Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced that it’ll be spending $130 million on building a metaverse – a fancy name for a virtual world – for each of its IPs going forward. The company aims to connect with its fans and business partners via the venture. First reported by Video Games Chronicle, Bandai Namco outlined its plans with shareholders on Tuesday, stating that its ‘IP axis strategy’ will enable customers to “enjoy a wide range of entertainment on an IP axis, as well as frameworks that leverage Bandai Namco’s distinctive strengths to fuse physical products and venues with digital elements.”
What Bandai Namco metaverse will entail
“Through the IP Metaverse, we will establish communities among Bandai Namco and fans, as well as among fans themselves,” Bandai Namco explained. “Through these communities and content, we will build deep, broad, multifaceted connections that continue for long periods of time, and we will focus on the quality of those connections. In this way, we will work to maximize IP value over the medium to long term.”
Building this metaverse will form a core part of Bandai Namco’s business strategy over the next three years. The $130 million (¥15 billion) will be used to establish its data foundation and build content for the metaverse. The company didn’t say what kind of content it has planned but it’ll talk more about that in due course.
In other news, Battlefield 2042 players are so disgruntled that they are petitioning for full refunds. And in case you missed it, the PS5 and PS4 are both getting software betas today that will focus on new voice commands and community-requested Open Parties feature. Do note that, like the last software beta, this one will be limited to selected participants in the U.S., Canada, Japan, U.K., Germany, and France. We’ll update our readers when the update is widely rolled out.
[Source: VGC]
