Nintendo might be bringing back Nintendogs

A new patent has revealed that Nintendo might be working on a new Nintendogs game, over ten years after the last game in the series was released.

Nintendo has filed a new patent that suggests the company may be working on a new Nintendogs game, more than ten years after the last game in the series was released.

Nintendogs was first released on the Nintendo DS all the way back in 2006, where it immediately became a smash hit for the company. The game went on to sell 23.96 million copies worldwide, the majority of which were reportedly bought by female DS owners according to Nintendo.

A follow-up game, titled Nintendogs + Cats, was released on the Nintendo 3DS as a launch title in 2011. The sequel sold far fewer copies than its predecessor, only moving 3.99 million units, and the series has remained dormant ever since.

Nintendogs was sold in multiple variants, including one focused on labradors. Picture: Nintendo

That could be about to change, however, thanks to the filing of a new patent from Nintendo. The patent itself is rather dry and uninteresting, describing a system to provide a better augmented reality or AR experience, but the accompanying illustrations give a hint to the future of the series.

The illustrations contained in the patent show a user using AR on their smartphone to place a dog into a real world location, where it can detect the floor and objects around it (thanks Press Start).

If the patent really is hinting at a Nintendogs revival, it wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo has dipped its toes into AR experiences on smartphones. Pokemon Go and Pikmin Bloom, developed by Niantic, both have AR modes that allow players to place Pokemon and Pikmin, respectively, into the real world to take pictures with them.

Patents sometimes use generic graphics to illustrate basic topics. Picture: USPTO

There’s not much to say that Nintendo is planning on reviving Nintendogs, but the patent isn’t the only clue. A trademark application was filed by Nintendo with the Australian Government in 2021 for the word “Nintendogs”. It was filed under Class 41, which typically covers entertainment services like video and music streaming, but also includes “game services provided online from a computer network”, which could fit the bill for an AR experience like what’s described in the patent.

In other digital pet news, Nintendo had to promise to fix the new Pokemon games, after players complained of bugs, glitches, and performance issues in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

The “buggy” Pokemon games still managed to sell 10 million copies in its first weekend on sale, 4 million of which were sold within Japan.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.