Former Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aimé has confirmed that Animal Crossing could be the perfect blockchain game.
Blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that allows users to own and sell digital items in the form of NFTs. Many game companies have started selling their digital items as NFTs, including Konami and Atari, although this has drawn criticism from the gaming community, which many consider to be skeptical implementation. Speaking during this week’s SXSW conference, former Nintendo boss Reggie Fils-Aimé said he believes blockchain can work in the gaming world if it is implemented from a player’s perspective.
Fils-Aimé used Nintendo’s Animal Crossing title as an example, saying he believes it could appeal to players if they can profit from some of their own creations in the game. “I am a big believer in blockchain,” he said. “I think blockchain is a really fascinating technology. I am also a big believer in the concept of ‘play to own’ in video games. “I say this as a true gamer, where I could have invested 50 hours, 100 hours or even a few hundred hours on a game… but when I am ready to move on to a game title. Otherwise, is the time I spent on the previous game worth it when I can’t make money from them?
“I bet I will have some players wanting to buy my stuff here today if I want to sell my Animal Crossing island from the latest Nintendo Switch version. I want to be able to make money from it. Blockchain technology embedded in the code and being developed will allow me to do that really easily.” He added: “So I am a big believer in this technology and its potential place in the future. But I say that in that context it needs to make sense for the players, it can’t just be a developer’s approach that it’s fun or a way for them to make more money. “Ultimately, it has to be good and completely beneficial to the players, so blockchain game creators have to really understand the psychology of the players what they want to be able to make it successful.”
Nintendo said it was “interested” in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and “Metaverse” during an investor Q&A earlier this year, but suggested that they have yet to define what they can work in areas that are attractive enough to users. Reggie Fils-Aimé joined Nintendo in December 2003 as executive vice president of sales and marketing. Months later, he became known as the face of Nintendo of America, when he stood before the company’s E3 2004 press conference, which announced the legendary GameCube titles Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 2.