Latter patent points to a new Animal Crossing and mentions a Wii 3D. New patents lodged by the Big N offer up some insight as to their future plans. The most in depth of these is the patent for “Massively Single Player Games”, which inclu...
New patents lodged by the Big N offer up some insight as to their future plans. The most in depth of these is the patent for “Massively Single Player Games”, which include such concepts as one players actions in their own game impacting on someone else’s world, in a manner eerily similar to the quirky Animal Crossing series, as well as such a huge number of other titles not made by Nintendo themselves, from Farmville to Demon’s Souls to Noby Noby Boy.
Despite the potential dubiousness of the patent’s validity, it does offer an interesting look at where Nintendo feels their audience are. They target people who “want to play games that are more dynamic, not-based on Al and not-pre-scripted like multiplayer games, however, dont want to deal with other people, appreciate the privacy it provides,” which given the low percentage of Wiis that ever made it online, might be a fair appraisal.
The patent also refers to a potential “Wii 3D” system to run these games on, something that Nintendo have publicly expressed their disinterest in since the patent was filed back in 2010. Which is not even to mention the number of other weird patents the company have filed but never done anything with, such as the inflatable horse saddle attachment for the Wii and a mood lighting system similar to f.lux.
The appearance of Wii 3D in the patent does indicate that the idea was still on Nintendo’s mind as recently as last year, although given the 3DS’s recent performance it mightn’t be unfair to say that the company dodged a bullet by going for the Wii U instead. Speaking of the Wii’s successor, a trademark filed by the company for the name “Wii U” has all but confirmed that it will be the system’s final name, so we should start preparing to look embarrassed when we bring it up to the counter sometime next year.
Although as Fusible cleverly notes, Nintendo doesn’t seem to have yet gotten a hold of WiiU.com or any of its permutations. Whoops!
Source: Gamespot
No more account required (to buy it)
From Mario to Zelda, to Splatoon to Donkey Kong. Everything on Nintendo Music.