>What is inherently wrong with co-branded product? it points towards brand dilution and financial straw-grasping. it indicates that the stewards of the IP no l

>What is inherently wrong with co-branded product? it points towards brand dilution and financial straw-grasping. it indicates that the stewards of the IP no longer care about the thing being meaningful and the release schedule is now no longer ordered to increase impact and brand value, but rather to extract whatever value has been accumulated via customer good-will thus-far. you can see this trend/process occur in just about any long-standing fantasy/fiction IP. Some IPs are built to push product. Evangelion and Gundam are designed to shove plastic toys out the door since day 1. Some IPs slowly evolve into that product push once main-line income dwindles; those are the ones that tend to upset folks with that sort of behavior, and frankly it cheapens the brand appeal by reducing exclusivity. In other words : niche appeal exists, and generally the move towards synergistic advertisement partnerships over quality generally signals the corporate desire for generating mass market appeal at the sake of sacrificing the niche crowd.