Bandai Namco Group posted its mid-year report on February 8, 2022, and one significant point in its new three-year plan is the "Metaverse."
As the corporate buzzword of choice over the last couple of years, "metaverse" can mean many different things. The most common concept raised in connection to the term is a virtual social space where people can interact, work, and play together. Visions of fiction like Ready Player One and an evolved Second Life are brought up when tech executives discuss the idea.
To Bandai Namco, a metaverse is a key element in its "new framework for connecting with fans." To that end, the company pledged to "develop a metaverse for each IP", anticipating "virtual spaces" and using the company's ability to "fuse physical products and venues with digital elements." Through this "IP Metaverse," Bandai Namco plans to establish connections with and between fans in communities that can last over long periods and thus "maximize IP value over the medium to long term."
The company did not cite any specific projects or properties that it would begin its Bandai Namco metaverse experiments on. That said, it is allocating 15 billion Yen (about $130 million USD) to laying the groundwork for a "data foundation" to create content for it over the next three years. It'll also commit 25 billion Yen (about $217 million USD) to "New IP creation" and related projects.
Notably, though mentions of the metaverse were rife, Bandai Namco did not mention any specific connections to blockchain games, cryptocurrency, or NFTs in its report. Bandai Namco executives have mentioned these things previously, and the company has partnered with NFT producers to sell NFTs based on Pac-Man, but how and whether such trends would play a role in this plan remains to be seen.
Bandai Namco owns and publishes a large catalog of IP, including the upcoming Elden Ring, and the Ridge Racer, Soul Calibur, Tekken, and Mobile Suit Gundam franchises. The company also announced an organizational change that will see the trade name of legendary anime studio Sunrise changed to Bandai Namco Filmworks.
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