Nintendo's president said the games company will hold off expanding into the metaverse until such time as it can be sure the medium will deliver the "surprise and delight" its gamers expect.
- The comments by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa were made during an earnings news conference on Thursday, Reuters reported.
- This comes a week after another giant of the Japanese game industry, PS author Ken Kutaragi, spoke out against the metaverse, calling it "isolating" and VR headsets "jaded."
- Contrary to this hesitancy of the metaverse, in mid-January Microsoft acquired game developer Activision for €XNUMX billion, the largest gaming deal ever, claiming the move would "lay the groundwork for the metaverse." . This agreement is currently under review by the FTC.
- Historically, Nintendo has been overly protective of its intellectual property (IP) and prefers to keep it in-house rather than license it to third parties. About expanding Nintendo's empire through licensing, Furukawa said, "It wouldn't be an advantage to suddenly attract people who don't have the Nintendo way of thinking."
- This has greatly angered Nintendo investors, who want the company to expand its intellectual property licensing regime and embrace mobile gaming.
- The company has violently pursued NFTs and crypto projects that employ their character likenesses.
- Despite Nintendo's noncommittal stance on the Metaverse, there are plenty of Metaverse hints holding it in its basket. Nintendo represents about five percent of Solactive's Metaverse Index, which is traded on the German markets. The action has also been called a "sloppy" and also an "underrated" metaverse game.