Turner Transmedia Gaming: Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!

Coming out of CES earlier this month, there was a lot of noise about Turner’s change in how it will be handling 30-second spots. Their plan to reduce the number of 30-second slots in favor of new two to three minute slots is interesting for a variety of reasons, one of them being how Turner can now handle new forms of transmedia storytelling. In allowing for longer ads that can tell deeper stories, Turner is letting their brand partners express themselves creatively and transmedia experiences could be the outcome. While not every show may be ripe for a transmedia narrative, Turner has one show that lends itself perfectly to the prospect of multiple story forms across multiple platforms: adult swim’s “Rick and Morty.”For those unfamiliar with “Rick and Morty,” it stars an alcoholic super-scientist and his grandson who get into all sorts of scientific adventures across the multiverse thanks to a portal gun of his own invention. He is capable of using it, but incapable of caring how it gets used thanks to being morally bankrupt.The show has already established that a variety of universes exist, going as far as to destroy the one they started in and relocate themselves to another after an incident. It’s savvy enough to realize that its promo spots are precisely that and created a spot for Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s where several lifesized burgers harassed Morty as he tried to sleep. All of this self-awareness and willingness to play with transmedia formats came to a head two weeks ago when Turner did something a different company should have done a long time ago: Beat Nintendo to the punch and released a freemium “Pokemon” style-app for Android and iOS.With the release of Pocket Mortys, Turner created a freemium model game that adhered to storylines from the show while simultaneously advancing new plots. There is light ad support that allows for increased in-game revenue along with the ability to purchase tickets for a machine that awards extra items.Neither of these paid experiences give players who utilize them too strong a boost over those who do not. As the game is (currently) single player only, the game does not allow these players to abuse the system in favor of those who don’t pay. It is a healthy balance that many other games deploying a freemium model have not been able to successfully maintain, a feat made all the more impressive in that the boosts also serve to further the transmedia narrative.The new season of “Rick and Morty” is due in early 2017. According to some rumors that we would like to start here, it will feature Pocket Mortys as a story plotline. If it does, this would serve as the perfect transmedia ouroboros, with the show leading to the game, which in turn leads right back to the show.