Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be getting a map expansion in a future update, if leaked information from a datamine turns out to be accurate. The latest installment in the long-running series has been available on the Nintendo Switch for over a year and the massively successful game has seen several content updates and events throughout that time, including this year’s iteration of the May Day Maze.

But with the game’s events starting to repeat themselves, with only slight changes to keep them fresh for the new year, Animal Crossing: New Horizons may start needing to release more substantial content updates in order to keep players interested in the game. Whether it’s upgrades to existing content, brand-new events, or the addition of new features, Nintendo will need to find a way to keep the game fresh and exciting for its second year.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

In a recent video, Animal Crossing YouTube channel Mayor Mori explains some of the leaked information that has been datamined from the game’s 1.10.0 update, including the alleged map expansion. According to the video, data miners were able to find changes to the game’s “mSouthShoreBaseline.f32” parameters, which was increased from 500 to 1000. The parameter relates to the boundary or limit the camera is able to move in a specific direction or area, so the increase to the value of “mSouthShoreBaseline.f32” means that the camera will be able to move farther south than it previously did. This has led to the rumor that more content may be added to the south of the game’s main island, which could potentially be either a new smaller island, an expansion of the current island, or a new area for diving and swimming.

Unfortunately, Mayor Mori goes on to explain that the use of the “mSouthShoreBaseline.f32” parameter isn’t limited to just the main island, as it is also used in the game’s other areas, such as its Mystery Tours. It’s most likely that the change to the parameter found in the datamine was only used for testing rather than in preparation for soon-to-be-released content, such as a map expansion. Additionally, the “mSouthShoreBaseline.f32” parameter for the main island has always been set to the higher aforementioned value, which further indicates that the change likely isn’t related to an expansion for it.

This doesn’t mean that an island expansion won’t ever be coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons sometime in the future, as it is definitely something that Nintendo could potentially still be planning or working on. Fans will just have to wait and see what Nintendo has planned for the future of its beloved island simulation game. Hopefully the reveal will come sooner rather than later.

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Source: Mayor Mori/YouTube

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Martin Patino
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Martin has been writing for ScreenRant since the middle of 2020. He’s also written for several print and online publications across gaming, esports, and tech over the past 9 years. Some of these include PC World Philippines, Computerworld Philippines, 2.0 Magazine, Gadgets Magazine, GGNetwork.tv, PlayStation LifeStyle, GamingBolt, GameRevolution, UnGeek.ph, and more. Apart from video games and tech, Martin is a also massive anime and manga fan.

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