Nintendo currently uninterested in building a metaverse

eurogamer.net:

Earlier this month, Nintendo was asked by investors for its views on a couple of current industry buzzwords: NFTs and the metaverse.

Now, an official English-language version of Nintendo's answer has been published, giving the company's clear and accurate response.

In short, don't expect a Nintendo metaverse anytime soon — unless you think «metaverse» really does just refer to a game like Animal Crossing. As for NFTs, Nintendo had nothing to say at all.

«The metaverse has captured the attention of many companies around the world, and it has great potential,» Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said. «When the concept of the metaverse is introduced in the media, games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons are sometimes brought up as examples. In that sense, the metaverse is of interest to us.

»But at this point in time, there is no easy way to define specifically what kinds of surprises and enjoyment the metaverse can deliver to our consumers. As a company that provides entertainment, our main emphasis is on ways to deliver fresh surprises and fun to our consumers. We might consider something if we can find a way to convey a 'Nintendo approach' to the metaverse that many people can readily understand, but we do not think that is the situation at the present time."

It's interesting to consider Animal Crossing as the closest Nintendo has come to a «metaverse» — or that some consider this at all similar to the generally-accepted definition of what a metaverse may one day actually be.

Despite its huge popularity in 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a relatively simplistic life simulation game with online multiplayer and some limited support for user-generated content. Development on new updates has now ceased.