Tokyo (AFP)

Visit to the museum or to friends, idyllic sunsets: millions of people confined by the pandemic in the world dream of it. And some take this breath of fresh air, virtual, in the latest version of the video game Animal Crossing from Japanese Nintendo, which broke in March the record for the best-selling game in a month.

The game, in shimmering colors and rounded shapes, allows you to develop your personal island, cultivate fruit, build your house, maintain animals, or even visit the creations of your virtual friends.

"At present, the climate is always very heavy on television, but in the game it is as if none of this is happening, there is an atmosphere of calm and tranquility", explains AFP Kanae Miya, a 28 year old Japanese woman who bought this new Animal Crossing album the day after its release on March 20.

Chance of the calendar, the launch of Animal Crossing New Horizons coincided with the start of confinements in Europe, quickly followed by the United States, while the Japanese are asked to limit their movements as much as possible since the beginning of April.

Designed exclusively for the Nintendo Switch console, it instantly became a social media phenomenon, with players sharing their creations after hours spent developing their islands.

But more than the creative aspect, it is its community side which largely contributes to its success, by giving the possibility of recreating in a different way the social links put in brackets because of the pandemic.

"There is an alignment between this game and this period of history. A game thought around the principle of developing communities and creating links was the right game at the right time", considers Mat Piscatella, analyst at the research firm NDP.

Animal Crossing was at the top of the world online sales of video games with more than 5 million copies sold in March, breaking the record for the best-selling game in a month, according to the firm Superdata.

- "The child who is in us" -

However, its success is not only due to confinement alone. Because, like all Nintendo licenses, Animal Crossing, whose first album was released almost 20 years ago, relies on a very loyal community of players.

"I discovered it on Nintendo DS then I played it on the Wii and on the 3DS. So I was waiting for the release, it is even the reason why I bought a Switch", confides Audrey Moussard, 23 years old, "gameuse" French since childhood.

The game sold 1.88 million physical copies in three days in Japan, which was not yet under a state of emergency, according to the Japanese specialist magazine Famitsu.

Although far from the mythical franchises of Nintendo, like Super Mario, Pokemon or Zelda, Animal Crossing was a commercial success even before the records of the last opus, the previous four having sold a total of nearly 24 million copies.

"However, that the new Animal Crossing sells at this point, even taking into account the containment, is a surprise," concedes Japanese specialist journalist Meikou Kawamura.

This kind of game allows "to capture players and support them in their maturity. Nintendo appeals to the child who is in us, like what Disney can do for example", analyzes the expert of the world digital Laurent Michaud.

A strategy that allowed Nintendo to absorb the shock of the arrival, at the end of the 90s, of Sony then Microsoft, with PlayStation and Xbox consoles always more powerful, where its competitor at the time, the Japanese Sega , could not cope.

Nintendo "played differentiation and innovation. Its consoles are made to enhance these games, which in turn allow it to differentiate both in content and in quality," explains Laurent Michaud.

With games often thought "both for the casual player and the avid gamer", insists Meikou Kawamura, which allow the Japanese group to capitalize on its success.

© 2020 AFP