Wanted: Animal Crossing expert to build virtual island for US$2,500
A local food chain has gone viral for its job posting to build an Animal Crossing island, but it’s just one of several companies to join the “Animal Crossing economy”
If you’re a big Animal Crossing fan, a company in Hong Kong might be offering your dream job.
Yummy House, a local food chain in the city, recently drew a lot of attention online when it offered HK$20,000 (US$2,580) for a job building a virtual island inside the hit new Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The requirements? You need to be creative, have artistic skills and have 100 hours playing the game under your belt.
With its new job posting, Yummy House has joined a growing “Animal Crossing economy,” in which people offer all kinds of services in the game that lets players build and decorate virtual islands, catch butterflies and trade veggies. It’s the result of the latest entry in Nintendo’s family-friendly Animal Crossing franchise becoming an overnight sensation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yummy House saw building its own Animal Crossing island as a fun way to promote the brand. Company managing director Kevin Shea said most of its customers are between the ages of 20 and 35.
“These [past] few months, Hong Kong has been very bad,” Shea said, adding that the employment situation has been worsening in the city. “We wanted to create a job for people that cannot go outside to work or those who lost their jobs.”
The position proved to be unexpectedly popular. The company has already received 300 applications. Most applicants are local, but some hail all the way from Japan and Taiwan. The job listing was also picked up by Japanese and Taiwanese media, spreading the brand’s name.
Some businesses are targeting fashion-conscious players who want to flaunt their virtual outfits. Similar to previous Animal Crossing games, New Horizons lets players design their own clothes, signs and flags. These can then be shared through an in-game shop or QR code.
How the QR code conquered China
The esports company is also looking for an Animal Crossing specialist to design and construct virtual islands. Cyber Games Arena said it will provide a Switch for the part-time job, but it declined to share anything more about the position.
The Animal Crossing economy seems to be making headway even in China, where it isn’t officially available thanks to strict gaming regulations. The game is hugely popular in mainland China as scalpers have taken to importing game cards and selling them on ecommerce platforms.
(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba.)