Understanding the rise of ACG aesthetics in gaming
Understanding the rise of ACG aesthetics in gaming
Or why all your favorite games look like anime these days
Hi there! I’m Maxime, and you’re reading Recreations, a newsletter about the intersection of media, technology, and culture.
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A few months ago, my friend Fawzi came to me with a question he thought I’d enjoy exploring: why is it that so many games look like anime or comics these days? From Fortnite’s numerous character crossovers to the global phenomenon that is Genshin Impact, it seemed like something was brewing and inspiring developers across both game genres and borders.
Fawzi was right, and the trend has only picked up steam since our first chat. It turns out, everyone’s new favorite art style is really only one piece of a much larger moment. With growing cultural legitimacy and legitimate ambitions, Asia’s creative industries are breaking into the mainstream and transforming not just what stories look like, but how they’re told, too. Today, I’m excited to share a deep dive into this phenomenon.
This here is a preview — make sure to head over to Naavik to read the full piece.
Understanding the rise of ACG aesthetics in gaming
Or why all your favorite games look like anime these days
Genshin Impact. Tower of Fantasy. Arknights Tower Defense. Omega Strikers. Hi-Fi Rush. See the pattern yet?
Whether you've played these games or watched their success from afar, you may have noticed a common trait between them: their extensive use of ACG aesthetics. ACG, short for "Anime, Comics, Gaming," is a term popular in Greater China and Southeast Asia to encompass the business and culture that has formed around these three forms of media. In practice, the focus is most often on the "Anime and Comics" part, which makes ACG somewhat similar to its better-known, Japan-born neighbor, otaku.
While the term may seem foreign to most, the business behind it isn't. ACG is having a moment: manga and anime, already ubiquitous in the West, continue to grow, and webtoons, the South-Korean digital comics that read top to bottom, have been making significant headway, too. Savvy producers are making the most of this momentum ensuring new and existing intellectual properties (IP) spread far and wide, be it as live-action series, LEGO sets, or vinyl figurines.
But what about gaming? As the name indicates, gaming is very much integral to the ACG triptyque. There are historical reasons for this. In Japan, the nascent video game industry not only received a welcome influx of talent from manga and anime studios early on, it also became part of the media mix, a unique production and distribution model underpinning the majority of the country's entertainment output. Meanwhile, in the West, where such a cultural and commercial interlock didn't exist, anime and comics still made their way into games by way of both adaptation and aesthetics.
ACG's influence on gaming is thus no novelty. Yet the current cultural infusion stands out in several ways that deserve closer attention. Growing cultural legitimacy, the upskilling of Asia's creative industries, and the ascendancy of transmedia as the default approach to storytelling are creating a perfect storm for the relationship to thrive. In an era dominated by global conglomerates and their lowest common denominator franchises, ACG is a striking example of how savvy producers strategically hide, or showcase, the geographic and cultural origins of their work to blend, or stand out, across borders.
To understand the outsize influence ACG has had on modern culture, we need to retrace the origins of this moment, explain the business dynamics at play, and lay out some actionable insights game developers can apply to their own creative work to tap into international appeal and create longer-lasting media properties.