Japanese game and toy company Bandai Namco Holdings spent 15 billion yen ($130 million) to develop their metaverse, called Mobile Suit Gundam Metaverse. This new metaverse will feature some signature characters from the Gundam franchise.
Announced back in February, this is yet another example of tech giants stepping into virtual platforms to utilize the still-forming metaverse customer base. The demand for such virtual experiences is still rising after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mobile Suit Gundam Metaverse incorporates games, videos, live music, and other content. It will link with physical sites operated by the Bandai Namco group of companies such as gaming arcades and plastic model shops.
From it’s debut on Japanese TV four decades back, Gundam’s tales of space-faring, sword-fighting robots have attracted many people and keep attracting many more. Besides, Bandai Namco Entertainment (BNE) is considered responsible for the group’s digital businesses; and will be leading the metaverse project. The unit has been pushing to improve its computer graphic technology and data analysis as it develops video games.
Hinting the possibility of other IP’s metaverses, Bandai Namco President Masaru Kawaguchi said the following about Banda Namco’s IP metaverse project:
“[The Gundam Metaverse will be] a mechanism for us to be more deeply connected with fans. It will become possible to connect intellectual property-specific metaverses in the future.”
BNE Managing Director Koji Fujiwara will be responsible for converging workforce and commercial resources to promote the project, fittingly so. He is known within the group as its “chief Gundam officer” due to his experience producing plastic Gundam models.
The company has been promoting its business in the virtual space. BNE invested in U.S. avatar creation startup Genies in 2020 to learn about the NFT ecosystem and produce NFTs for the company’s famous Pac-Man back in 2021.
Bandai Namco has not given the specifics about its forecast on the revenue from the Gundam franchise metaverse. The $130 million metaverse investment will also cover the creation of a database to converge Bandai Namco’s customer data.
