The E3 Expo was this week, where fans were treated to a glimpse into the future of gaming. Developers showed off what they have coming, even if it was just a title screen. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, quite a bit of development has been slowed down or delayed, so that could explain why this year’s presentations were lacking much exciting news. The week of events and presentations came to end on Tuesday, when Nintendo’s Direct was held. While there were some fun announcements, viewers who were waiting to hear news of Animal Crossing: New Horizons were to be left disappointed.
Many were watching with high expectations, as rumors of a new Switch Pro were circling, but the alleged console is still nowhere to be seen. The most exciting bit of news the Direct provided was a short trailer for the upcoming sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Notably absent from the presentation was anything about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This is passing odd considering just how popular the game is; it is quickly becoming the Switch’s bestselling title. Nintendo’s continued silence on any content updates for New Horizons begs the question: has the company decided to move on to a sequel?
The latest Animal Crossing title sold thousands of consoles around the world, sending Nintendo right to the top of sales charts. In fact, Switch was the bestselling console of 2020, even with the next generation console launches for PlayStation and Microsoft. So why has Nintendo been so silent about the game recently? Even though continued support for the title was promised for at least two years of the title’s lifespan, there hasn’t been a significant update for months.
Has Nintendo Moved On From New Horizons?
Meanwhile, the mobile Animal Crossing game, Pocket Camp, sees new content and updates fairly regularly. The reason for this is probably because Pocket Camp is a mobile title with microtransactions. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has provided free content updates that might be harder to sustain given pandemic circumstances. Perhaps the company has decided that it makes more financial sense to ride the hype of New Horizons and put any new content into a sequel that could potentially sell just as well as its predecessor - or maybe even better.
If true, this would be a disheartening situation for consumers. While the game was well received by its large player base, New Horizon's lack of content in comparison to previous games could lead to real disappointment if not addressed, especially if it was superseded by a new Animal Crossing game before reaching a more natural end to its lifespan. Nintendo has promised continuous updates to the game in the past, and as of February 1st of this year, New Horizons has sold 31.18 million copies according to Nintendo's financials. That's a lot of players still looking for updates, not to mention a large number of sales that could potentially fund such content (to the tune of well over a billion U.S. dollars).
Nintendo has remained silent regarding the series for the time being. While new paid DLC for New Horizons could help (and possibly make it more likely to include changes New Horizons players have been asking for), it doesn't seem likely that finances are the primary roadblock, with ongoing pandemic frustrations being a more likely culprit. Fans will remain equally frustrated in either case, as the wait for news doesn’t seem to be coming to an end just yet. Hopefully, Nintendo will have something substantial up its sleeves for when that news inevitably comes, whether it's the announcement of more Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates or an entirely new game in the franchise - or both.
Source: Nintendo