Nintendo President Says Metaverse Is Future But Company Will Still Wait

Nintendo’s president spoke about the company’s plans for the metaverse in a Q&A with investors.

At the event, Furukawa spoke about the potential of the metaverse, noting how the media compared it to Nintendo’s hit life simulator Animal Crossing.

“The metaverse has attracted the attention of many companies around the world and we believe it has a lot of potential. Also, when the media mention the metaverse, they sometimes refer to game software like Animal crossing as an example in this regard. So of course we are interested in that,” she said.

While Furukawa appears to be optimistic about the potential of the metaverse, he says Nintendo isn’t ready to start exploring that possibility just now.

As stated, the maker of well-known games like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda doesn’t follow trends. That is, Nintendo needs to find its own metaverse strategy.

“It’s hard to define what kind of surprise and fun the metaverse can bring to our customers. As a company that promotes entertainment, we have to think about how to offer new surprises and fun. We are working on how to fit this in as the metavese,” he stated.

Furthermore, the executive added that the company is looking for a unique approach, but the details are unclear:

“If we could figure out a way to communicate our ‘Nintendo approach’ to many people in an accessible way, we might have something to consider. But we don’t think that’s the case at the moment.”

In January, Microsoft announced it would buy major game publisher Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. At the time, Microsoft called the move “a cornerstone of the metaverse.”

In the same month, Take-Two Interactive, developer of Grand Theft Auto (GTA), bought game maker NFT Zynga. Its CEO, Strauss Zelnick, noted that the company sees a “Web3 opportunity.”

Many traditional game publishers are also experimenting with the NFT space. This includes Ubisoft, which uses Tezos-based NFT items in games; Konami, which sells NFT collectibles based on its classic games; and Square Enic Square Enix, which disclosed its plans to develop NFT games.