A Malaysia-based company is behind this incredibly immersive fashion game

Wandering through the Balenciaga game, players can encounter avatars dressed in garments from the brand. Photo: Streamline Media Group

In December last year, Balenciaga released its Autumn/Winter 2021 collection via a video game. Afterworld: The Age Of Tomorrow was really something else – where players could travel through a wonderland-style future world and encounter avatars dressed in garments from the brand.

But did you know that the game developer is actually a Malaysia-based company? The production team in Kuala Lumpur worked directly with the luxury brand to pull together concepts, cinematics and streaming elements for this immersive gaming experience.

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“It was amazing to work beyond the games industry on a creative project of this magnitude," CEO and co-founder of Streamline Media Group, Alexander Fernandez, comments.

“The creative concepts had no limits or constraints. It was a welcome challenge to bring Balenciaga’s vision to reality. It helped us showcase to the world an advanced interactive experience that is now a key milestone for our industry in the enterprise space.”

This is not the first time that fashion has jumped into video games to launch collections, but it is certainly a first for a Malaysia-based company to have a hand in helping bring such an experience to "life".

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to fashion diversifying its channels of reaching out to customers. From fashion weeks going digital to the setting up of virtual boutiques using social media streaming, the past year opened the doors to a different world for the industry.

Gucci hosted its own digital film festival in November. In August, Burberry launched a "social retail store", where it took interactions from social media and brought them into a traditional retail environment.

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It just goes to show that fashion has a lot of relevance in terms of being able to slip into other industries. Games are just one of the avenues, which counts on out-there creativity to wow and impress.

In a press release unveiling the Afterworld game, Balenciaga explained: “The narrative of Afterworld is anchored to mythological pasts and projected futures with timeless archetypes and speculative imagery.

"The world may appear decaying at first, but it is far from a dystopian view, showing instead the slow return to a healthier balance of nature and industry.”