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Discussion The reporting of Nintendo's interest in NFT is highly sus [UPDATE: debunked]

fwd-bwd

Bob-omb
Founder
The only source of the alleged Furukawa comment on NFT was that one single tweet from David Gibson. I followed his quick-fire Nintendo Q&A transcriptions every earning report, and sometimes found them inaccurate or incomplete after comparing them to the official account or press reports. This could be another one of those misses.

And of course VGC wrote a whole article based on just one tweet without any attempts to verify it (per their usual MO), and the internet gleefully piled on. I, a mere schmo on a gaming forum, somehow was able to locate more credible sources on this Q&A, such as the following Sankei Shimbun report, in which Furukawa commented on the metaverse but no mention of NFT whatsoever:

また、インターネット上で現実に近い体験ができる仮想空間「メタバース」市場への参入について「大きな可能性を秘めた分野」としつつ、「新鮮な驚きや楽しさを提供する任天堂らしいアプローチが見つかれば検討するが、現時点では難しい」との見方を示した。

Machine translation:

As for entering the "metaverse" market, which is a virtual space that allows users to experience something similar to reality on the Internet, he said, "It is a field with great potential," but added, "If we can find a Nintendo approach that provides fresh surprises and fun, we will consider it, but at the moment it is difficult."

In the following Reuters story, Furukawa also only commented on the metaverse but not NFT:

The idea of the metaverse, or an immersive online world where users game, shop and work, is driving industry investment by players such as Facebook's parent Meta (FB.O). Furukawa said Nintendo could see the possibility of the metaverse but would only consider it when the "surprise and fun" that is the firm's focus can be delivered.

And this pay-walled Nikkei report, as least in the preview section that I can read, likewise only mentioned the metaverse.

Considering David Gibson's tweet and the press reporting, it seems to me that an analyst probably asked Furukawa to comment on the hot topics of metaverse and NFT, and he chose to side-step the NFT and only answer about the metaverse. Unless there's a credible source validating Gibson's claim, I'm not convinced that Furukawa—and by extension Nintendo—expressed any interest in the NFT.
 
Either way, translated from business speak it equates to "no we are not interested". They could have asked him if they were interested in moving to the moon and establishing the first ever Galatic Games Federation and the answer would have been exactly the same lol
 
Either way, translated from business speak it equates to "no we are not interested". They could have asked him if they were interested in moving to the moon and establishing the first ever Galatic Games Federation and the answer would have been exactly the same lol
Exactly this
 
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This is the danger with the tweeted translations of a live conference call that's going to have an official transcript in a few day's anyway.

But obviously, tying another game publisher to NFTs is going to drive hits and engagement so writers and YouTubers will be like "let's a go!"
 
I work for a large corporation, and everyone is saying it's the future and investing in it. As much as I don't like the metaverse, it's something that these heavyweights are keeping their eye on.
 
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You have to be delusional to think that Nintendo, the company that most strictly enforces their copyright and diligently protects their IP, is going to get involved with any kind of system that potentially gives regular people the "rights" to stuff they create. They'd probably just mint stuff and give it to themselves lmao.

But yeah, they're not interested in NFT's at all. Pretty sure they know it's BS to stay away from. The metaverse stuff interest makes some sense since it's basically just a crappy MMO. They'd probably buy a crappy digital ad or something and move on with their lives.
 
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Glad to see Nintendo seems to be not interested in NFTs I sure hope Nintendo Twitter does some research and doesn’t jump gun haha
 
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It's good that this was just a mistranslation, but also, when it comes to NFTs I don't trust any corporation to do the right thing. These are profit-driven businesses and their decisions will always reflect that. This does not mean that I think that Nintendo will get into NFTs, but also, that I understand the eagerness to get mad or frustrated with them over this, as I would with any other corporation
 
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Thank God for that, I was wondering what their response to the inevitable NFT question would be.

Really hope Nintendo stays well clear of it, I can’t support any company who supports this garbage.
 
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Nintendo's official transcript
Machine translation (with minor edits from me) of Nintendo's official earning report Q&A transcript regarding the NFT/metaverse:

Q: What is your approach to the metaverse and NFT? You may already have worked on some aspect of this in "Animal Crossing: New Horizon”. Please tell us as much as you can about the metaverse, which has great potential for the future.

Furukawa: The metaverse is attracting the attention of many companies around the world, and we believe that it has great potential. In addition, as the metaverse is introduced in the media, software such as "Animal Crossing" is mentioned as an example, and I am interested in that sense.

On the other hand, it is not easy to define what kind of surprises and fun can be provided to customers by the metaverse at this point in time. As a company that provides entertainment, we place the utmost importance on how we can deliver fresh surprises and fun to our customers. If we can find a way to communicate our "Nintendo approach" to many people in an easy-to-understand manner, we may be able to consider something, but we do not believe that this is the case at this time.

So no, Nintendo is not interested in NFT, and doesn't think metaverse is ready either.
 


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