Bandai Namco has shown great interest in the metaverse concept, to the point where it plans on spending a ton to do so.

The publisher has revealed plans to develop its own “IP Metaverse” to help fans of its game interact with one another. The company’s mid-term plan from April 2022 to March 2025 (via shareholder meeting) includes the IP Axis Strategy, which consists of three main goals:

• Connecting with fans through its IP.
• enhancing IP value.
• make its projects span worldwide to improve sales outside of Japan.

“Bandai Namco will develop a metaverse for each IP as a new framework for connecting with fans.

In this IP Metaverse, we are anticipating virtual spaces that 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.

We are aiming for open frameworks that provide venues for connections with and among fans and business partners. Through the IP Metaverse, we will establish communities among Bandai Namco and fans, as well as among fans themselves. 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.”

Bandai Namco wishes to spend US$130 million to implement this idea, that’s a ton of money for what is essentially the Bandai Namco version of PlayStation Home or Second Life. Though to the company’s credit, it owns a TON of IPs to make it filled up and packed. These include all the shonen anime IPs it’s made games on from One Piece to My Hero Academia, all the IPs in its Super Robot Wars titles, Pac-Man, Mappy, Klonoa, SoulCalibur, Tekken, and a lot more.