According to Switch Online leaks, Nintendo may be working on a social sim

It seems no one is safe from the recent leaks hitting the industry. The massive Game Freak leak revealed all sorts of details that Pokémon fans wished they knew, and some they didn’t want to know.

What’s next for Nintendo after the Pokémon leaks?

Nintendo has resorted to legal remedies in cases like this before, and Pokemon feels like its biggest leak yet.

We’ve now started to see Nintendo Switch Online playtest leaks that very few, exclusive people have been privy to. While it’s nowhere near the scale of the Game Freak leak, it gives us a glimpse into what Nintendo is working on, and fans have speculated that it could be anything from a Metaverse to an MMO to a Strand game.

The leaks came almost immediately after the playtest went live. And even though players were asked not to reveal any details, Nintendo should have known that this was inevitable. Based on what some players have shared despite being prompted, it appears that Nintendo is testing features for a massive online game that is similar to an MMO. However, various features suggest that a lot of cooperation between players will be required, which is also similar to a strand game.

Players have to develop an entire planet. Each player receives a beacon that, when placed, marks a safe zone for themselves. You can interact with objects and resources as you wish in this area. Other players cannot edit things in your beacon and vice versa. Anything outside of the beacons is fair game. The goal seems to be the development of the entire planet.

There is also a social hub for players, currently known as Dev Core. Here, players can, among other things, interact with others, level up, and obtain items they need for the game. There are also details of a level up system and a reward system based on progress made.

User-generated content will also play a role in this game. You can create and present different types of content, but it’s currently unclear what that means. Maybe levels like in Mario Maker or islands like in Animal Crossing.

As you might expect, Nintendo is already working hard to crack down on these leaks, as leaked images are gradually disappearing from Twitter. The prospect of a Nintendo social sim seems quite tempting, especially since the company has traditionally stayed away from it or made the online components quite complicated.