Nintendo "Unwilling" To Confirm If 88-Year-Old Grandma Has Her Own Character In Animal Crossing

Even more awesome if it is true, cause she was one of the first on my island and it will make my heart smile more when I see her at night singing happily on the brick courtyard...and stop to listen saying in my head that “this one is for you grandma”

They never comment on stuff like this so it's not much of shock.

You mean like I said all along? Not a uncommon name but far from popular.

She was the first villager I met on a tour and I kinda want her on my island, the ones I do have are a bit boring.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was true, and Nintendo simply didn't feel the need to make a worldwide acknowledgement. Maybe it was more for the development team, who knows.

While I would not be surprised it if were indeed true. I do think it was just a coincidence. Audie is just not that unusual of a name. And there are over 400 villagers in the game right? They have to use some uncommon names.

Treehouse probably thought of her when coming up for localized villager names, but I doubt the villager was created entirely with her in mind, personality and all.

Nintendo is smart, of course it isn't true, but its more fun for people to speculate and talk about.

Told ya it was just a coincidence. If it wasn't, Nintendo would just say so, it's good PR.

If it wasn't true they'd say it isn't true. This is their way of acknowledging it while avoiding any legal complications or everyone suddenly storming twitter and requesting their gramma be immortalized as a DLC character. They gain nothing from verifying it when it's already making the rounds on social media for free.

She’s in my island and I love to see her walking around with her little purse. Definitely gives some granny-vibes to me. But, as others have said: 1- if it’s a homage, it’s a Treehouse translation team homage because that’s not her original
Japanese name, and 2- they wouldn’t acknowledge it due to lawsuits and requests and etc etc etc

There are a lot of legal issues surrounding the usage of someone's name or likeness in a creative work and especially in video games. For example, if Nintendo announced it was true, the real Audie could possibly sue them for using her likeness without permission if she wanted to. She wouldn't be likely to win, but a lawsuit even being created would create bad press and have legal resources wasted.

CERO (the ESRB/PEGI of Japan) actually has a rule against using people with a real-world background in fictional media, which is why in Persona 2's remake, Adolf Hitler donned sunglasses and his name was changed to Fuhrer. If Nintendo truly did name the character after grandma Audie, it would explain why the character's Japanese name is simply Monica (plus I doubt she's all that famous in Japan anyway lol). It's really likely just a sweet thing that the translation team made happen in the Western release, and instead of Nintendo skirting around and saying "The character was not created as an homage to Buchanan (but the English translation team paid homage)" or "Although the character was not named after Buchanan, we are happy to have dedicated fans of all ages", they'd rather just leave it unsaid for fans to be happy.

Why would they comment. Remember the legal, any resemblance to persons dead or alive are coincidental.

If we never say they weren't.

Why wouldn't they comment. Even if that wasn't their intention I'd probably just say yes for the free PR boost.

I agree that there may be a legal aspect to it. Also, Nintendo shouldn't have to explain the naming of any character in any of their games to anyone.

If she's not named after the grandma, then why is she called Audie? The rest of the animal names have some sort of joke or reference in them.

I don't have the game (yet), but does Audie in any way look or act like the real life Audrey? Or does she say anything in the game, what would connect her to Audrey?
Can someone please clarify?

@jebug29 I don't know. There are a few characters with more obvious references still in Animal Crossing that are more likely to get them sued such as:

Ed - A horse, a reference to the TV show Mr. Ed, which starred a talking horse named Ed.
Jeremiah - A frog, a reference to the opening line to the song "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night ("Jeremiah was a bullfrog")
Kevin - A pig, a reference to actor Kevin Bacon.
Rizzo - A mouse. Named after Rizzo the Rat from the Muppets.

They don't seem to be afraid to have those references. Why would they be afraid to use name that even if it is a reference to the lady herself, is still just a name that no one can claim ownership for?

And "using a likeness" does not mean using just a name. it means using their face, such as Norman Reedus in Death Stranding. I'm pretty sure Animal Crossing Audie and real Audrey don't look the same.

And the whole CERO having a rule with people with a real historical background seems confusing. What about Dynasty Warriors, where you play as historical Chinese figures? What about the Nobunaga's Ambition games? And besides Hitler, there are still characters in Shin Megami Tensei and Persona who are fictionalized versions of historical people who still use their real names. Is the amount of "fictionalization" a factor? How far back in history they are?

This does not warrant an article. The absence of a story is not in itself, a story.

@MrBlacky No. She's a red wolf with sunglasses on her head wearing a pineapple pattern dress.

Audie uses the same generic peppy personality that all the other peppy villagers like Cheri and Rosie have, so alot of dialogue is reused between them. Her catchphrase is "foxtrot". She doesn't talk about how Filbert is her favorite or say how she spent thousands of hours in a game. And I doubt the real Audrey says things like "totes" and "legit" or wants to be a pop star.

Now if they intentionally designed her to look like an older lady, wearing the same big glasses, pink shirt, and jeans the real Audrey was seen wearing, and even making her a squirrel since Filbert is her favorite, THEN there would be cause for concern.

Audie in Animal Crossing just shares the name, and even then it's just the name of Audrey's player character in her game. Wolf Audie bares absolutely no resemblance to real Audrey otherwise. If it is supposed to be a reference, it's just a small one not worth freaking out over.

@GinHunter
Thank you. So all of this "connection" is basically based solely on a name and nothing else? Interesting ... 🤔

Come on, she deserves to be immortalized in this game.

@ijulesvel stop supporting crap like this.

I'd just like to point out for the comments section that anyone mentioning the "legal aspect" should probably stop because you have literally no idea what you're talking about. It could never apply in this situation for numerous reasons and cameos of people happen in games constantly. Two factors are extremely important in deciding it.
1. Direct visuals, does it look like them.
2. Marketing. Is their likeness used in marketing the product or as a major selling point.

@ijulesvel this rant was extremely negative. If all you see in this community is negativity maybe it’s time to seek out a community you can actually appreciate rather than one you merely resent.

@dux

Most of the females walk around with their purses.

Audie's been on my island from the start. No way does she give out granny vibes. She wants to be a diva.

Put this way the more they deny it the more it confirms it. All they have to say is that those rumors are pure speculation and to implement it would be unfair to any other players. EOS.

Even if it's based on her. Maybe it's just that one Treehouse member decided to name a character after her without telling anyone. Nobody questioned this, and the name is in the game; so without Ninty's direct consent (not that they would mind it). So who knows really.

Probably because legality reasons. I’m sure she wouldn’t sue, but a over zealous family members might down the road when she’s no longer alive.

@ijulesvel except they're saying it's not newsworthy because there literally isn't a story. It's just a baseless assumption with no actual comment from anyone on it's legitimacy. This is the thing people talk about on a forum, not write an article about.

@SCAssassin gearbox staff put a video game player who passed away from cancer into their game, you get a trophy for it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcoYSX6kgPE

@Fido007 Yes, personally requested by the family and publicized by Gearbox . They didn't do that out of nowhere. And the villager's name isn't even Audie in the Japanese version.

@ijulesvel First off, you're taking this very personally. You really need to calm down.

Second off, yes, they took interest in a THEORY and it was pretty much shot down. "Our THEORY was wrong" is not a story no matter how mad you get at people got pointing it out.

@PlaybunnyLucy

It became a "story" when a television news program followed up on it and actually went to a source (Nintendo) to get clarification on it. Then they produced...low and behold...a STORY on it!

I would have thought our resident NintendoLife legal expert would have understood that 😔

Audie lives on my island, she’s ok foxtrot.

Silence is golden ..

What you should be reporting on is their reluctance to have NextLevelGames fix Luigi's Mansion 3 so it's actually playable. No invert y axis option makes the game physically unplayable... It's been broken since launch and that's unacceptable to us who play the correct way and cannot play incorrectly.

Nintendo fears that the woman could sue them or ask for royalties because that is what they would do.

@BlueOcean that’s what I was thinking too

@BlueOcean I still don't know. You can't exactly claim royalties for the name "Audie", and besides the name (which is only in the English and Dutch versions) villager Audie does not resemble the real lady in any way.

Besides, as I mentioned in a previous comment, there are characters with names that are much more obvious references to actually trademarked things that are more likely to get them sued, but they haven't been. The Jim Henson Company and Disney has not come after them because of the mouse villager Rizzo, for example.

@ijulesvel This isn't about the diversity of the audience, it's about the story being the lack of a comment. I generally like Nintendolife, but on slow news days, this site tends to just turn anything, be it tweets with a dozen likes or angry amazon reviews into stories and all they really do is clutter up the feed for the readers. If Nintendo had commented on this story, or if there was anything to be contributed in general, it would serve a purpose. As is, it's clutter.

@DinnerAndWine "it became a story because a news site made it one"

That doesn't actually mean it's a story. Someone could write on this site that they took a very healthy poo, doesn't make it a story.

You guys really need to learn how to question things instead of constantly having this sheep mindset of "they told me it's important so obviously it is."

@PlaybunnyLucy

A story about poo is still a story, it's just not an important one.

Just as this one wasn't important, but it's still a story.

I think you are confusing "news" (which this isn't) with a "story" (which this is).

If you want to pretend you are operating at a higher level than the rest of the people on a Nintendo website, you might want want to pick a better argument 🤫

There are a lot of people who enjoy this kind of news (@PlaybunnyLucy for example).
He is deffending that he likes this kind of articles. Nintendo fans are a huge fanbae with very different people. I do agree that this isnt news and it is just a story. However, telling people to not feel resented at comments that ask for censorship of "stories" that they like to read about (and are nintendo related) just shows a bit of hipocresy. You guys can feel resenment at the authors (the ones that make this site possible) but he cant feel resenment at you?? Come on.... Or worse... Telling him that he should stop visiting the site if he dorsnt like the comments... Well... Then you shouldn visit the site if you dont like the articles. It just doesnt seem fair.

If you dont think an article isnt worth reading then dont read it. It's super simple.

My only comlplain here is when NL uses clickbait titles, which make you read articles you are not interested in.

Other than that, just calm down.