A Recipe for Disaster? The Emerging Ludo Mix and the Outsourcing of Narrative

The "ludo mix," a media mix strategy in which a game drives a broader franchise ecosystem, is examined through The Final Fantasy XV Universe, which spans a game, CGI film, anime, audio drama, novel, and DLC. The central thesis is that this approach, combined with the pressures of modern game development, led Square Enix to outsource core narrative elements to other media, leaving the main story disjointed even as the game was generally well received.

Director Hajime Tabata chose not to split the story across multiple games, so key plot elements migrated into film, anime, a novelized cancelled DLC, and The Dawn of the Future. Media mix strategies favored marketable character archetypes, such as the "boyband" party and anime-inspired tropes, over plot. Episodic DLC added further gaps to an already loose narrative. Critics in Japan and abroad faulted the story while praising the cast. Merchandising, including the Roen fashion line and the Nissin Cup Noodles tie-in, had minimal narrative impact and gave developers considerable creative freedom.

The underlying causes are structural. Rising AAA costs and a roughly ten-year development cycle made interactive cities like Insomnia impractical, so they were handled in film and anime. The shift toward action combat and open-world design, intended to avoid the linearity criticism aimed at FFXIII, clashed with the tightly plotted story. Mounting costs also push developers toward DLC and in-game purchases. Square Enix's disorganized internal management and Nomura's overextension compounded these pressures.

The analysis focuses on a single Japanese franchise but speaks to broader industry trends. It cautions that cost pressures and the stability and efficiency of media like anime may push developers further toward the ludo mix, though this remains speculative if the industry stabilizes. Because game industry culture shifts faster than other media, the study of the ludo mix must be more adaptable than traditional media mix scholarship.