There is no doubt THE confinement game. Released on March 11 on Nintendo Switch, in the middle of a coronavirus crisis, the video game Animal Crossing : New Horizons enjoyed monster popularity. The concept is simple: on an idyllic desert island, with a cute universe, you play as a character responsible for setting up and managing a small community. In six weeks, it had already sold more than 13 million copies! At the start of June, it was even the most sold game in France. But beyond sales, Animal Crossing has become a real societal and cultural phenomenon, in front of a platform of expression more than a simple video game.
Virtual museum and pixelated dresses
It was first and foremost the “lambda” players who demonstrated their creativity. In full containment, the virtual world ofAnimal Crossing sometimes used to replace canceled events in real life : birthdays, weddings, funerals, graduation ceremonies… Thanks to the online game, it is indeed possible to welcome your friends on your island or to visit theirs and, with written or voice chat, you can chat with all people on the same island.
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Attracted to success and the large community ofAnimal Crossing, brands therefore seized the opportunity to communicate differently while confinement blocked people at home. For example, Marc Jacobs and Valentino, the two famous haute couture houses, have recreated in the game emblematic clothes from their collections. Thanks to a QR code, players can download them for free and go pick up apples or fish for sea bass in style!
Museums, closed due to the coronavirus, have also taken overAnimal Crossing. The Getty Museum has reproduced masterpieces to make them accessible, in a highly pixelated version, to players who would like to decorate their home. The Museum of Angers has organized virtual tours of the museum on all the islands to tell the story of the dinosaur fossils that players must reconstruct and put them into perspective with their own collection.
But that’s not all ! There is even a TV show made directly in Animal Crossing ! “Animal Talking” is copied on the “late shows” in the American style, these entertainment shows that parade stars on sale in good humor. It was Gary Whitta, a film writer, who came up with this idea. After a few days of hard work in the game, he set up a fake TV set with game objects. So there is a camera, a sofa for the guests, a desk for the presenter, green plants… The show is filmed through the game and broadcast live on Twitch. “Animal Talking” even has its own credits.
In his two-hour virtual show, Gary Whitta receives guests. They just have to have the game to connect and join the presenter’s island. So we see their little avatar sit on the sofa and we can hear them talking through the island’s private voice chat. Some celebrities have lent themselves to the game, like Elijah Wood, the actor who plays Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, come to tell his passion for Animal Crossing. And then the show also hosts live music, again thanks to voice chat. Sting has presented in “Animal Talking” his latest single, a new version of the song from The Police “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”.
Fortnite too
Animal Crossing is not the only game transformed into a media or cultural platform. The other striking example of this confinement is Fortnite. With 250 million players, it is the most popular game of the moment. The “battle royale” mode, in which you have to be the last survivor of a group of a hundred players dropped on an island, permanently brings together players of all ages and from all countries. But in recent months, there have been other occupations within the game, including operations in partnership with associations such as the Red Cross and WWF.
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And since the start of the coronavirus crisis, this has gone even further since Fortnite hosts… concerts. The craziest took place on April 24: Travis Scott, American superstar rapper, organized a virtual show in the game. An unprecedented performance of ten minutes, recorded beforehand by the artist and virtually transcribed through of a giant avatar of the artist. Some twelve million players were there and made their characters dance instead of killing those of others.
This success prompted Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite, to go even further. From now on, “Royal Festivals” are organized regularly in the game around cultural events. For example, there were “DJ sets” by Steve Aoki and Deadmau5 or, more recently, the preview preview, via giant screens installed on the playing field, of the trailer for Tenet, the next film by Christopher Nolan.
