Nintendo Wasted Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons released in March 2020, but Nintendo ultimately wasted its success and potential with infrequent updates and too little DLC. Like most Animal Crossing games, players enjoyed a fairly repetitive gameplay loop refreshed with new characters, mechanics, and environments to get the most out of their time. Unfortunately, development on Animal Crossing: New Horizons ceased after its Happy Home Paradise DLC launched last year. Nintendo’s abandonment of ACNH proves that success doesn’t dictate the effort put into AAA titles and could bode poorly for the future of Animal Crossing games and other high-profile Nintendo franchises.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons gave players an island with two other Villagers. As the game progressed, players gained new opportunities to meet new Villagers, construct new buildings, and unlock new activities to enjoy. Posting tours of islands and making tiers of ACNH’s best Villagers became a regular pastime for fans. Unfortunately, as time progressed and more players completed the base game’s campaign, ACNH’s appeal began to fade with no significant updates in sight. Limited time events (like ACNH’sMario items and crossover) provided some excitement but failed to continue the game’s initial momentum.

It’s not unusual for Nintendo to abandon titles after several years, especially its live service projects, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons seemed like a wasted opportunity from launch. Content creators, casual fans, celebrities, and more constantly offered free publicity for a genuinely enjoyable game. For the first time in several months, players received a fully-realized AAA title well-worth its price tag. Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ success didn’t last, as Nintendo left the title without significant updates for months. Despite the eventual arrival of Happy Home Paradise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was doomed to fail far earlier than it needed to given its trajectory from the start.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Didn’t Receive Updates

Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ first year provided exciting new content for fans of all ages. The game’s seasons changed depending on the hemisphere and real-time holidays, encouraging players to celebrate Egg Day, Halloween, and Turkey Day. Players could collect and craft limited-time furniture and items or interact with visiting NPCs. Additionally, long-term goals like collecting art from Redd, digging up fossils, and paying back Tom Nook’s debts progressed steadily. Unfortunately, the base game’s activities didn’t last long, and players soon began suffering from a significant lack of content. It took Nintendo almost two years to release the first (and only) DLC for fans, after which development immediately ceased.

For several months, the Happy Home Paradise DLC combined with a massive free update rejuvenated Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ gameplay loop. Players gained access to an entirely new island with new activities, NPCs, and Villagers. Additionally, players received an opportunity to decorate houses for Animal Crossing Villagers and merchants, further developing one of the franchise’s best features. While decorating vacation homes, players receive starting items and can use many more at their disposal to design the perfect home. Additionally, activities like farming found their way into the game with a free update, giving players more ways to decorate and interact with their island. While the Happy Home Paradise DLC and accompanying free update provided players with many changes and additions the community desired, Nintendo’s failure to develop more improvements stunted the excitement. The team’s ability to design such successful DLCs and sell hundreds of millions of copies should have extended the game’s lifespan but instead only sealed its fate.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Proves ACNH Could’ve Survived

Occasionally, games released on aging platforms are abandoned in favor of investing more time and resources into a sequel with better technology and opportunities. Unfortunately, Nintendo can’t make this excuse for ACNH‘s treatment. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp released in 2017 and has maintained regular updates with and events for years. Nintendo implemented new Villagers, items, themes, goals, and more into the mobile game with no sign of stopping soon. Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ sudden cease in development is also an insult, as its release and popularity spurred many players to download the mobile Animal Crossing game. As of this article’s writing, Pocket Camp has earned over 250 million dollars from microtransactions, funds that could have contributed to Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ development.

Microtransactions are killing the gaming industry’s biggest hits as AAA companies become greedier and raise prices while locking content behind paywalls. Mobile games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are incredibly lucrative, as players are lured in with free content and then met with soft blocks that bar progress. While Nintendo still maintains its habits of shipping full games, it’s begun introducing DLCs and expansion passes to franchises usually shipped as base games (Pokémon and Animal Crossing). Unfortunately, it’s likely that, despite the spike in initial sales, Animal Crossing: New Horizons didn’t provide the same financial incentive as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. If Nintendo continues abandoning successful projects for microtransactions, it’s unknown what the future of Animal Crossing could hold.

ACNH Didn’t Have A Second Anniversary Event

Animal Crossing: New Horizons featured an anniversary event in 2021 that provided a slight relief from the game’s content drought. While Nintendo had always neglected ACNH compared to other IPs, celebrating the game’s birthday seems like a necessary event for live service games. Instead, March 20 of 2022 came and went without any news or mention from the Nintendo team. The failure to include lasting coding from the previous anniversary event provided fans with even more disappointment, making it clear that Nintendo had abandoned the game. It’s unknown how long things will continue to run smoothly in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as without maintenance, glitches and bugs can crop up in unexpected players. Since Nintendo has continuously abandoned other projects despite their popularity, fans can expect the company to direct their attention to a new IP instead of developing ACNH. Judging from previous patterns, Nintendo would rather sell another game for full price rather than invest resources into a project with cheaper DLC or expansion passes.

While it’s clear Animal Crossing: New Horizons won’t receive further updates, DLC, or events, Nintendo’s abandonment of the project is particularly worrying. Its release at the start of the pandemic provided the sandbox game an advantage over other titles in development during the chaos. Colorful characters, easygoing gameplay, and increased freedom compared to previous entries in the series ensured its continued popularity for several years. Unfortunately, Animal Crossing: New Horizons likely won’t improve, leaving players without much hope for the title until a sequel releases.

About The Author

Natalie Lindner
(501 Articles Published)

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Natalie Lindner is a Game Features Writer for Screen Rant, creating content on the past, present, and future of games in the industry. Prior to this, she worked out of a writing consultancy in Rhode Island from 2018 to 2021, where she helped college students improve their writing abilities. Natalie has contributed her video game writing to several smaller websites and projects since 2018 and is eager to continue that journey with Screen Rant.

Working out of New Hampshire, Natalie spends the time she isn’t writing about games outside; hiking or biking. On those rainy days, she can be found striving for action on the latest FPS or perusing the latest comic books.

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