Nintendo has, via their financial reports, announced some release dates for the coming year. Scrolling down the list of first-party games due in the Japanese market sees familiar titles like Metroid Prime 3, Mario Kart Wii, Battallion Wars 2 and...oh. Animal Crossing!
CVG reports that the latest Edge magazine contains a claim from "A Japanese source" that Animal Crossing Wii will be going MMO. No details beyond that were given.
@feelmyring, Correct, current Nintendo marketing is targeted towards the system and the game will supplement that. I was just remembering the GC Animal Crossing marketing with the whole 'real-life' scenario. I think that team can make an equally great commercial marketing angle with Wii-24 which should be used with the game and the Nintendo system.
@trihunter, Looking at VGChartz (apparently not a good site, but the only one I know to look at), between GC and DS, Animal Crossing games have sold 10 million units. There can't be 100% overlap between the 7.5 mil on DS and the 2.5 on GC, but still, that's 5 million people that bought AN Animal Crossing game. I don't think it's inconceivable for their marketing to hit a couple million new people. I think this should be at least at 650, probably closer to 7 million, before any stats come out. Once futures start trading, we'll have a much better idea of what's going on with it.
trihunter, on kind of a related note, I think most of the marketing for Wii games is built into the system, not so much in the games themselves. I was talking to a friend of mine last night (who's by no means a video game guy, yet I bought him and his fiancee a Wii for a wedding present, at their request), and he mentioned to me that the reason he wanted a Wii was to feel like he was 8 and playing NES again. I think that games that demonstrate that they can recapture that feeling for gamers my age (mid 20's), will do phenomenally, and I think Animal Crossing is one of those games. I'm playing the DS version now, and loving it, for the reason my friend mentioned.
@Hmmsphil, I think a lot of people here think 5.7 million units is too low. I can speak for myself and believe this game will sell near eight million. This game will appeal to all who buy the Nintendo Wii. The game has had good marketing in the past, and I expect equal marketing in the future. A game with near-universal appeal in near-all markets that sell video games makes me think 6 million is too low.
"The Animal Crossing team has been very busy working on a variety of different projects. Actually, the Mii Channel was put together by the director of the most recent Animal Crossing game. His name is Mr. Nogami. Recently he said he really wants to get back to work on Animal Crossing again, so hopefully we'll be able to show something to people before too long."
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All 5 of the current Animal Crossing image submissions are junk.