Cosplay. It’s everywhere. You can’t move for cosplay online, at conventions, or at fan events these days; it’s great! A vibrant, living community whose members love to express their passion in the most artistic way, cosplay has been part of pop culture for as long as it’s existed in its modern sense. It should go without saying that fan works (fan art, fan fic, cosplay, and so on) have evolved in tandem with gaming over the years – and as series, conventions, and budgets have grown, so too has the cosplaying fandom.
During the last few years we’ve seen cosplayers being involved in the promotion of games, both officially and unofficially, at games expos, launch parties, on TikTok and Instagram, and by working in community forums to help others to bring their favourite threads to life. Even the previous iteration of this very mag once featured cosplay on the cover [Back in July 2018! - ed].
It’s even becoming the norm for game developers to release a cosplay guide in one form or another for fans to follow – it’s useful for fan artists too, by all accounts. But how much do developers consider later fan creations while designing their games? Is it simply a new avenue for marketing, or more give and take? We’re taking our questions to a team dialled into some of the biggest fandoms in the world at Zenimax Online Studios and Bethesda as
