Bandai Namco, a game developer and publishing company involved in the production of toys from several intellectual properties (IPs), has revealed more information about its $130-million metaverse gambit. The company says this new initiative will be based on its Gundam IP, being one of the first instances in the announced IP Axis strategy of the company, which envisions a multi-IP hub of multiverses.
Bandai Namco begins building its metaverse with Gundam
Bandai Namco, a Japanese game development and publishing company, gave more details on the future of its $130 million investment in the Metaverse. The company has confirmed that the first IP to receive the metaverse treatment will be Gundam, the popular giant robot universe with multiple video game, manga, and anime adaptations. First hinted at in an announcement last month, the company took advantage of the third Gundam conference to reveal this news to the world.
According to Bandai Namco:
[This metaverse will be a] platform of opportunities for Gundam fans around the world to come together to converse and connect across a variety of categories.
Fans of the franchise will be able to form part of different communities that include music, video games, anime, and even Gunpla, the models that mimic different robots present in the franchise.
Additionally, the company also revealed that users will be able to scan their Gunpla models so they can showcase them in the Metaverse and compete against other Gunpla users in battle.
User Content Is King
Bandai Namco’s first metaverse instance will be used as a device to interest more companies to promote the entry of other companies into the Gundam market inside of the metaverse. In this way, other companies might have the opportunity of offering their Gundam-themed products with the approval of Bandai Namco.
However, Bandai Namco’s focus on users is also important in this upcoming system. According to the announcement, users will also be able to produce their own Gundam content, in the form of a client-to-client (C2C) business. This feature aims to allow users to earn revenue from their own creations, thus enabling a sustainable economy established between content creators and consumers. On this, Bandai Namco said that it “expects new Gundam ventures to be created and this will lead to further expansion of Gundam IP co-created with fans.”
Other companies have also recognized the importance of rewards and user-generated content economies as a way of improving the longevity of a particular game proposal. This is the case with Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, who voiced his support for these new features in a letter written in January.
