It feels as if Nintendo is ignoring Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as its mobile equivalent, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp continues to get regular updates. Although a huge success for Nintendo throughout the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company ended new updates for ACNH following the release of last year's Happy Home Paradise DLC. This is despite ACNH still having plenty of potential, so it's easy to look enviously at the new content Pocket Camp continues to receive.
Since its release on the Nintendo Switch, Animal Crossing has become a household name worldwide. However, Animal Crossing: New Horizons' potential was mostly wasted by the lack of meaningful and consistent updates. Throughout the first year, many fans had experienced most of what the game had to offer and eagerly awaited new content. As players quickly found out, notable updates were sporadic, while others were often insubstantial. New Horizons' Happy Home Paradise DLC rekindled some interest in the title, but without frequent updates, said interest is likely to wain - if it hasn't already.
In the months since Happy Home Paradise's release, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has garnered a growing following. Pocket Camp controversially - like most mobile games - features microtransactions, which enables players to spend real-world money on in-game items. Recently, Nintendo announced a free storage update for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, giving all players access to the warehouse on June 23, 2022. This change will allow fans to more easily decorate their camp and encourage more engagement in the game's content.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Is More Monetizable Than ACNH
Perhaps the biggest reason why Nintendo has continued to update Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp instead of New Horizons is due to the fact the former not only features microtransactions, but is also a much smaller game. It's smaller in scale than its Nintendo Switch sibling, and with microtransactions and regular content, the more successful it'll be as a monetizable platform for Nintendo. Pocket Camp receives new updates constantly, featuring new villagers, events, and furniture. Additional content on a mobile device also takes less time to develop. When compared to the Nintendo Switch, ACNH 2.0 and Happy Home Paradise were the largest updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons and took over a year to implement.
Over the years, the Animal Crossing fanbase has grown tremendously. Animal Crossing: New Horizons became one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch. While the latest title had massive potential, players will not be receiving any more major updates. With no news of the next game in the mainline series, new Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp content will need to be sufficient to satisfy devoted players.