Fashion Games, Fashion in Games and Gamification in Fashion. A First Map

Fashion companies have been using different forms of entertainment such as film and television, sport, music, museums, and photography as inspiration sources and as communication and marketing channels for decades. However, in recent years, they have also started to consider the gaming world. While gaming offers a potential revenue stream from sales of physical and digital clothing, change in it is also the gateway to access new opportunities of the so-called metaverse. Moreover, the development of mixed realities might, in a sense, "democratize" the industry by offering at a lower price the digital version of products that attract customers. Through an analysis of secondary data and the study of three cases, this research aims to understand how fashion companies adopt and adapt digital games to develop their communication and marketing strategies, and how gaming companies exploit fashion to develop their products. The main goal is to analyze from an academic perspective how the gaming industry represents a communication and marketing channel in which creative companies can produce immersive experiences different from those available through other means. Finally, this article provides a map of the relationships between fashion and gaming by proposing three categories: gamification in fashion, fashion games and fashion in games.