In Video Games
The concept of intercompany crossovers has also been explored in video games, usually in the form of having one video game company licensed out its characters to another (or vice versa).
Arguably the earliest intercompany crossover game was 1992's Battletoads & Double Dragon, although it should be noted that Double Dragon developers Technos Japan were barely involved in the production of the game outside of having the series licensed out to Tradewest, who also had the Battletoads license at the time as well.
One of the most popular sub-franchises in fighting games is the Marvel vs. Capcom series, which originally began in 1996 with X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Each subsequent game in the series expanded the character roster to include characters from both companies' entire lineup, not just X-Men and Street Fighter.
Capcom followed this act by teaming up with rival fighting game developer SNK to produce the SNK vs. Capcom series in 1999, which resulted in four different fighting games by the two companies and a trilogy of card games (the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series) by SNK.
Other examples of cross-company crossovers in video games includes the Tactical RPG Namco x Capcom and DreamMix TV World Fighters (a Hudson Soft-produced fighting game which included characters from themselves, Konami and Takara)
Nintendo created the Super Smash Bros. fighting game series where various Nintendo characters (Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Fox McCloud, Samus Aran, and others) from various Nintendo franchises (Star Fox, Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, F-Zero, Metroid, and others) battle each other. The first game, Super Smash Bros., was released in 1999. The second game, Super Smash Bros. Melee, was released in 2001. And the third game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was released in 2008. The third installment in the series featured two third-party or non-Nintendo characters: Solid Snake from Konami's Metal Gear series and Sonic from Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog series.
Midway Games' Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe pitted characters from Midway's Mortal Kombat video game franchise against DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, The Joker, and others.
The upcoming fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale features battles between characters from multiple Sony franchises, such as God of War and PaRappa the Rapper, as well as third-party series like BioShock.
Read more about this topic: Intercompany Crossover
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