Animal Crossing for the Wii will be an MMO/social networking title. It’s no great surprise – in a few short years, Animal Crossing has become one of Nintendo’s most-loved and top selling franchises (over seven million copies sold), particularly in Japan. Nintendo refers to the title as a ‘communications game’ rather than a videogame, and playing already depends on real-world timekeeping, weather patterns, social conventions, and above all else economic interactions. In almost every way, Animal Crossing has always been the perfect MMO concept, and this development is simply a fulfilment of that promise.

The game has yet to be officially announced (although Nintendo has at least confirmed that an Animal Crossing game is in development for the Wii) and so details are not so much thin on the ground as nonexistent. But there are some indications of where the game will take the series: Katsuya Eguchi, head of development for the project, has made relatively non-committal noises thus far, but hinted that connection to mobile phones and PCs (for basic functions such as messages) would be included in an interview as far back as last year. Animal Crossing’s earlier iterations already feature travelling between towns, the ability for players to live in the same town (though not to play in it at the same time), and the ability to design your own clothing – and to sell it.

Of similar import is the imminent arrival of an official DS flash card, which will initially just be available to allow Nintendo to sell the back catalogue of Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games. The uncontrollable homebrew and piracy communities that use the DS rely on similar devices for their more nefarious ends, but this should, in the long term, allow Nintendo to exercise some control over at least the former through the simple step of offering a path to publisher-supported content. Compared to the slightly vague WiiWare proposition, this has the possibility to revolutionise homebrew development – at least in terms of distribution and the possibility of mainstream success – but how far the notoriously controlling Japanese giant will allow that community the creative freedom it requires to flourish will only be seen in practice. And before getting too excited, the device will launch exclusively for old Game Boy content, initially.

These are two moves that might seem insignificant in the whirlwinds of Halo 3, Home and the AAA titles that will dominate Christmas headlines. But grandmaster Nintendo is already thinking many positions ahead, and these two announcements, when made, will only consolidate this winning stance.

atsuya Eguchi also discussed how his team continues exploring potential ways to take advantage of the WiiConnect24 feature such as allowing friends to visit other towns or leave messages while the machine is in standby mode.^[4] As of mid-2008, blogs such as Video Games Blogger have predicted that Nintendo might well officially unveil the game at E3 in July 2008, along with educated guesses about likely included features.^[5][6] Additionally, the 2008 Release Schedule portion of Nintendo of Japan’s April-December financial results statement has forecasted a 2008 release for the game.

Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Platform(s)	Wii
Genre(s)	Social simulation