Despite Animal Crossing: New Horizons' lacking presence at this year's E3, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser stated that more content will be on the way for the game. Many fans feel the game is in desperate need of a substantial content update after the game has fallen from its peak during launch.
When Animal Crossing: New Horizons first released in March 2020, it was all social media could talk about for a few months. Its massive sales numbers still continue to this day to make it one of the best-selling Switch games of all time. However, more than a year after the game's launch, fans are dissatisfied with the lack of major content updates being put into the game. The April 2021 update for instance didn't add any new events or major features for the game, it brought the return of events such as wedding season and added new items to the seasonal Nook Shopping. This compared to the amount of content the previous game had, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, made many players be disappointed during Animal Crossing: New Horizons' second year as of yet.
In an interview with The Verge, president Doug Bowser talked about how more players are spending time with the console's online features in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Monster Hunter: Rise. He goes on to address future content updates in Animal Crossing: New Horizons in the interview.
"While we didn’t talk about it [during the E3 Nintendo Direct], we absolutely have plans going forward to ensure the 33 million people who have islands out there have new and fun activities to engage with. Look for more to come.”
The question from there is what type of new content fans can expect in future updates to the game. Earlier this year, it was speculated that the Animal Crossing islands could receive some type of expansion due to a datamine in the island's parameters. However, this has yet to be implemented into the game. Beloved shops and NPC such as Brewster were also included in past datamines from 2020, along with Gyroids, but it's yet to be known whether this is a planned feature to eventually drop in the game or if Brewster was scrapped.
Even if this new content isn't anything that was in the datamine, it's uncertain whether or not the new Animal Crossing content will be as substantial as Doug Bowser claims. Despite still selling incredibly well, the game isn't at its peak anymore, and it's going to take more than a few additional items to give the game the content that it's desperately craving at this point in its lifespan. But for now, all fans can do is wait for the next eventual update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons to be announced and see what it has to offer.
Source: The Verge