You've taken your first step into a larger universe...

[SpaceGhost2K]

If you know where that line comes from, you're a geek. Of course, I could have gotten it wrong, and if you're a geek, you'll tell me. :D

OK, so, to recap for late comers... I'm talking to a guy who can print images on plates. Wanna put a picture of your girlfriend on a faceplate? He can do it. Anyway, we're talking about that part, but I want to go huge with this. I want to go bigger than just user uploaded images. I want users to have a HUGE selection of images to choose from to have put on their Xbox.

Game companies release screenshots of their games all the time, for nothing. If you own a site, they have approved screenshots that you can link to, or download and host. For instance, I can go to www.one-chanbara.com and see all kinds of screenshots of the bikini-clad sisters of blood. If I wanted to do a write-up about the game, I could write what I know, and include those screenshots, at no charge. To me. Even if I was making money from the site. It cost the company nothing for me to show off their screenshot, and from the free visibility, hopefully it will help them sell games.

Now, following that same logic, that is exactly what I hope to do with faceplates. I am HOPING to get a multitude of companies - game and otherwise - to agree to let us post images approved by the companies, and should someone have the desire, put that image onto a faceplate for them.

I don't know what kind of deals publishers have with a company like Mad Catz. I know in the case of Epic Games, the Gears of War faceplates are "non-exclusive." Meaning, if I wanted to come up with the money, I could also take an approved image and make 30,000 faceplates and sell them to Gamestop, EB, Game Crazy, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Amazon.com.

What I'm trying to say here, is that I have a tentative call this Friday morning with a person from Capcom. I was told that Mad Catz already has agreements with them to make faceplates for Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil V, so you heard that here first. :D However, I do not know if those agreements are non-exclusive. Their agreement might prohibit anyone from making faceplates EXCEPT Mad Catz, which would make that an "exclusive" agreement.

I emailed back a picture of the Phoenix Wright "Objection!" custom that I made, along with a hand-drawn "Ghouls & Ghosts" plate, lovingly crafted by my friend Christoph.

But just to give you an idea what could be in store for faceplate fans, and gaming fans in general, here are but a few of the games developed/published by Capcom:

1942
Street Fighter
Mega Man
Final Fight
Breath of Fire
Resident Evil/Biohazard
Viewtiful Joe
Okami
Dead Rising
Mobile Suit Gundam
Onimusha
Devil May Cry
Lost Planet
Captain Commando (Not a game, but a guy)
Section Z
Marvel vs. Capcom
Commando
Bionic Commando
Darkstalkers
Power Stone
Clock Tower
Phoenix Wright
Ghosts & Goblins
Ghouls & Ghosts
Strider
Battle Arena Toshinden
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Dynasty Warriors
Legendary Wings
Mercs
Pirate Ship Higemaru
Super Puzzle Fighter
Tech Romancer
Warriors of Fate
Dark Void
Dino Crisis
Turok (original)
Yo! Noid
Darkwing Duck (I don't see this happening, though)
Killer 7
P.N. 03
Zack & Wiki
Monster Hunter
Giga Wing
Rival Schools (Yes!)
Auto Modellista
Chaos Legion
Crimson Tears
Darkwatch
Maximo
Moto GP
Way of the Samurai
Steel Battalion (GOD yes!)

That, my friends is an enormous list. That is the kind of list only a great video game company can make.

The key here is that we're not going to make all of these plates. We're going to host an image. If someone wants a plate, they select the image, pay for their purchase, and they will be sent a plate that looks like the image they chose. Sure, 30,000 Steel Battalion faceplates would be ridiculous. The game itself only sold 25,000 or so. (I had two, lol.) Even a thousand would be ridiculous. But what about two? Or five? What if there were four images from Steel Battalion, and five people bought all four of them? That's twenty plates. What if that happened for every game on this list? What if there were twenty four Resident Evil pictures that covered key people and moments from the entire series?

Now imagine Capcom's offerings available right next to Namco's, Sega's, Konami's, Koei's, BioWare's, Ubisoft's, Bethesda (YES I want an Oblivion plate, dangit), Tecmo, Atlus, Double Fine, Oddworld Inhabitants, EA (Dead Space and Mirror's Edge, I'm comin' for YOU)...

Now add to that countless TV shows, movies, anime, rock bands, even companies like Nike or Pepsi or Abercrombe & Fitch?

What happens with Capcom on Friday will probably set the tone for this whole thing, so if you're praying people, now is the time. This isn't just about faceplates, or me, or you all, or this place, or the guy making the plates. It's about giving the gamer a chance to make a choice by actually giving him something to choose FROM.

[gameking28]

That sounds really awesome Space! I've got a question though! :p

I know in Epic's case the deal is non-exclusive so pretty much anyone they authorize can make or sell a faceplate featuring one of their properties.
The catch is that they take a cut. I'm not sure how large that royalty fee is, but would it be incorporated into the cost of creating your own through this guy?

[SpaceGhost2K]

That sounds really awesome Space! I've got a question though! :p

I know in Epic's case the deal is non-exclusive so pretty much anyone they authorize can make or sell a faceplate featuring one of their properties.
The catch is that they take a cut. I'm not sure how large that royalty fee is, but would it be incorporated into the cost of creating your own through this guy?

http://www.cafepress.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/Ferenzidesign

Cafe Press is a place where users can upload images, and anyone can order merchandise with the images. The person who uploaded images would get a cut.

We would work the same way. If a game company contributed/agreed to an image, and someone bought a plate with that image, they'd get a cut. Now we're talking about something like $2 every time one of your images is used, and fees would be paid quarterly. Deals could be worked out with large organizations for a bigger fee if they linked to the faceplate site from their OWN site. These numbers are all just for discussion purposes, but let's say Capcom agreed to a hundred images over thirty different games. If someone bought a "1942" plate, they'd get two bucks. But if Capcom had a link to the site at www.capcom.com, they could get up to five bucks per plate. The more they help drive traffic, the more they get per plate.

But that works for individuals as well. If I, SpaceGhost2K, uploaded an image, and ten of you bought faceplates with my image, I'd get twenty bucks.

Considering that the Xbox 360 install base will be in the neighborhood of 80-100 million by the end of the generation (6-7 years), the potential is enormous.

I think there would be a lot of interest in:

Mob movies (Godfather, Scarface, Sopranos)
Zombie movies (Evil Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Night of the Living, etc.)
Anime (Cowboy Bebop, Bleach, Death Note, Naruto)
High Schools, colleges and youth groups (we could do a deal for $25 where they would get half).
Bands (RHCP, Slipknot, Insane Clown Posse)
Sci-Fi Movies (SW obviously, Back To The Future)


I've probably done this list before so I'll stop there, and you get the idea. I sent an email off to NBC/Universal but haven't heard anything back.

[SuperMonkeyHero]

Ed, I'm always amazed at your dedication to the faceplate community and how your wheels are always turning on how to get more people (collectors, game companies, tv and movie studios, etc.) interested/involved in contributing to our passion. It really is scatterbrained to see a lack of unified marketing in getting the bulk of these plates to consumers. Having shelled out a few bucks myself for retail, pre-order gift, event and a few of your customs I'd definitely be interested in contributing to the cause. Contact me and let me know if any of my contacts if there's anyway I can help.

Also, if this happens what can the average collector expect to pay for these faceplates?

[SpaceGhost2K]

Ed, I'm always amazed at your dedication to the faceplate community and how your wheels are always turning on how to get more people (collectors, game companies, tv and movie studios, etc.) interested/involved in contributing to our passion. It really is scatterbrained to see a lack of unified marketing in getting the bulk of these plates to consumers. Having shelled out a few bucks myself for retail, pre-order gift, event and a few of your customs I'd definitely be interested in contributing to the cause. Contact me and let me know if any of my contacts if there's anyway I can help.

Also, if this happens what can the average collector expect to pay for these faceplates?

Right now, the site is still under construction, but they have colored plates and plates with simple images available for $29.99 and the "user-submitted image" section plates are $34.99. This is a lot more then he, and I, want them to be. Even then, taking for example hellonearth159's awesome Mirror's Edge plate, if you could take that image and put it onto a retail quality plate, it would be worth every penny of $34.99. Anyway, we're shooting for $19.99 for the ready made plates and $24.99 for custom plates.

The ultimate plan is that you won't just make a custom plate. You'll add the image to their database of images. You can set the option so that only you can order a plate with that image, only people with a password can order plates with that image, or anyone can order plates with that image. We're working on having it so that if I add an image and you buy a plate with that image, I get some money back (Or at least, get it earmarked for me so I can spend it on other plates). All that is down the road, though.

I just sent them my first image. He's going to have three plates made from the image and send them to me, kinda as a test to see what the final plates look like compared to the original image, but also to see what the packaging looks like, what the turnaround time is, etc. If I'm going to attach my name to this, I want to know all this stuff.

[SuperMonkeyHero]

What was the first image you submitted or is it a secret?

[SpaceGhost2K]

What was the first image you submitted or is it a secret?

It's not really a secret, but I'm not going to post the image. It's an assortment of cartoon characters all voiced by the remarkable June Foray. I am having three plates made. One for myself, one for Christoph who did the art, and one to sell on eBay. The money from the eBay auction will go to Child's Play and I won't auction it until the site is up because I'm hoping to do thinkgs like that to drive traffic to the site.

The cartoon characters include Granny from the Tweety cartoons, Witch Hazel, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, spy Natasha Fatale, damsel in distress Nell Fenwick, Cindy Lou Who, and the cat from Cinderella. I'm going to send all three plates to Ms. Foray for her to sign. She's like 91 or 93 or something, but still does voice work. She's one of the last people involved in the Termite Terrace-era Looney Tunes shorts (maybe THE last) and I'm afraid we will lose her one day soon.

[SpaceGhost2K]

So, just for something to talk about, put in order #1 to #10, which of the game properties up there would you like to see? MadCatz is doing plates for Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil v, but since there are other games, those properties could be included.

For me:

Street Fighter
Resident Evil
Final Fight
Okami
Onimusha
Darkstalkers
Bionic Commando
Phoenix Wright
Ghouls & Ghosts
Dynasty Warriors

Now, those are the ten I would pick. My PERSONAL ten would be:

Steel Battalion
Rival Schools
P. N. 03
Crimson Tears
Monster Hunter
Okami
Phoenix Wright
Power Stone
and if at all possible, Marvel vs. Capcom.

[SuperMonkeyHero]

I've seen the pics of the two designs for the Street Fighter IV plates. Amazon has two listed for Resident Evil 5 as well. One is listed as "Logo" the second is listed as "Characters". I pre-ordered the SF IV Faceplate from GameCrazy hopefully they get both designs.

Ed, I also talked to my pal Jeremy at The Academy of Art University here in San Francisco and he's totally willing to contribute his Photoshop skills to your faceplate project. Let me know the details when you have time.

As for the ten choices you've selected I'd agree. As for adding to my collection the designs for both the Lost Planet and Dead Rising faceplates were cool, definitely not as flashy as the Devil May Cry 4 faceplate. Aside from customs I'd probably stick with faceplates to coincide with current titles. What would be cool would be faceplates based off of some Capcom's XBLA titles like Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Super Street Fighter Turbo II HD Remix.