Nintendo's Mysterious Play Test Offers Window Into its Next Innovation

Earlier this month, Nintendo shared plans to recruit Nintendo Switch Online subscribers for a mysterious playtest. The details were scant, but it didn’t stop thousands of players from applying for such a rare opportunity. Now, just a couple days ahead of when the playtest is set to begin, leakers have provided the public a peak at what’s in store for the lucky few who made it into the program.

On October 23, the approximately 10,000 players who made it into Nintendo’s so-called “Switch Online: Playtest Program” will allegedly play an MMO-type game developed by the game company. This mystery game is set on a digital planet divided into small cells that players can help craft, according to a leaked description of the game. There will also be a social hub where players can congregate, obtain in-game items and share user-generated content with others.

“In this game, the goal is to work with others to fully ‘develop’ a massive, expansive planet by utilizing creativity and farmed resources,” he said. “As you progress across the planet, you'll discover new lands, enemies, and resources that will become essential to your journey.”

Some additional specifics have leaked regarding how players will accomplish this goal, as well as screenshots of what the game will look like. According to these visuals, this unnamed game doesn’t appear to use any recognizable characters or iconography from Nintendo’s legacy franchises. The purpose of Nintendo’s Playtest is “to test the boundaries of mass multiplayer functionality and gameplay on our servers,” according to leaked text about the game.

Whatever this project ends up being, it represents a big step towards modernity for Nintendo. The company has long been conservative when it comes to embracing more traditional online multiplayer games and features. The Switch, for example, still doesn’t have plug-and-play mic support for online games. And Friend Codes are still required to add others online, rather than a simpler username system like most other services.

Nintendo testing an MMO also opens an entire new door of possibilities. Nintendo has a track record of taking established genres it’s long refrained from and layering on exceptional twists and smart changes that make it all its own. Nintendo’s first open-world game for example, 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, remains one of the genre’s greatest games ever. Splatoon, Nintendo’s foray into the competitive online shooter, is one of the most imaginative experiences one can play with friends.

It’s an exciting time for forward-looking Nintendo fans. For decades, fans have dreamed about Nintendo making strides into the MMO genre, particularly alongside Game Freak and The Pokémon Company. While none of what’s been revealed about the playtest suggests any connection to such a dream project, Nintendo looking into this kind of technology makes it more of a reality than ever before. The company’s sudden interest in the large-scale multiplayer genre also coincides with the impending release of its next console, the Switch successor. With new games on the horizon, this Playtest could be setting up for future titles.

While participants in the upcoming test didn’t sign any official documentation prohibiting them from sharing these details, Nintendo has issued takedowns on posts showcasing the game on social media websites. But with the playtest getting underway so soon, this will likely be the first of many insights the public will get into this peculiar project.

The Playtest is set to begin October 23 and runs until November 5. It will be a 2.2 gigabyte download for participants, a smaller download compared to the typical full-sized Switch game.

For the Nintendo superfans who didn’t get into this month’s playtest, there’s some other new (albeit bizarre) Nintendo products to check out. The Alarmo, a toyetic Nintendo-themed alarm clock that tracks users’ sleeping habits, was released last week.