on the North American territory. Japan, meanwhile, has embraced every single aspect of the Moomins universe wholeheartedly since its early days. In Nordic countries, everyone's grown up with it but not necessarily with the same facets.
"Over here, it's like Mickey Mouse – it's equal," Sundnes continues. "[In] some of the European countries, it's a bit weird. I think France is on the mid-scale. I think a lot of people know about it but don't have a huge relationship to the IP. I don't think a lot of Norwegians have read a lot of the novels, whereas in other countries it's very different. In Britain, they had the comic strips in the newspapers for many years, but not the novels. So it's very fragmented but it has a huge [following]."
Okay, but what about video games, I hear you ask as I was readying myself to give you a 10,000 word exposé on Tove
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