First and foremost, like most Nintendo games, it has a universal appeal that traverses the common barriers of age, language and prior gaming experience that are typically present in more conventional games like first person shooters.Īnimal Crossing is also completely family friendly (its PEGI rating is 3+), making it an ideal way to pass the time when forcefully stuck at home with your relatives for months on end. Its brand positioning ensured it was poised for success in lockdownĪnimal Crossing has a brand positioning that resonates particularly well when placed in the context of a worldwide pandemic. #AnimalCrossing: New Horizons is now available! We hope to see you traveling to new horizons and enjoying your island getaways! ?️ /9KlEeWi8mm Here’s my take on how a mixture of branding, marketing and game design has helped to make this game such a hit, all the while being given a big boost by these unprecedented circumstances.
However, the 2020 Animal Crossing phenomenon wasn’t purely brought about by coincidence – after all, the franchise is almost twenty years in the making. As of mid-May, 13.4 million copies had been sold worldwide, half of which were acquired via digital download, outselling all of its prequels combined in some markets. Little did Nintendo know that this delay would coincide its release with the coronavirus outbreak, rocketing the much-anticipated New Horizons from modest success to outright superstardom.ġ.8 million copies were sold in Japan within the first three days of its release and it secured its place as the third-biggest Nintendo launch in the US, beating other popular titles like Mario, Zelda and Pokémon. In April, I wrote about how the global gaming industry was being affected by the coronavirus outbreak, touching briefly on the extraordinary popularity of the latest title in the Animal Crossing series: New Horizons.Īnnounced in June 2019, it was initially intended for release in late 2019, but the launch was delayed until March 2020, a move which Nintendo bosses claimed was to “ensure the game was the best it could be”.
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