To the last Animal Crossing became a worldwide phenomenon with its compelling combination of fishing, hunting, and interior design, it was only a matter of time before a large outlet attempted to capitalize on its success. Now, Ikea Taiwan has done just that by re-creating a number of pages from its iconic catalog of characters and in-game items from the Nintendo title. It posted the results on its official Facebook page.
De Animal Crossing-theme catalog is not a perfect facsimile due to the limitations of the game’s interior design options. But it’s a damn good try. I especially like how they used the colorful cast of characters of the game and their outfits almost exactly match the models from Ikea.
Of course, buying furniture at Animal Crossing does not work exactly as it does at Ikea. In Animal Crossing, shopping for furniture is a frustrating process to continually visit the store in-game and hope that the items you need to complete your collection are in stock. But in Ikea is shopping for furniture instead a frustrating process of being forced to run around the labyrinthine interior to grab the one item you need. Of crucial importance there are at least meatballs.
Here is a selection of the pictures that Ikea Taiwan shared on their Facebook page next to the pages from their real life catalog. If you view them on desktop, you can hover over them to see the difference between the two versions.
Ikea is simply the last company to include them Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which one PR week said back in May it had become a “PG paradise for markets” (nasty, I know). Sure, maybe it’s a little sad to see corporate brands hijack a simple game over indecent harvesting of an island’s natural resources to pay off a surplus mortgage that you were tricked into taking out by capitalist boss Tom Nook, but what else did you expect?
