Next Animal Crossing may be an MMO

UK mag suggests new Wii Animal Crossing will go online

October 24, 2007

UK magazine Edge has confirmed with its 'source' that the upcoming Animal Crossing title for the Nitnendo Wii will be a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game.

A social MMO would be a change for the series, which previously put players in a village filled with non-playable characters, but allowed players on the same system to live in the same village, or for other players to visit another's village.

The level of multiplayer gameplay in Animal Crossing for the Wii has been a source of much speculation. The game was promoted in the initial announcement as one that would make use of the WiiConnect24 feature of the console. WiiConnect24 allows a console to maintain a constant connection to the Internet, even when turned off. The feature is currently used to download updates to the system's services, but could be used to allow players to visit their friends' villages.

No official announcement has been made by Nintendo on the matter. The Animal Crossing series has been quite popular on the Nintendo GameCube and DS systems, and the Wii release of the game is highly-anticipated.