# Petition for AC:NH game save backup



## pensenaute (Jul 2, 2019)

Hello, everyone! Loonep and I wanted to share with you a petition in regards to the lack of game saves backup in AC:NH. Since sharing the petition, we’ve encountered quite a bit of misknowledge and many other different questions, which is why I’ve written the most popular ones here, in hopes those who are not so sure can make a more informed decision 

Common misconceptions Loonep and I found by talking with AC fans :

*- “The Switch won't break” :* Lots of people replied to me by saying that backup saves don’t matter because the Switch won’t stop working abruptly. It’s an interesting topic! One of the best aspects about the Switch is its portability, but at the same time it makes it more vulnerable since it means that we could lose it, it could be stolen, and it can fall and break easily when transporting it. Furthermore, even if you only kept your Switch indoors and docked, it could get damaged due to electrical surges, accidents or data corruption. Also, as with any other technological product and hardware, it can unfortunately stop working without previous signs of damage. 

*- “The game is not out yet, so why worry now?” :* the Animal Crossing: New Horizons development team have mentioned that they are paying attention to the fans’ reactions, which is why it seems like an important time to respectfully and politely voice our concerns. Also, what better time when the game is in development to possibly make some changes? 

*- “A petition doesn't do anything” :* I don’t totally disagree on this one. It’s true that it is a bit idealistic to think that a petition can work all the time. I consider this a means of (politely) getting the word around and to raise awareness about this, since many players don’t know that they won’t be able to backup the game. Also, it’s a better way to group together the wishes and hopes of players, in a kind and organized way. And after all, what do we lose just by trying? 

*- “Let the developers live their lives” :* That is true too, I want to respect how the devs envisioned their game and imagined how we should play it. I understand their concern about cheating in AC, however, I believe that there is some way to make a compromise, because this is our save we are talking about, maybe 100 hours, 500 hours, 1000+ hours of commitment, work and real-time hours. I think most people would be devastated if they lost all their game saves. That’s why I think they should want to protect our save, by any means, maybe one we didn’t even think of! The goal is for them to be aware of our distress.

*- “I prefer that people can’t cheat so I agree with Nintendo’s choice” :* Like I said just above, no matter my preferences about cheating or not, I respect Nintendo’s choice. But I’m sure they can come up with an alternative, compromise or middle ground for protecting our saves 

*- “Saves are on the cartridge / micro sd card” :* Unfortunately, all game save data is saved inside the Switch’s internal storage. The micro sd that you’re allowed to place in stores the game itself, not the data. The only way that Nintendo allows to backup Switch games is via the cloud.

*- “Just hack your Switch” : *Some tried that sure, but it’s prohibited by Nintendo and as such there’s a high possibility that future software updates might cause problems on your Switch. Plus it’s not my way of thinking : fixing an issue by hacking the console.

*- “You can’t fix it in 9 months” :* I think it would be easier for them to find a solution while they are still developing the game than after it is released. Even if it’s an option that’s not available at launch, I hope that Nintendo will offer a solution before players accumulate too many hours. Anyway, I am “crossing” my fingers 

If you are interested by reading/signing or maybe even sharing the petition, here is the link : http://chng.it/vV8MTydQ  Loonep and I would love to hear what you think about all this


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## JKDOS (Jul 2, 2019)

Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? Cloud saves were not a thing in the previous games, and we all survived, granted less than 1% may have had corruption.


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## Speeny (Jul 2, 2019)

It’s disappointing but I’m not overly worried about it. Even if something did happen to my save, there’s something inspiring about starting a new file anyway.

EDIT: Signed anyway.


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## Stella-Io (Jul 2, 2019)

traceguy said:


> Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? Cloud saves were not a thing in the previous games, and we all survived, granted less than 1% may have had corruption.



Yes, and data was saved in the game card. Data isn't saved in the game card this time, the Switch has it's own system memory that you save it on. Accidents happen, when a Nintendo DS system got broke cause it fell, or someone else mistreated it, we could take the game card, put it in a new system and all is well. Image if the same mistake happens to your Switch. Poof, all is gone. There is no chance to back up a save cause there is no external storage to act that upon. So what if other games didn't have a cloud save? You're compating other games save to somethin that wasn't even an available back then.

*Pensenaute* I like that you put a FAQ in this post, people keep saying the same stuff like "hack your Switch'. Not only has Nintendo made this harder to do, but not everyone has the ability to even hack their Switch, or anythin in general.


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## pensenaute (Jul 2, 2019)

traceguy said:


> Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? Cloud saves were not a thing in the previous games, and we all survived, granted less than 1% may have had corruption.



Before when the saves were stored in the cartridge, it was possible to make a backup of that. Also, I don?t think it?s an extreme thing to ask from them as it?s already offered as part of the Nintendo Online Membership. It?s also known that in this regard Nintendo is lacking behind compared to its competitors. We have the technology now, so why not try to implement it?


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## Chouchou (Jul 2, 2019)

Calm down plz it's not even a big deal


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## pensenaute (Jul 2, 2019)

Speeny said:


> It?s disappointing but I?m not overly worried about it. Even if something did happen to my save, there?s something inspiring about starting a new file anyway.



I really admire your outlook on things! For me, I get attached to the town and its villagers and I?ll be very sad if something were to happen to it. Most people I?ve spoken to feel like that, but I?ve met only a few who can keep it cool like you  I talked to some people who lost their game files and it completely ruined the game for them, they couldn?t play again  I think most people would feel a lot safer if they knew they had a safe backup to rely on. And it sure might be inspiring to start a new file, but I?d be happier if I could choose to start fresh, instead of being forced to start fresh by any circumstance.

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Chouchou said:


> Calm down plz it's not even a big deal



It?s a big deal to some of us, and we?re not chasing anyone with pitchforks, this is the most polite and respectful way I can think of of organizing people and what they wish would be in New Horizons.

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Stella-Io said:


> Yes, and data was saved in the game card. Data isn't saved in the game card this time, the Switch has it's own system memory that you save it on. Accidents happen, when a Nintendo DS system got broke cause it fell, or someone else mistreated it, we could take the game card, put it in a new system and all is well. Image if the same mistake happens to your Switch. Poof, all is gone. There is no chance to back up a save cause there is no external storage to act that upon. So what if other games didn't have a cloud save? You're compating other games save to somethin that wasn't even an available back then.
> 
> *Pensenaute* I like that you put a FAQ in this post, people keep saying the same stuff like "hack your Switch'. Not only has Nintendo made this harder to do, but not everyone has the ability to even hack their Switch, or anythin in general.



Thanks so much for your lovely comment and feedback! <3 And you?re 100% right, so many things can go wrong in the attempt of hacking a Switch. I personally don?t feel comfortable to do so!


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## Loonep (Jul 2, 2019)

Chouchou said:


> Calm down plz it's not even a big deal



Hi, I mean it's your right to think it's not a big deal! It's our right (and more than 2000 other people now) to think it is though!
I really hope nothing never happens to your switch and ACNH save, I know that would be a terrible feeling for me 
As pensenaute said, starting fresh a new island when I choose to can be really nice. But being forced because of the lack of backup that most switch game have, it's really harsh!


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## MarcelTheFool (Jul 2, 2019)

As someone who hacks, hacking is VERY hard. It was hard enough on my 3DS. Ive heard switch hacking is harder. And yeah you can hack, but its dangerous. One misstep and you corrupted your save, got banned, bricked ur system.


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## Speeny (Jul 2, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> I really admire your outlook on things! For me, I get attached to the town and its villagers and I’ll be very sad if something were to happen to it. Most people I’ve spoken to feel like that, but I’ve met only a few who can keep it cool like you  I talked to some people who lost their game files and it completely ruined the game for them, they couldn’t play again  I think most people would feel a lot safer if they knew they had a safe backup to rely on. And it sure might be inspiring to start a new file, but I’d be happier if I could choose to start fresh, instead of being forced to start fresh by any circumstance.
> 
> - - - Post Merge - - -
> 
> ...



One thing that would only frustrate me is the loss of the encyclopedia/museum progress with it.


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## Pellie (Jul 2, 2019)

As someone who already has to deal with this problem with not having the option to use cloud saves 
at Splatoon 2... I can deal with the fact that New Horizons will not supporting it too. Now don't get 
me wrong, I do understand people and their worries about losing all their progress if the worst case
happens and the Switch gets broken and what else caused the loss of the save file. But the thing is,
if a game doesn't support cloud saves, for whatever reasons, then it is so, as much as it sucks. It's
Nintendo's decision in that moment to do it this way, whenever you as the player/fan like it or not.

After all, I wish you guys good luck with the petition. However, and I know this may sounds not
really nice, I doubt that Nintendo will notice this. I mean, if they do and actually change this up
by let the game supporting it then yay, cool thing of course! But, yeah, I'm not sure at this point
if they really change anything about this at all...


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## Speeny (Jul 2, 2019)

Pellie said:


> As someone who already has to deal with this problem with not having the option to use cloud saves
> at Splatoon 2... I can deal with the fact that New Horizons will not supporting it too. Now don't get
> me wrong, I do understand people and their worries about losing all their progress if the worst case
> happens and the Switch gets broken and what else caused the loss of the save file. But the thing is,
> ...



Interesting that you can't cloud save with Splatoon 2. I can with MK8 Deluxe. But, I guess they're very different games.


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## Fey (Jul 2, 2019)

I personally think you both did the community a service by organizing this, and will sign the petition shortly ✮

Don?t let people shoot you down for caring too much or making an unnecessary fuss?your appeal was well-reasoned and respectful. 
Just because some people are comfortable accepting disappointments doesn?t mean others don?t have a right to try and bring about the change they want to see. I much prefer making an effort for what I?m passionate about, than just accepting whatever is thrown my direction?at least I tried. 

To those saying it won?t make a difference: you?d be surprised how much in life you can enjoy because someone else fought for it against the odds at some point ;3


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## pensenaute (Jul 3, 2019)

KesRoden said:


> As someone who hacks, hacking is VERY hard. It was hard enough on my 3DS. Ive heard switch hacking is harder. And yeah you can hack, but its dangerous. One misstep and you corrupted your save, got banned, bricked ur system.



Exactly, and please correct me if I'm wrong (I don't know much about hacking) but even if you did succeed, isn't there a chance a future software can brick your system as well? or after you hack it you stop updating it? xD

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Fey said:


> I personally think you both did the community a service by organizing this, and will sign the petition shortly ✮
> 
> Don?t let people shoot you down for caring too much or making an unnecessary fuss?your appeal was well-reasoned and respectful.
> Just because some people are comfortable accepting disappointments doesn?t mean others don?t have a right to try and bring about the change they want to see. I much prefer making an effort for what I?m passionate about, than just accepting whatever is thrown my direction?at least I tried.
> ...



Wooow, thank you SO much for this incredibly kind comment! I know I don't speak for myself when I say you lift us right up with your support and super lovely response! Thank you! And that's right, it's easy to be confident when the odds are in your favor, but you have to be brave when they are not, however, the result will always be rewarding 

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Pellie said:


> As someone who already has to deal with this problem with not having the option to use cloud saves
> at Splatoon 2... I can deal with the fact that New Horizons will not supporting it too. Now don't get
> me wrong, I do understand people and their worries about losing all their progress if the worst case
> happens and the Switch gets broken and what else caused the loss of the save file. But the thing is,
> ...



Thank you for wishing us luck nevertheless! I know Nintendo is pretty behind compared to its competitors in regards to the whole cloud saves thing which is why I hope in the near future all games will be cloud save compatible. If Nintendo cannot give us cloud saves for whatever reason, I think it's not crazy to ask for a compromise, and some compromises can be just ?better than nothing? for the fans but much more doable for Nintendo. The development team said they were paying attention to us, so I hope we can meet in the middle, even though I think Nintendo as a whole should have this down by now.

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Speeny said:


> One thing that would only frustrate me is the loss of the encyclopedia/museum progress with it.



That would be so saaad! But you know, since their concern is about cheating, I saw a post by jvsfjeff, and he said that a ?better than nothing? compromise could be to have cloud backup for the island layout, islanders and the shop upgrades. I guess the museum progress could be added in here as well?

It would still suck to lose all your items and bells, but hey, it's something.


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## JKDOS (Jul 3, 2019)

Stella-Io said:


> Yes, and data was saved in the game card. Data isn't saved in the game card this time, the Switch has it's own system memory that you save it on. Accidents happen, when a Nintendo DS system got broke cause it fell, or someone else mistreated it, we could take the game card, put it in a new system and all is well.




Fair point, though to be fair, the digital copy saved to the SD card, and if something happened to the 3DS, such as drop or water damage, the SD card became useless in another 3DS.

I signed the petition though for those who really want it .


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## MarcelTheFool (Jul 3, 2019)

Im not sure about the bricking, but yes future updates can ruin all your hard work. Thats why I hacked my older original 3DS instead of the new one. This ones on its last leg, so it wont be to bad if it gets banned. Ds' are cheap, switches are not.


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## pensenaute (Jul 3, 2019)

traceguy said:


> Fair point, though to be fair, the digital copy saved to the SD card, and if something happened to the 3DS, such as drop or water damage, the SD card became useless in another 3DS.
> 
> I signed the petition though for those who really want it .



Dude, I?ve only spoken to a couple of people who have told me it?s not really their cause but they?ll sign just to support and every time I see that I?m overwhelmed by you guys? kindness and consideration. I know it might not be a big deal to you, but I can tell you it just show how good people you are, to put aside your opinions to consider another person?s need for support. I know it?s just a petition for a game, but you are awesome in my eyes! I hope many people support you when you need  THANK YOU


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## pensenaute (Jul 3, 2019)

KesRoden said:


> Im not sure about the bricking, but yes future updates can ruin all your hard work. Thats why I hacked my older original 3DS instead of the new one. This ones on its last leg, so it wont be to bad if it gets banned. Ds' are cheap, switches are not.



Gotcha! Thanks for your answer! It makes me more bewildered that people think hacking is an option xD


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## will. (Jul 3, 2019)

KesRoden said:


> As someone who hacks, hacking is VERY hard. It was hard enough on my 3DS. Ive heard switch hacking is harder. And yeah you can hack, but its dangerous. One misstep and you corrupted your save, got banned, bricked ur system.



hey! not to put you down or anything but i hacked my switch in ten minutes and also took the precautions to not get banned haha. also hacking on the 3ds was as simple as dragging some files to the sd card and using an exploit. beginners might have a hard time with it but hacking nintendo systems is quite easy..

having said this, i don't think its the solution for this problem. yes, hacking is a solution but its not one that many can do. as KesRoden stated, one misstep and you could get banned from online play. bricking your system and corrupting save files is easy to avoid but getting banned is something that nintendo is coming down hard on. BUT this can be easily avoided by not pirating software. having a save manager on your switch won't be enough to get you banned (most likely)

** also
getting banned from online play and services was extremely rare on the 3ds, but it's VERY common on the switch. so no, definitely not the solution.

but back to the main point, this petition is a good idea and i definitely think that cloud saves are important - at least to fans like us who are devoted to the game. in response to traceguy saying that we didn't have cloud saves on the 3ds and we made it through: the saves were on the cartridge itself and on the switch, they'll be on the actual device. 
we're paying for a cloud service that nintendo provides and they aren't even letting us use it on a popular game. this is just like the pokemon home/bank and pokemon swsh debacle. kinda outrageous.


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## jefflomacy (Jul 3, 2019)

Save file SD card exploits like the ones used on the 3DS are a big part of the reason Nintendo has clamped down so hard on how save data is managed. I hope they will find a middle-ground solution to this problem, but I find it unlikely. I expect further hostility toward any avenues that can be used for exploitation, as protection of their IP is the most important thing for their long-term survival.

I imagine for Animal Crossing their concern is item duplication. The reason they care so much is that cheating (even in non-competitive games) when online play is involved cheapens the experience for those playing the game legitimately. This degradation of the experience harms sales as people who would have otherwise enjoyed the game and recommended it to others become disenfranchised. This is just my opinion, but I believe this is a big part of why cloud saves are unlikely. It would definitely cheapen the experience for me if I knew groups of people were out there trading duplicated rare items. It would make me ponder: why bother spending hours digging or fishing when people are just duplicating it? I could just get the item from one of them easily. And so the slope begins into achieving game-ending control. 

The argument could be made that they should allow cloud saving without any bells or items, but I doubt the cloud saving infrastructure is that customizable per game. Again, not a Nintendo developer or employee, so I don't know. I am a software developer and I do know that things you would think are simple can be very expensive if they weren't in the initial design plans. If these are their lines of reasoning, I think it's reasonable.


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## MarcelTheFool (Jul 3, 2019)

donnellcrossing said:


> hey! not to put you down or anything but i hacked my switch in ten minutes and also took the precautions to not get banned haha. also hacking on the 3ds was as simple as dragging some files to the sd card and using an exploit. beginners might have a hard time with it but hacking nintendo systems is quite easy..
> 
> having said this, i don't think its the solution for this problem. yes, hacking is a solution but its not one that many can do. as KesRoden stated, one misstep and you could get banned from online play. bricking your system and corrupting save files is easy to avoid but getting banned is something that nintendo is coming down hard on. BUT this can be easily avoided by not pirating software. having a save manager on your switch won't be enough to get you banned (most likely)
> 
> ...



Lmao no offense taken XD I'm super dumb with that stuff, and it's really confusing took me over two hours! I'm glad you find out it easy though! It was my first time hacking so that may be why. I got banned scared earlier this week, turns out my wifi just crapped out lmao. Good to know its easy to get banned on a switch, I'll be avoiding hacking on it then....don't really wanna shill out another 300 bucks if it does happen.


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## Stevey Queen (Jul 3, 2019)

I think Nintendo should offer cloud saves for the game but compromise to stop cheaters. (Personally, people can do whatever the heck they want with their games, I really dont care and I don't know why Nintendo cares either especially with a game like animal crossing)

Maybe you can only use your cloud save when your switch is damaged. Idk


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## will. (Jul 3, 2019)

KesRoden said:


> Lmao no offense taken XD I'm super dumb with that stuff, and it's really confusing took me over two hours! I'm glad you find out it easy though! It was my first time hacking so that may be why. I got banned scared earlier this week, turns out my wifi just crapped out lmao. Good to know its easy to get banned on a switch, I'll be avoiding hacking on it then....don't really wanna shill out another 300 bucks if it does happen.



honestly if you don't wanna be banned, avoid hacking your switch at all costs... it's just way too easy unless you're an expert. i hacked mine to use the save manager to back up my saves without using nintendo switch online, but i haven't batted up custom firmware in months just because im way too scared for a ban. and maybe it's okay to use nintendo consoles like they were intended instead of sneaking around lol


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## Loonep (Jul 4, 2019)

jefflomacy said:


> Save file SD card exploits like the ones used on the 3DS are a big part of the reason Nintendo has clamped down so hard on how save data is managed. I hope they will find a middle-ground solution to this problem, but I find it unlikely. I expect further hostility toward any avenues that can be used for exploitation, as protection of their IP is the most important thing for their long-term survival.
> 
> I imagine for Animal Crossing their concern is item duplication. The reason they care so much is that cheating (even in non-competitive games) when online play is involved cheapens the experience for those playing the game legitimately. This degradation of the experience harms sales as people who would have otherwise enjoyed the game and recommended it to others become disenfranchised. This is just my opinion, but I believe this is a big part of why cloud saves are unlikely. It would definitely cheapen the experience for me if I knew groups of people were out there trading duplicated rare items. It would make me ponder: why bother spending hours digging or fishing when people are just duplicating it? I could just get the item from one of them easily. And so the slope begins into achieving game-ending control.
> 
> The argument could be made that they should allow cloud saving without any bells or items, but I doubt the cloud saving infrastructure is that customizable per game. Again, not a Nintendo developer or employee, so I don't know. I am a software developer and I do know that things you would think are simple can be very expensive if they weren't in the initial design plans. If these are their lines of reasoning, I think it's reasonable.



Hey, you're probably right about Nintendo wanting to protect the "image" of the game, and I can understand them for that. But what I can't figure out is why is this so difficult for Nintendo to find a solution to that. I mean, sony and microsoft found a way to allow save cloud without having too much cheating issue, and they have a lot of multiplayer game too. We know nintendo has money, engineers, great devs, I'm sure if others can do it, they might have the ressources to do that too!
Plus Nogami added in an interview quite recently that they know how much we get attached to this game by playing every day, for a "very" long time. Kyogoku said that they want to make gameplay AC:NH in a way that we can play for a very long time. So they seem to really think about that and know how important your town/island can be to you.
I don't know it just seems really weird to me that a big company like they are have the capacity to make cloud save as efficient as other companies, that they know how important it can be to their players, but keeps saying no


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## Loonep (Jul 4, 2019)

jefflomacy said:


> Save file SD card exploits like the ones used on the 3DS are a big part of the reason Nintendo has clamped down so hard on how save data is managed. I hope they will find a middle-ground solution to this problem, but I find it unlikely. I expect further hostility toward any avenues that can be used for exploitation, as protection of their IP is the most important thing for their long-term survival.
> 
> I imagine for Animal Crossing their concern is item duplication. The reason they care so much is that cheating (even in non-competitive games) when online play is involved cheapens the experience for those playing the game legitimately. This degradation of the experience harms sales as people who would have otherwise enjoyed the game and recommended it to others become disenfranchised. This is just my opinion, but I believe this is a big part of why cloud saves are unlikely. It would definitely cheapen the experience for me if I knew groups of people were out there trading duplicated rare items. It would make me ponder: why bother spending hours digging or fishing when people are just duplicating it? I could just get the item from one of them easily. And so the slope begins into achieving game-ending control.
> 
> The argument could be made that they should allow cloud saving without any bells or items, but I doubt the cloud saving infrastructure is that customizable per game. Again, not a Nintendo developer or employee, so I don't know. I am a software developer and I do know that things you would think are simple can be very expensive if they weren't in the initial design plans. If these are their lines of reasoning, I think it's reasonable.



Hi, I think you're probably right about nintendo wanting to protect the "image" of their franchise, and I totally can understand that.
In the same time, I mean : Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo are all three big companies. Microsoft and Sony found a way (a long time ago) to use all the capacity of cloud save, without having too much trouble with cheating. And they have a lot of multiplayer games. Nintendo has money, engineers, great devs, they should be able to do the same thing I guess. The might/should have the capacities to make cloud save as qualitative as their "concurrency".
Plus Nogami, really recently, said that he knows how much we get attached to our town/insland and that we might play it for a very long time. Kyogoku said that they want to make the gameplay so players can play for a very long time. 
I don't know, it just seems really weird to me : I really think they have the same capacities as Microsoft and Sony to do it + they know how long we will play the game, but still, they just say no without even saying "we are looking for a solution". To me it just feels like it's not a problem for them to stay behind on this matter. 

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Stevey Queen said:


> I think Nintendo should offer cloud saves for the game but compromise to stop cheaters. (Personally, people can do whatever the heck they want with their games, I really dont care and I don't know why Nintendo cares either especially with a game like animal crossing)
> 
> Maybe you can only use your cloud save when your switch is damaged. Idk



Really true! We tried to talk about different ways of protecting our game data. Maybe you can use cloud save only one a month : if you are truly using it just because your switch broke it would not be a problem to you, but if you want to cheat it you can't to do more than once a month. 
Or they might have solutions that we never thought about. Like I said I really don't see how microsoft/sony can do it, but nintendo can't. That seems really strange to me to use "risk of cheating" as an excuse. At least just saying "we are looking into it to find a solution" would be so great to us!


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 4, 2019)

I've been hesitant to share this story due to the fact that when the incident happened I was attacked simply for asking for help, however from the original post I'm assuming New Horizons won't be covered by cloud saves, I feel it is imperative that I share this story:

On December 30, 2018 I saw that Grim Fandango: Remastered was on sale for $4.99 on the Switch.  I decided to double dip (own the PC version) but when I tried to access the eShop, I was given an odd error message.  One without an error lookup code.  So I popped in Splatoon 2 and saw that Off The Hook wasn't showing up.  I know from experience that, if you're not connected to the internet when starting Splatoon 2, you're taken directly to Inkopolis.

Curious, I tested my connection settings.  My Switch was connecting just fine...I just was unable to use the internet.  I went online, asked for help and got attacked verbally for a variety of reasons to the point where I felt like I was just being bullied for not knowing what was going on.

The next day I called Nintendo and explained the problem I was having.  They forwarded me to a supervisor who interrupted me in the middle of my explanation and said "I just found out what the problem is."  What she said next shocked me: This is our fault.  We just updated the servers we use for My Nintendo accounts and an unforeseen side effect is that some accounts are barred from accessing the internet.

I asked what the solution was and her response was thus: You'll have to delete your user account on your Switch and make a new one.  When I asked how that would affect saves she said any games not backed up to the cloud would have their saves permanently lost.  And that there was no guarantee this wouldn't happen again.

Basically, I lost a year and a half of all my data in Splatoon 2 as well as my Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu progress (Post game, Mewtwo caught, missing about only 10 or so Pokemon to complete the Pokedex).  There is ZERO justification for banning a game from being accessed by the cloud.

In the case of Splatoon 2, I got the game at launch.  I lost a year and a half worth of progress and was told I'd just have to start over.  And this could happen again depending on when the next update for managing My Nintendo accounts happens....so, essentially I'd lose my Splatoon 2, Let's Go Pikachu AND my New Horizons data.

Anyway, that's the story of what happened to me.  I fully support any and all attempts at having Nintendo change their cloud save policies and I can safely say if New Horizions isn't going to be supporting cloud saves, that we should all band together and refuse to support the online service.

I've told this story knowing full well that anyone who doesn't like hearing what happened to me WILL verbally attack me but I feel it's important to share what happened to me.  Nintendo told me it was their fault, apologized for the inconvenience and, to be fair, it apparently only affected a VERY small number of people.  But it's still no excuse, in my brutally honest opinion.

Any petitions to bring cloud saves to New Horzions?  Give em to me.  I'll sign them in full support.  So if you want to attack me for sharing this story...go right ahead.  I just won't dignify what you have to say with response.


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## will. (Jul 4, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> story quoted above^^



this story is insane. i didn't even take into account that server malfunctions could mean that we lose all our save data. and the fact that this could happen to anyone! insane. whats so annoying about this story is that they didn't even offer you anything in return for a mistake that effected you but it was an error made by them.

so to the people saying that it's unlikely that our switch will break or we'll be fine without save data being backed up: there's always accidents. some made by nintendo, some made by us, and if i want to be prepared for the worst (if the worst is losing hundreds of hours of data on my new horizons save) then let me! if you don't want save data in the cloud, ignore it.

sorry that this happened to you as well!! it sucks that that data is lost forever


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 4, 2019)

donnellcrossing said:


> this story is insane. i didn't even take into account that server malfunctions could mean that we lose all our save data. and the fact that this could happen to anyone! insane. whats so annoying about this story is that they didn't even offer you anything in return for a mistake that effected you but it was an error made by them.
> 
> so to the people saying that it's unlikely that our switch will break or we'll be fine without save data being backed up: there's always accidents. some made by nintendo, some made by us, and if i want to be prepared for the worst (if the worst is losing hundreds of hours of data on my new horizons save) then let me! if you don't want save data in the cloud, ignore it.
> 
> sorry that this happened to you as well!! it sucks that that data is lost forever



Thanks.  I'm still rebuilding my Inkling in Splatoon 2 as a result of the data.  I feel that games like New Horizons are just like Splatoon and Pokemon: People put a lot of effort and hours into various aspects of these games, and we should be able to protect the time and effort we put in.

I sincerely hope Nintendo changes their stance on not having cloud saves for this game.


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## Fey (Jul 4, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> Any petitions to bring cloud saves to New Horzions?  Give em to me.  I'll sign them in full support.  So if you want to attack me for sharing this story...go right ahead.  I just won't dignify what you have to say with response.



I?m also sorry that happened to you?the experience with your games, as well as with people online. Why anyone would attack you for sharing this story is beyond me.

Here?s hoping that neither you, nor anyone else, will have to go through something similar for New Horizons.


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## pensenaute (Jul 4, 2019)

This is so true!

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Stevey Queen said:


> I think Nintendo should offer cloud saves for the game but compromise to stop cheaters. (Personally, people can do whatever the heck they want with their games, I really dont care and I don't know why Nintendo cares either especially with a game like animal crossing)
> 
> Maybe you can only use your cloud save when your switch is damaged. Idk



I feel the same, It doesn’t concern me if people want to cheat, but I’m trying to respect the developers’ wishes. I really, really hope they give us some sort of compromise because I plan to play this game for so many hours! 

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Wow. After I read what happened to you I just stared at my phone for a while... this is the first time that I hear this issue and IT’S SCARY! This just goes to show that you can do everything perfectly and STILL you can have something like this happen. You don’t deserve to be attacked for this at all, your story needs to be heard! I can’t imagine having to be forced to wipe your Switch clean. You gave me strength to keep working on this, I think ALL Nintendo games should be played safely. Thank you so much for sharing this story!


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## jefflomacy (Jul 4, 2019)

Loonep said:


> Hi, I think you're probably right about nintendo wanting to protect the "image" of their franchise, and I totally can understand that.
> In the same time, I mean : Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo are all three big companies. Microsoft and Sony found a way (a long time ago) to use all the capacity of cloud save, without having too much trouble with cheating. ...



The primary concern for Animal Crossing is item duplication. A google search for the phrase "item duplication cloud saves" reveals hundreds of forum threads where people discuss exploiting XBox and PlayStation cloud saves to duplicate items. Microsoft and Sony have not resolved this issue. I would argue that there may not be a solution to this problem when multiplayer is involved, unless you clear all user inventory and every dropped item on the map. 

For Animal Crossing this wouldn't be as devastating as starting over, but all you could really keep in a cloud save is your villagers and the status of various locations (like the state of Tom Nook's store and the museum, if applicable). I'm not even sure you could save trees or flowers without risk of duplication exploits. They would have to delete: everything in your inventory and inbox, all outgoing mail, every flower and tree, all bells on your person and in the bank, and every dropped item such as inside and outside furniture. The town you download from the cloud would have to regenerate starter-game trees. If they went to this length, I think they could prevent item duplication.

This is a non-trivial problem that Microsoft and Sony appear to be ignoring. The one thing I do find absurd, however, is Splatoon 2 ranking data being stored on the local device. I could be missing something, but it's hard for me to imagine why it was implemented this way.


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 4, 2019)

Fey said:


> I’m also sorry that happened to you—the experience with your games, as well as with people online. Why anyone would attack you for sharing this story is beyond me.
> 
> Here’s hoping that neither you, nor anyone else, will have to go through something similar for New Horizons.



Some people thought I was covering for a hacked Switch, but my Switch is as vanilla as it comes.  And others thought I was making stuff up because it had never happened to them.  Truth be told, I didn't expect it myself.  And yes, here's hoping it doesn't happen. 

I dunno how to merge posts so I'll just respond to pensenuate here *fail anime style sweat drop*

You're welcome.

I think all Nintendo games should be played safely too.  I've been playing Nintendo all my life, and while I enjoy other consoles as well (I mostly do Nintendo/PC myself) Nintendo's always been a big part of my life.

Sometimes I feel the need to get critical about choices they make because I don't like seeing them receive backlash when people think a decision is bad.  I've even been critical about Switch Online and this only furthered my issues with the cloud saves.

Either way, this hasn't changed my decision to get New Horizons...though I might be annoyed at having to restart the island if something like this happens again.


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## will. (Jul 4, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> Some people thought I was covering for a hacked Switch, but my Switch is as vanilla as it comes.  And others thought I was making stuff up because it had never happened to them.  Truth be told, I didn't expect it myself.  And yes, here's hoping it doesn't happen.
> 
> I dunno how to merge posts so I'll just respond to pensenuate here *fail anime style sweat drop*
> 
> ...



i stated before that it's risky to hack your switch because theres a high chance of a ban, but i will say that if you have the knowledge, i would go ahead and do it just so you can access a save manager. losing a game like this is so devastating and im sure we're all big enough fans to feel the same way about losing something we've worked hard on...


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 4, 2019)

donnellcrossing said:


> i stated before that it's risky to hack your switch because theres a high chance of a ban, but i will say that if you have the knowledge, i would go ahead and do it just so you can access a save manager. losing a game like this is so devastating and im sure we're all big enough fans to feel the same way about losing something we've worked hard on...



I dunno a thing about hacking to begin with.  I can't even get my livestreaming stuff set up correctly.  I'm that hopeless lol.


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## MarcelTheFool (Jul 4, 2019)

tbh all i hack for is giving people dream villagers or rare items. i always make it clear theyre hacked and wont offer flowers since hacked ones are glitched. They seriously need to allow cloud saves.


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## pensenaute (Jul 4, 2019)

The compromise you explained is obviously really bittersweet but it?s much better than losing everything. That?d be a compromise for at least protecting a part of all those hours we?ll spend playing!


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## Loonep (Jul 4, 2019)

jefflomacy said:


> The primary concern for Animal Crossing is item duplication. A google search for the phrase "item duplication cloud saves" reveals hundreds of forum threads where people discuss exploiting XBox and PlayStation cloud saves to duplicate items. Microsoft and Sony have not resolved this issue. I would argue that there may not be a solution to this problem when multiplayer is involved, unless you clear all user inventory and every dropped item on the map.
> 
> For Animal Crossing this wouldn't be as devastating as starting over, but all you could really keep in a cloud save is your villagers and the status of various locations (like the state of Tom Nook's store and the museum, if applicable). I'm not even sure you could save trees or flowers without risk of duplication exploits. They would have to delete: everything in your inventory and inbox, all outgoing mail, every flower and tree, all bells on your person and in the bank, and every dropped item such as inside and outside furniture. The town you download from the cloud would have to regenerate starter-game trees. If they went to this length, I think they could prevent item duplication.
> 
> This is a non-trivial problem that Microsoft and Sony appear to be ignoring. The one thing I do find absurd, however, is Splatoon 2 ranking data being stored on the local device. I could be missing something, but it's hard for me to imagine why it was implemented this way.



Thanks for you answer, I don't own an xbox or a ps4 so I don't know a lot about how it works! 
So it means that it can be really hard for Nintendo to prevent cheating, and I'm not too much into cheating mechanics into AC. But at the same time they know they are building a game for player to invest a lot of hours and love, it can't be less important than some cheaters. They know our feelings are really involved in this franchise, they built it this way, this is their goal, so they should know how important it is to protect our save. Way more important than item duplication or whatnot


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## Kirbyz (Jul 4, 2019)

The people saying it’s “not a big deal”, stop continuously saying it’s “not a big deal” as this forum was literally made for anyone who wants to sign the petition as it’s a big deal for them. No one asked for you to comment that, so if you disagree, fine, just leave the forum and move on to the next. Is that a “big deal”? Everyone keeps saying it, like holy, I understand the first comment, everyone gets it already. Multiple people do not need to comment that. Pensenaute literally wrote this out in the nicest way possible. The’re trying to let everyone know that’s there’s petition if we want to get involved and get Nintendo to fix this issue (which is a problem for a lot of people). If you don’t want to sign the petition, just go in peace and no problems have to be made. You saying it’s “not a big deal” won’t change anyone else’s mind about doing so. It’s not a big deal for you, it’s a big deal for them. People have different opinions and you should respect it rather than saying that.


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## Jason Voorhees (Jul 4, 2019)

I would rather be able to save on my game cart. 

Make a petition to kill autosave and I'll sign that.


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## Loonep (Jul 5, 2019)

Constantine said:


> I would rather be able to save on my game cart.
> 
> Make a petition to kill autosave and I'll sign that.



Hi, I understand your point of view.
Unfortunately we wanted to ask something doable. Allowing cloud data for AC is doable easily for Nintendo. On the contrary asking them to put the data on the cartridge is not imo, since none of the game on the switch has save data on the cartridge.
For autosave I can see why you would want a petition about that, but if we did we surely won't have 2200+ signatures. Even with just asking for save backup we had a lot of backlash from people, and a lot of them wants cheating to be not allowed. We thought about it and the more important for most people imo is to have backup protection for their saves, so that's our best shot to be heard by Nintendo. Not with save data on the cartridge or autosave I think !


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## Loonep (Jul 5, 2019)

Kirbyz said:


> The people saying it?s ?not a big deal?, stop continuously saying it?s ?not a big deal? as this forum was literally made for anyone who wants to sign the petition as it?s a big deal for them. No one asked for you to comment that, so if you disagree, fine, just leave the forum and move on to the next. Is that a ?big deal?? Everyone keeps saying it, like holy, I understand the first comment, everyone gets it already. Multiple people do not need to comment that. Pensenaute literally wrote this out in the nicest way possible. The?re trying to let everyone know that?s there?s petition if we want to get involved and get Nintendo to fix this issue (which is a problem for a lot of people). If you don?t want to sign the petition, just go in peace and no problems have to be made. You saying it?s ?not a big deal? won?t change anyone else?s mind about doing so. It?s not a big deal for you, it?s a big deal for them. People have different opinions and you should respect it rather than saying that.



Hi, thank you for trying to support / defend us ahah. For sure we had a lot of backlash trying to share this petition. And mostly we discovered that we wanted people to be aware of the issue, since lot of people seemed to not understand at all how save data works for the switch. So at the end it's not a big problem to us if some people don't want to sign it, we all have different opinions indeed, we just want them to understand how things work so from there they can make a decision to sign it or not!


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## Monkeido (Jul 5, 2019)

Signed. I can't be bothered to read the whole thread, but for me it's absolutely ridiculous that stopping cheaters in a non-competitive game is more important than giving normal players peace of mind, which afaik is going to be the majority of the players.


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## TJRedeemer (Jul 5, 2019)

I would really like this to happen, so I've signed as well. I honestly think that cheating wouldn't be as big of a problem as Nintendo thinks if they enable cloud saving. Other consoles and services like Xbox Live and PSN+ also do cloud saves, and cheating doesn't seem to be a problem there, and when it is, it doesn't involve exploiting cloud saves. All I ask is that as a community we should be respectful of Nintendo's decisions, mainly because I am so tired of seeing gaming communities being split for trivial reasons like "No National Dex" in Pokemon Sword and Shield, which I'm also pretty excited for. But I'll stop there since I could ramble on about that for a while...



Monkeido said:


> but for me it's absolutely ridiculous that stopping cheaters in a non-competitive game is more important than giving normal players peace of mind,



This. In games like Splatoon and Maybe even Pokemon it is understandable but for a non-competitive game like this, who really cares if someone cheats or not? Personally, I think it takes away the fun, but to each their own I guess, as long as they don't hurt someone else.



Constantine said:


> Make a petition to kill autosave and I'll sign that.



What do you have against autosave? I think that it is a great idea. Sure, it means no more save scumming but you would always get the wrath of Mr. Resetti if you did that anyway. But why would you want... wait a minute, you ARE Mr. Resetti! No wonder you hate autosave, it took your job. Best of luck to you and finding a new job, I'm rooting for you.


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## TJRedeemer (Jul 5, 2019)

Edit: Sorry for double posting. Would delete this post if I could but the first one didn't go through right away. I merged this post with the first one to avoid confusion.


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## pensenaute (Jul 6, 2019)

Hi! Thanks so much for posting! I sure mind my backup more than I do cheaters, but maybe Nintendo wants to avoid DLC item duplication or something like that? something that some people pay for and others don't?

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Thanks for signing! It's kind of crazy considering how many hours we put into AC and how much we get attached to the town and villagers. It would be hours of our lives just gone and for nothing :/

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Thanks for this! I mean, we know we're not trying to cure illnesses or something like that, but it's people's time we're talking about, it's their time and lives put into a game with no safeguard at all...


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## will. (Jul 6, 2019)

i hope you can get all the signatures on this! even if it means nothing, maybe nintendo will see it. we basically know for a fact that they're listening to fans so it's a strong possibility that they'll hear you!

good luck!


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## pensenaute (Jul 6, 2019)

Thanks so much! And that is our big hope  at least we get the word around, right?


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 6, 2019)

My big concern is that Nintendo seems to be overtly stubborn on how the online services are set up.  They acknowledge lack of sales and everyone was all "This is what we want" and instead of listening to thousands of voices they instead were all "$20 off $120 worth of 1st and 2nd party games.  Now you all have a reason to subscribe to our service!"

I sincerely hope we get our wishes through this petition, but I'm also worried that they'll disregard our reasoning for requesting the decision be reversed.  Either way, I'd sign this several times over if each of my individual signatures would count.


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## FlimsyAxe (Jul 6, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> I sincerely hope we get our wishes through this petition



Not to be a downer but 2500 signatures is such a small number that I doubt it would be significant enough for Nintendo to notice. You guys need to get this out on other platforms too like reddit or twitter.


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## Fey (Jul 6, 2019)

FlimsyAxe said:


> You guys need to get this out on other platforms too like reddit or twitter.



That’s a really good point, I second this! I’m sure there’s many more people out there that feel similar and would support the petition! It’s great that Justin wrote and article about it on ACW.


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## Shellzilla_515 (Jul 6, 2019)

I just went ahead and signed the petition even though I won't be getting the online service for a while. It's not going to benefit me but definitely will to others if the petition does go through. I totally agree that no matter how cautious you are with your switch, there's always a chance it will just break on you and lose all of the precious work on it. Plus, save data works differently on the switch as it saves to the system itself and not the cartridge. But it's important to see both sides though as to why and why we shouldn't have cloud saves. On one hand, it's because of course, people hacking their saves and that the majority of us survived without a misfortune. On the other side, it's what I said at the beginning of this post.


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## Jason Voorhees (Jul 6, 2019)

TJRedeemer said:


> What do you have against autosave? I think that it is a great idea. Sure, it means no more save scumming but you would always get the wrath of Mr. Resetti if you did that anyway. But why would you want... wait a minute, you ARE Mr. Resetti! No wonder you hate autosave, it took your job. Best of luck to you and finding a new job, I'm rooting for you.



Read my replies in the topic about that feature. 

Many people don't like it, it's a personal choice and I don't understand the acidity in your reply. There wasn't a need for it.


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## watercolorwish (Jul 7, 2019)

Signed! This feels like the same level of annoyance Pokemon fans are going through right now with the removal of the national dex. While they won't budge with their decision, I have hope that the team working on ACNH will see all this and take it into consideration


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## pensenaute (Jul 7, 2019)

Thanks so much for signing! I feel like there's more in stakes in our case, but we at least have a chance they'll make a compromise.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Hi! We're already there, my friend  facebook, twitter, reddit, instagram, youtube, scratch and the jeuxvideo.com forum! It's not easy to collect signatures this early before the game, but we're trying to get a head start when more interviews come out and the announce the lack of cloud saves again. You can find us on twitter at @backupforACNH and on instagram at acnhbackup!

- - - Post Merge - - -

Justin did us a big favor when we had very few signatures  we're already on facebook, twitter, reddit, instagram, youtube, scratch and the jeuxvideo.com forum! If you'd like to check us out, you can do so on twitter at @backupforACNH and on instagram at acnhbackup! <3


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## Nezartz (Jul 7, 2019)

Chouchou said:


> Calm down plz it's not even a big deal



It's easy to say that until you've spent 500+ hours on your save, then wake up one morning to "Game data is corrupted or missing." and there's nothing you can do about it besides start again. Issues on data loss & corruption are always someone elses problem, until they're not.


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## pensenaute (Jul 7, 2019)

I want to print and frame this.


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 7, 2019)

FlimsyAxe said:


> Not to be a downer but 2500 signatures is such a small number that I doubt it would be significant enough for Nintendo to notice. You guys need to get this out on other platforms too like reddit or twitter.



Very true.  I don't have reddit nor Twitter myself, but I would definitely suggest all who do share it around there.


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## will. (Jul 7, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> Very true.  I don't have reddit nor Twitter myself, but I would definitely suggest all who do share it around there.



its been spread around twitter and instagram somewhat! I've seen it places... it just needs to gain traction!


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## TJRedeemer (Jul 7, 2019)

Constantine said:


> Read my replies in the topic about that feature.
> 
> Many people don't like it, it's a personal choice and I don't understand the acidity in your reply. There wasn't a need for it.



Acidity? It was just a joke, but I'm sorry if I offended you. I completely understand why some people may not be fans of autosaving, but for me personally, it offers peace of mind in case something would happen as the game crashing or just accidentally turning the system off (which I have done before, believe it or not). Again, I'm genuinely sorry if I offended you, sometimes my humor can be a bit... blunt.


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## Tasty (Jul 7, 2019)

Signed and shared out a bit ago. Really hoping they change their minds with this, especially with autosave being a thing.


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## Jason Voorhees (Jul 7, 2019)

TJRedeemer said:


> Acidity? It was just a joke, but I'm sorry if I offended you. I completely understand why some people may not be fans of autosaving, but for me personally, it offers peace of mind in case something would happen as the game crashing or just accidentally turning the system off (which I have done before, believe it or not). Again, I'm genuinely sorry if I offended you, sometimes my humor can be a bit... blunt.



Thats ok. I feel that auto save offers me peace of mind if I make a mistake after working on something, painstakingly long, only to have the game take away my option to reset and allow me to not have dug up that blue rose that took literally half a year to spawn, or hit the wrong reply to an animal. Lots of things. 

I also really didn't know that the game doesn't save on the cart. I'm rethinking getting a Switch no matter how good the game looks, as I am not saving a game I physically own, on the internet. 

It should save on the cart.


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 7, 2019)

donnellcrossing said:


> its been spread around twitter and instagram somewhat! I've seen it places... it just needs to gain traction!



Well here's hoping it does.


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

Thanks! <3

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Thanks so much! <3

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donnellcrossing said:


> its been spread around twitter and instagram somewhat! I've seen it places... it just needs to gain traction!



This is true, also Facebook, Reddit, Twitch and Discord  Hopefully, it will really take off when they make more interviews to the devs about the issue. <3


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## lars708 (Jul 8, 2019)

I signed but for Nintendo to actually care we'd need at least 100k signs


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## Loonep (Jul 8, 2019)

lars708 said:


> I signed but for Nintendo to actually care we'd need at least 100k signs



Hi! I guess you're right!
Actually we know that 100k would be really hard to get. Mostly because lot of people don't get why this is a problem + some others want more confirmation from Nintendo first.
I think you are right about the number of signatures, but at the same time I think about what happened for Mario Maker 2 multiplayer : it was not really the number of people that made Nintendo changed their mind imo, it was more some people really loud and lot of articles from game media. I think if we have 5k-10k signatures the day AC devs make interviews talking about cloud saves again, maybe we can try to make game media looking at our petition and do articles about it. That would lead lot of people learning about it and talking more about it on social media (being top trending on twitter or else). I guess in that case Nintendo would have to pay attention ?


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 8, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> Thanks! <3
> 
> - - - Post Merge - - -
> 
> ...



I'm in a Discord group where the group owner loves Animal Crossing.  I copied the petition link so when I get the new charger cable for my laptop (using a back up machine without Discord) I can hand it off to her and let her know what's going on.


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> I'm in a Discord group where the group owner loves Animal Crossing.  I copied the petition link so when I get the new charger cable for my laptop (using a back up machine without Discord) I can hand it off to her and let her know what's going on.



Woaaah, that's SOO kind of you, thank you! If the owner of the Discord has questions, please let me know


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 8, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> Woaaah, that's SOO kind of you, thank you! If the owner of the Discord has questions, please let me know



I will send the message along to her.  I MIGHT be able to get onto my main computer later today...a friend of mine is trying to rig up a phone charger/USB cable set up to attempt to charge the laptop.  If it doesn't work anytime between the end of the week and the 16th I should have it back.

Unrelated but funny: I convinced one of the members of the group to buy a Switch....without even trying to do so xD


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> I will send the message along to her.  I MIGHT be able to get onto my main computer later today...a friend of mine is trying to rig up a phone charger/USB cable set up to attempt to charge the laptop.  If it doesn't work anytime between the end of the week and the 16th I should have it back.
> 
> Unrelated but funny: I convinced one of the members of the group to buy a Switch....without even trying to do so xD



Ok, I'm trusting the petition to you, who clearly has some convincing skillz hahaha how did you manage that?


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 8, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> Ok, I'm trusting the petition to you, who clearly has some convincing skillz hahaha how did you manage that?



I have noooo idea.  He was all "Hey dude you play a lot of Nintendo products, what do you think of the Switch?"  Me: I like it.  It's not without it's flaws but it's definitely a good system to own.  Him: What games would you recommend?  Me: Depends on your tastes.  FIVE MINUTES LATER Him: Well, say goodbye to the money in my wallet *shows a receipt for a Nintendo Switch, BotW, Odyssey, Splatoon 2 AND Skyrim all purchased at once*


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

HAAAHAHAHAAH xD I guess you seem like a pretty trustworthy guy 

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Thanks for signing!


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 8, 2019)

Lol.  Well I can definitely share the petition around...unfortunately I can't promise any guarantee people will sign it.  There are some people who will treat this like "We're all entitled babies for giving feedback to Nintendo."  I've seen so many trolls trying to play that card for the National Dex fiasco.

I still say the consumer's voice is the most important in the business of selling a product though.


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

EvilTheCat6600 said:


> Lol.  Well I can definitely share the petition around...unfortunately I can't promise any guarantee people will sign it.  There are some people who will treat this like "We're all entitled babies for giving feedback to Nintendo."  I've seen so many trolls trying to play that card for the National Dex fiasco.
> 
> I still say the consumer's voice is the most important in the business of selling a product though.



Thanks so much! I completely agree, I mean, at the very least we have the right to speak our minds!


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## Bitty (Jul 8, 2019)

I don't know how i feel about all this...I understand the concern but still. I just don't think that many people really care that much, of course there will be cases in which data is corrupted and you lose everything but the likely hood I feel is so little I don't think much will come out of it. I think with NH nintendo is really trying to deal with "cheaters" and I only use that word because I honestly can't think of another one to use. It's really common for people to time travel for their benefit, now I don't care if people do this I don't but it's a single player experience so who really cares. However I think Nintendo really doesn't like this reality of the game, so they're trying extra hard to put a stop to it. It's my theory that they feel like it nullifies the whole intended purpose of AC when it was first conceptualized, which of course was to live in a quaint, little town and take it slow.

Now in terms of this backlash of not having cloud access to save I get it, but I think there are more people who don't really mind about this compared to the people who do.


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

Bitty said:


> I don't know how i feel about all this...I understand the concern but still. I just don't think that many people really care that much, of course there will be cases in which data is corrupted and you lose everything but the likely hood I feel is so little I don't think much will come out of it. I think with NH nintendo is really trying to deal with "cheaters" and I only use that word because I honestly can't think of another one to use. It's really common for people to time travel for their benefit, now I don't care if people do this I don't but it's a single player experience so who really cares. However I think Nintendo really doesn't like this reality of the game, so they're trying extra hard to put a stop to it. It's my theory that they feel like it nullifies the whole intended purpose of AC when it was first conceptualized, which of course was to live in a quaint, little town and take it slow.
> 
> Now in terms of this backlash of not having cloud access to save I get it, but I think there are more people who don't really mind about this compared to the people who do.



You're right, we've heard this quite a bit: "I've never hard any Nintendo system break, so why should something happen now?" and for me it's sort of the same, except I had my Wii stolen, but I don't really understand this way of thinking. Since starting the petition we've heard some horrible stories about people losing their data and how it affected them, so you have to be nice and do it for them as well. I think overall it's a much more enjoyable playing experience if you know your game saves will be there no matter what. If you're feeling curious, on the bottom of the petition page there's like a discussion of the reasons people gave to sign the petition, and some of them talk about what happened to their hours and stuff!


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## QueenOpossum (Jul 8, 2019)

traceguy said:


> Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? Cloud saves were not a thing in the previous games, and we all survived, granted less than 1% may have had corruption.



"Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? People have been painting with lead forever. Lead paint has been great for a long time, and we all survived...granted some people had brain damage, but they were eating paint..."

Humans are all about trying to improve. Its why we have fire and houses. The status quo is something to question if we can do it better, not default to.


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## Bitty (Jul 8, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> You're right, we've heard this quite a bit: "I've never hard any Nintendo system break, so why should something happen now?" and for me it's sort of the same, except I had my Wii stolen, but I don't really understand this way of thinking. Since starting the petition we've heard some horrible stories about people losing their data and how it affected them, so you have to be nice and do it for them as well. I think overall it's a much more enjoyable playing experience if you know your game saves will be there no matter what. If you're feeling curious, on the bottom of the petition page there's like a discussion of the reasons people gave to sign the petition, and some of them talk about what happened to their hours and stuff!



I didn't say :I've never had any nintendo system break" I said there will be cases. I will never deny that **** can go wrong with any game system because there are millions of people who own these systems and the notion that it would never happen is ridiculous to even suggest. I'm just suggesting that the ratio of People who had/will have issues with their switch (may that be theft(which btw sorry that your Wii got stolen) or data corruption or whatever that case may be) may be a really small minority compared to the people who don't. There will be bad scenarios which is the unfortunate reality of life.


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## QueenOpossum (Jul 8, 2019)

Constantine said:


> Thats ok. I feel that auto save offers me peace of mind if I make a mistake after working on something, painstakingly long, only to have the game take away my option to reset and allow me to not have dug up that blue rose that took literally half a year to spawn, or hit the wrong reply to an animal. Lots of things.
> 
> I also really didn't know that the game doesn't save on the cart. I'm rethinking getting a Switch no matter how good the game looks, as I am not saving a game I physically own, on the internet.
> 
> It should save on the cart.



It can't save on the cart. Switch Carts are read only - they cannot be saved to. Not a single switch cart can be saved to.


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## pensenaute (Jul 8, 2019)

No, no, I didn't say you said that, sorry! I just said we've heard that a lot  I actually agree with what you said 

- - - Post Merge - - -



enleft said:


> "Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? People have been painting with lead forever. Lead paint has been great for a long time, and we all survived...granted some people had brain damage, but they were eating paint..."
> 
> Humans are all about trying to improve. Its why we have fire and houses. The status quo is something to question if we can do it better, not default to.



Some peeps are against technology hahaha


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## Fey (Jul 8, 2019)

Bitty said:


> I'm just suggesting that the ratio of People who had/will have issues with their switch (may that be theft(which btw sorry that your Wii got stolen) or data corruption or whatever that case may be) may be a really small minority compared to the people who don't. *There will be bad scenarios which is the unfortunate reality of life.*



Sure, but it also makes sense to limit these bad scenarios.

No matter the risk of being in a serious accident, wouldn?t you rather have airbags just in case? If other companies all installed airbags in their cars, wouldn?t you question the company that doesn?t? 

I realize the scenarios are different in severity and likelihood, but my point is that there?s no reason not to put safety measures in place whenever they?re possible.


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## Jason Voorhees (Jul 8, 2019)

enleft said:


> It can't save on the cart. Switch Carts are read only - they cannot be saved to. Not a single switch cart can be saved to.



That's why I've decided not to get one. It isn't worth it.


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## Loonep (Jul 9, 2019)

Constantine said:


> That's why I've decided not to get one. It isn't worth it.



Unfortunately all game company do that today, microsoft and sony stopped the concept of having the save on the cartridge/CD a long time ago. And it kind of worries me too because, even with save clouds, if some days they want to clear the server or else, we would lose every save data. I love to hear people telling about their save data from the gamecube era that they still can use and play. But I fear it is over.
But at least I think they should protect our save the best they can. I mean every game on the switch has cloud save protection, except 3 big AAA/Nintendo games (maybe others that I don't know of), it seems really really weird and not fine to me !


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## pensenaute (Jul 9, 2019)

Hi everyone! Yesterday, the petition reached another goal with 2,500 signatures! Thank you all so much and please remember to let Nintendo know you want a backup for AC:NH in their social media <3


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## Melodie (Jul 9, 2019)

Loonep said:


> And it kind of worries me too because, even with save clouds, if some days they want to clear the server or else, we would lose every save data.


Pretty sure they use more than just one server for this and I think that even a server has it's own 
backup, like if they want to clear a server, the data goes to another server. If they wouldn't give a 
damn about the save data of their customers and would handle them sloppy, the whole cloud save 
thing would be pointless. So I'm pretty sure Nintendo and other big companies doing their best to 
protect the save data as best as possible.

As for this petition, I hope it gets lots of attention and that Nintendo will notice this. It's a nice idea 
and I understand the fans here.


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## Loonep (Jul 9, 2019)

Perlounette said:


> Pretty sure they use more than just one server for this and I think that even a server has it's own
> backup, like if they want to clear a server, the data goes to another server. If they wouldn't give a
> damn about the save data of their customers and would handle them sloppy, the whole cloud save
> thing would be pointless. So I'm pretty sure Nintendo and other big companies doing their best to
> ...



Oh yes you are right! I was more thinking about those games that people can't play anymore bc a company decided that it was over (too old or not enough players anymore). I guess AC is too big of a franchise for that to happen but I am wondering if they'll keep the data for 10-15years?
Thank you for the support


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## Jason Voorhees (Jul 9, 2019)

So if I spend a year on a town, and can't save to the cart, and I wouldn't use cloud reguardless, and the Switch packs it in, I've lost everything.... 

Why can't they make it save to the cart, or to an SD card at the very least! 

I can no longer find anything good about the Switch that would make me risk that amount of money. 

This sucks.


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## Rusolando-Kun (Jul 9, 2019)

It's actually kind of funny but I wrote a looong message and hit the "Post Quick Reply" button... just to have the forum give me an error message and me loosing the entire message. 

In any way, what I wanted to say is that this topic is a very interesting one and a very important one because our digital era is kind of bad. Most game developers and publishers don't care about the preservation of their games and save files, patches, DLC.... sadly, most games are treated as some product which stops being important the moment a new one comes out. It might be true for games like Call of Duty or FIFA, but it's not true for games like Animal Crossing and many-many other games with living worlds. I personally see all of my favorite games (Animal Crossing included) as this little portal that opens up a window to all of these amazing, playful worlds.

And what I want to say is that while digital era makes it difficult to preserve games, it doesn't really matter. Everything can happen in life and even the most secure protection won't save everything. Accidents can happen, a console can break out of nothing, a cartridge can be lost, Nintendo can turn off their servers and the patches, DLC and save files won't be able to be downloaded anymore - it's just how it is. I don't like this, but there's not much we can do because nothing is infinite. 
But I can promise you one thing - the worlds that you care about and all of the adventures you have and will be having - they will never stop being a part of you. A save file can break, a game console can break but the moment you experience them, the moment you start building your feelings and emotions connected with those worlds... that's when they become a part of you. And when that happens, there is absolutely *nothing *that will ever take away these worlds from you. 

Do not worry. (*＾▽＾)／


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## Speeny (Jul 10, 2019)

Rusolando-Kun said:


> It's actually kind of funny but I wrote a looong message and hit the "Post Quick Reply" button... just to have the forum give me an error message and me loosing the entire message.
> 
> In any way, what I wanted to say is that this topic is a very interesting one and a very important one because our digital era is kind of bad. Most game developers and publishers don't care about the preservation of their games and save files, patches, DLC.... sadly, most games are treated as some product which stops being important the moment a new one comes out. It might be true for games like Call of Duty or FIFA, but it's not true for games like Animal Crossing and many-many other games with living worlds. I personally see all of my favorite games (Animal Crossing included) as this little portal that opens up a window to all of these amazing, playful worlds.
> 
> ...



Beautifully said.


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## pensenaute (Jul 10, 2019)

Constantine said:


> So if I spend a year on a town, and can't save to the cart, and I wouldn't use cloud reguardless, and the Switch packs it in, I've lost everything....
> 
> Why can't they make it save to the cart, or to an SD card at the very least!
> 
> ...



That could be another solution as well! That they allow us to save the game on the micro sd, but so far, we're not able to do that with any game 

- - - Post Merge - - -

Wow, beautiful words! <3


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## RisingSun (Jul 10, 2019)

signed....while I don't stress about my town as other's do, I understand the desire.  I would hate to lose something unintentionally without a backup.  I also intend to purchase the digital version, so I really don't want to lose it to a Switch malfunction.


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## JKDOS (Jul 10, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> That could be another solution as well! That they allow us to save the game on the micro sd, but so far, we're not able to do that with any game



The problem with that is it doesn't stop people from restoring old saves.


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## TJRedeemer (Jul 10, 2019)

Constantine said:


> So if I spend a year on a town, and can't save to the cart, and I wouldn't use cloud reguardless, and the Switch packs it in, I've lost everything....
> 
> Why can't they make it save to the cart, or to an SD card at the very least!
> 
> ...



Well if money vs. risk is your concern, maybe you would be a good candidate for the newly announced Switch Mini. It's portable only and only costs $200. Sure, you risk losing it if you take it somewhere, but you could always just leave it home if that's a concern... just a thought.


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## Jason Voorhees (Jul 10, 2019)

TJRedeemer said:


> Well if money vs. risk is your concern, maybe you would be a good candidate for the newly announced Switch Mini. It's portable only and only costs $200. Sure, you risk losing it if you take it somewhere, but you could always just leave it home if that's a concern... just a thought.



Does that allow game saves on the game cart?

I would think losing any amount of money due to nintendo's complete and utter laziness would be a concern for everyone. 

They could at least make games save to an SD card.


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## pensenaute (Jul 11, 2019)

Thanks so much for your help and support! I'm also thinking of getting it digital 

- - - Post Merge - - -

That's also true, but it's more to say that we're open to any backup option, not just cloud


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## Neechan (Jul 11, 2019)

At least let us save to the sd card if cloud saves are out of the question.

The fact that cloud saves aren’t supported in a game that is time consuming as animal crossing is questionable at least, I know that if I lost my towns save, I wouldn’t be starting over right away, I’d never play it until I was over the loss. (Dramatic, I know, but an example is that I almost lost my town of Skyloft that I had since NL was released, and if I didn’t have a save file backed up, I would have abandoned it...until the urge to play and start over came (and laugh at me all you want) but when Portia moved out of my town, I didn’t play for a month)

But until cloud saves are allowed or something is changed fo how saves work, I’m not buying this, I’d watch let’s plays


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 11, 2019)

Well the owner of the Discord group I'm in signed the petition.  Hopefully she'll share it around.


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## will. (Jul 11, 2019)

Neechan said:


> But until cloud saves are allowed or something is changed fo how saves work, I’m not buying this, I’d watch let’s plays



I think that's a little over the top tho...

yes its super annoying that we can't cloud save, but I want to enjoy this game and yeah something might happen but ill try my hardest to avoid damage to my switch.


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## Loonep (Jul 12, 2019)

Neechan said:


> At least let us save to the sd card if cloud saves are out of the question.
> 
> The fact that cloud saves aren?t supported in a game that is time consuming as animal crossing is questionable at least, I know that if I lost my towns save, I wouldn?t be starting over right away, I?d never play it until I was over the loss. (Dramatic, I know, but an example is that I almost lost my town of Skyloft that I had since NL was released, and if I didn?t have a save file backed up, I would have abandoned it...until the urge to play and start over came (and laugh at me all you want) but when Portia moved out of my town, I didn?t play for a month)
> 
> But until cloud saves are allowed or something is changed fo how saves work, I?m not buying this, I?d watch let?s plays



Oh I can understand, it is a franchise that lot of people invest emotions in, even saw some videos of guys/girls saying that it helped them with depression or other troubles. So if I lose my 1yr-2yrs island I might stop playing for a while too!

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EvilTheCat6600 said:


> Well the owner of the Discord group I'm in signed the petition.  Hopefully she'll share it around.



You are so nice sharing it around, thank you


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## pensenaute (Jul 12, 2019)

You rock!! Thanks a lot!

- - - Post Merge - - -

It's not dramatic, we were actually told that some people dropped the game altogether. It's a tough experience!


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## EvilTheCat6600 (Jul 12, 2019)

You're welcome ^.^


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## pensenaute (Jul 13, 2019)

maybe there can be limitations on the amount of times players are allowed to restore their old saves


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## JKDOS (Jul 15, 2019)

Neechan said:


> At least let us save to the sd card if cloud saves are out of the question.



That doesn't stop people from restoring old saves and duplicating items. Cloud saves are out of the question because of that reason, not that they aren't feasible.


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## Loonep (Jul 15, 2019)

traceguy said:


> That doesn't stop people from restoring old saves and duplicating items. Cloud saves are out of the question because of that reason, not that they aren't feasible.



You're right! I'm sure they can find a way to avoid tons of cheating more easily with cloud saves than with saves on the cartridge (like limiting the access) &#55357;&#56911;


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## pensenaute (Jul 16, 2019)

Cloud saves would be perfect though, it's a great way to switch from the Switch to the Switch Lite. There has to be a way that they can deter cheaters and still allow us to backup...


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## unintentional (Jul 18, 2019)

I'm pretty "meh" about it all.  Yeah, I'll be crushed if I lose my save data, but I'm just hoping that if it does happen, it happens when I get bored with the game and need a long break from it.

I have one of the first wave Switches that are easier to hack than current wave switches, but I'm still not gonna hack my switch lol.  Given how nintendo has went so far as to ban players who unknowingly play a pirated game or played a game with someone who has a hacked switch, I'm not gonna risk playing on a hacked switch just to have cloud saves.

I remember how item dupping "ruined" the acnl economy for a while until they patched out the glitch where you could go into the void and dup items using saves while in multiplayer.

Some players have hacked the leaderboards in splatoon 2 (the greatest one I think was calling out nintendo for allowing it to be so easily done.) and don't even remind me of the luigi balloon customized profile pictures.  I can see why nintendo is going as far as they can to avoid any way to hack or cheat acnh.


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## pensenaute (Jul 20, 2019)

unintentional said:


> I'm pretty "meh" about it all.  Yeah, I'll be crushed if I lose my save data, but I'm just hoping that if it does happen, it happens when I get bored with the game and need a long break from it.
> 
> I have one of the first wave Switches that are easier to hack than current wave switches, but I'm still not gonna hack my switch lol.  Given how nintendo has went so far as to ban players who unknowingly play a pirated game or played a game with someone who has a hacked switch, I'm not gonna risk playing on a hacked switch just to have cloud saves.
> 
> ...



It's ok for them to go as far as they want, but they should try not to do so at the expense of the players. I just hope that they can find a way to make sure no one can cheat plus give us a way to backup most or some of our data  

I didn't know Nintendo banned people for playing a game with someone with a hacked Switch, that's crazy! I mean, how the heck can we tell if someone's Switch is hacked or not? :O 

There's a lot about the online service that needs stepping up, I really hope they will reconsider this


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## Nix (Jul 21, 2019)

I signed the petition. I hope things get better with nintendo. They have been making pretty big mistakes lately. They dont seem to know what makes their consumer base happy. While it's true that they have made a great game for us to play and I'm really looking forward to it, they know what they were doing when they took away cloud saves. They aren't dumb. They scrutinize every decision they make before they make it. Even if they know it will go over poorly with their audience. Shoot, even when they put off the release date for ACNL their stock dropped massively. Get it together Nintendo.


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## pensenaute (Jul 22, 2019)

Nix said:


> I signed the petition. I hope things get better with nintendo. They have been making pretty big mistakes lately. They dont seem to know what makes their consumer base happy. While it's true that they have made a great game for us to play and I'm really looking forward to it, they know what they were doing when they took away cloud saves. They aren't dumb. They scrutinize every decision they make before they make it. Even if they know it will go over poorly with their audience. Shoot, even when they put off the release date for ACNL their stock dropped massively. Get it together Nintendo.



Yeah :/ it's crazy because of the type of game AC is: you play it for a long time, real-time hours are put into it. It's not a game you can fast track, you have to do the work, so it's crazy that there's no way to backup that work


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## Nix (Jul 22, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> Yeah :/ it's crazy because of the type of game AC is: you play it for a long time, real-time hours are put into it. It's not a game you can fast track, you have to do the work, so it's crazy that there's no way to backup that work



That's why it's so important that cloud saves are implemented. Splatoon 2 is a whole 'nother game. Progress is made much faster there. Cloud saves aren't as important. ACNL is a different kind of thing. I understand them wanting to stop cheaters, but at the expense of the rest of their playerbase it's not okay. Just lock the time you put into the town in the beginning of the game so you cant TT. Walla! Have the game automatically correct for the daylight savings and boom, how are they going to cheat? Time travel was the problem with previous titles, not saves.


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## pensenaute (Jul 23, 2019)

Nix said:


> That's why it's so important that cloud saves are implemented. Splatoon 2 is a whole 'nother game. Progress is made much faster there. Cloud saves aren't as important. ACNL is a different kind of thing. I understand them wanting to stop cheaters, but at the expense of the rest of their playerbase it's not okay. Just lock the time you put into the town in the beginning of the game so you cant TT. Walla! Have the game automatically correct for the daylight savings and boom, how are they going to cheat? Time travel was the problem with previous titles, not saves.



You're right, it seems that there are quite a bit of solutions (some easier and some a bit harder) but we think they're definitely worth the extra effort from the devs' part. At some point I really do hope they give us a way to backup  I personally couldn't care less what anyone does in their town or not


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## pensenaute (Aug 5, 2019)

Update to the petition: the popular youtube channel Commonwealth Realm just posted a video about the lack of cloud saves and about the video, I really recommend you checking it out, it's really good! <3


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## Loonep (Aug 8, 2019)

Hey guys, here is the link of the video if someone wants to check, they did a really great job  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjvk50ES-O0


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## Sweetley (Aug 13, 2019)

Now this is something I will definitely support, I will sign it. Good luck with your petition!


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## Tasty (Aug 13, 2019)

Was thinking about this the other day, and it may be worthwhile to pen an open letter to Nintendo about this (in as positive a tone as possible), and try to get prominent Nintendo YouTubers or personalities to sign on.

The problems are: what would it specifically say, and who could be asked about signing it? 

If this is not a good idea please let me know. I can try my hand at a draft otherwise.


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## pensenaute (Aug 18, 2019)

Golbetty said:


> Now this is something I will definitely support, I will sign it. Good luck with your petition!



Thank you so much! <3

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Tasty said:


> Was thinking about this the other day, and it may be worthwhile to pen an open letter to Nintendo about this (in as positive a tone as possible), and try to get prominent Nintendo YouTubers or personalities to sign on.
> 
> The problems are: what would it specifically say, and who could be asked about signing it?
> 
> If this is not a good idea please let me know. I can try my hand at a draft otherwise.



This is a great idea! We have a letter from the petition that gets sent to Nintendo every time someone signs. It goes like this:

_?I would like to start this letter by offering my biggest thanks for the time and the effort spent into making such a beautiful game! Animal Crossing: New Horizons looks like everything fans were expecting and you can really tell that the developers have worked very hard!

The only thing that sinks my heart every time I think about it is the inability to backup games saves for this game, as stated by its developer during an interview. Animal Crossing is the type of game where a way to backup data, preferably with cloud saves, are very important. This is because of the nature of the game: players spend hours and hours on it and during that time they form very strong emotional attachments to the town and its villagers. 

No two towns (or islands) are ever the same! Since the Switch is a portable console, it's more susceptible to being lost or broken or stolen. If this happens to our Switch, we would lose all our data... and no matter how much we try, there's just no way of getting that exact same town again. What's worse: losing, for example, 100 hours of gameplay will require the player around 100 hours more to get to the same place. It's time lost from our lives.

Throughout the short life of the petition, we've learned what Animal Crossing really means to people: a space to feel loved, cared and welcomed when everything else in the world seems unaccepting and not welcoming. This is why protecting each person's personal journey to create their island is absolutely necessary.

We ask you to please reconsider your decision to not have cloud saves in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and work towards a solution that will deter cheaters but will keep everyone's islands backed up. We respect your position to avoid certain exploitations but a way around it is always available! Thank you very much!?_

I don't know where I could publish an open letter, we're thinking of physically emailing this letter to NoA! I also encourage everyone who is worried about this to contact Nintendo and let them know, it could be via the Web Chat or on the phone. People can also reply to Isabelle or Nintendo's twitter. 

If you know of a place where I can publish this letter, let me know! If you can think of changes to make to it, also let me know :3 thanks for your idea!


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## Ossiran (Aug 18, 2019)

Here's why cloud saves probably aren't happening:

Think of it like this: Someone gets a King's Crown and gives it to a friend. They then reload that save data from the cloud and get it back to give it to another friend or the same friend. Repeat infinite times. Now do this with all items.

People say it won't happen, or it'll be limited, but it most definitely will happen. And a few people can ruin it for everyone.

Item duplication was a huge problem in previous Animal Crossing games, so they really don't want it to happen again.

Maybe once ACNH has been out for several months they'll add it in, or at best they'll make it so only one upload/download can be done every few months, but don't expect them to walk this one back so easily.


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## xhyloh (Aug 18, 2019)

It's not something I'm personally worried about, but signed anyway


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## pensenaute (Aug 19, 2019)

rosierotten said:


> It's not something I'm personally worried about, but signed anyway



Thanks!

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Tasty said:


> Was thinking about this the other day, and it may be worthwhile to pen an open letter to Nintendo about this (in as positive a tone as possible), and try to get prominent Nintendo YouTubers or personalities to sign on.
> 
> The problems are: what would it specifically say, and who could be asked about signing it?
> 
> If this is not a good idea please let me know. I can try my hand at a draft otherwise.



Here is the letter 

https://twitter.com/acnhbackup/status/1163479169721864194


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## Dacroze (Aug 20, 2019)

I've been following this thread since the beginning and really hope Cloud Saves will be available at launch. Nintendo is only punishing the players who are not cheating, because there are 20 million Switch units out there that can easily be modded to do manual backups, which means item duping will be a given anyway I guess, if the people who mod their Switch decide to dupe items. Animal Crossing is also in no way meant to be competetive. This game is meant to be played a long time, like Nintendo said at E3, so it makes no sense to disable Cloud Saves. There could always happen something to your Switch, even if you take care of it and saving to the console and not cartridge only makes it worse.

But the petition seems to gain a bit of traction recently. I saw a thread on the r/NintendoSwitch subreddit with 12k upvotes yesterday, following an online article and it was also covered in a video by SpawnWave today:
Article: https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/...animal-crossing-new-horizons-is-going-strong/
Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSw...ition_for_cloud_saves_in_animal_crossing_new/
SpawnWaves Video: https://youtu.be/UlC9VrY2wRc?t=320


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## Jason Voorhees (Aug 20, 2019)

Has anyone started a petition for SD card saves?

I don't want to save a game I would be playing with my wife only in our house, by having to pay for an internet service to save the game. It's not right.

I'm angry that nintendo hasn't offered SD card backup as now I won't ever be purchasing ACNH or a switch.


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## Blue Cup (Aug 20, 2019)

Constantine said:


> Has anyone started a petition for SD card saves?
> 
> I don't want to save a game I would be playing with my wife only in our house, by having to pay for an internet service to save the game. It's not right.
> 
> I'm angry that nintendo hasn't offered SD card backup as now I won't ever be purchasing ACNH or a switch.



That is something that most definitely will not happen. That is not a feature on the Switch at all and is highly unlikely to ever support it as it's require a slight overhaul of the Switch OS, plus Nintendo's own fear of homebrew being enabled somehow. 

The cloud save issue is something we stand a chance, albeit a small one, to change.


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## Jason Voorhees (Aug 20, 2019)

Speeny said:


> It?s disappointing but I?m not overly worried about it. Even if something did happen to my save, there?s something inspiring about starting a new file anyway.
> 
> EDIT: Signed anyway.



See if you feel that way after a year or two when your switch breaks and you've lost your town.

Animal crossing is therapeutic for many people, myself included. 
If I lost everything I wouldn't be saying "Meh.." and just shrugging it off.

- - - Post Merge - - -



Blue Cup said:


> That is something that most definitely will not happen. That is not a feature on the Switch at all and is highly unlikely to ever support it as it's require a slight overhaul of the Switch OS, plus Nintendo's own fear of homebrew being enabled somehow.
> 
> The cloud save issue is something we stand a chance, albeit a small one, to change.



Then I'll just have to say goodbye to AC, change games and consoles.


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## Blue Cup (Aug 21, 2019)

Well I mean, that's entirely your call and I am by no means one of any authority to try and persuade you otherwise.

I don't disagree with any of your points about the game being therapeutic and taking a lot of work, but in the end it's just that: A video game.


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## Tasty (Aug 23, 2019)

pensenaute said:


> This is a great idea! We have a letter from the petition that gets sent to Nintendo every time someone signs. It goes like this:
> 
> -snip-
> 
> I don't know where I could publish an open letter, we're thinking of physically emailing this letter to NoA!



Thank you! I'm glad you like the idea! Anything to help. 

I love the text in the petition, probably will use something very close to it!

Btw who is "we?" I'm excited there's more people part of this effort. 



pensenaute said:


> I also encourage everyone who is worried about this to contact Nintendo and let them know, it could be via the Web Chat or on the phone. People can also reply to Isabelle or Nintendo's twitter.
> 
> If you know of a place where I can publish this letter, let me know! If you can think of changes to make to it, also let me know :3 thanks for your idea!



I've bought the domain name *cloudyhorizons.org* for this! (Along with cloudyhorizons.com to forward on to the .org name.)

There's a couple other domains I thought might be cool, but "Cloudy Horizons" references:

- Cloud saves
- New Horizons (without using the full subtitle, aka avoiding trademark issues!)
- Something not being right ("Cloudy" as in "Uh oh, looks cloudy")

I imagine it being a single-page website with the letter as the main content, then in the footer have big links to the Petition, E3 trailer, and maybe a link to somehow send a physical letter to the developers. (Possibly a PDF template where the person can sign their name?)

I also think it's important we provide translations of the open letter in various languages (saying we represent AC fans around the world), but especially English and Japanese. I think the only way to affect change is letting the actual Nintendo EPD team in Japan know about this issue, and getting through to them will be difficult for sure!

I also have more ideas! I think we should do a big thing at least once a month (eventually working up to things like a charity livestream, etc.) But those are more out-there. 

I really care passionately about this issue, and just want to help without stepping on toes. So let me know if this all sounds OK!


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## lexy_ (Aug 24, 2019)

I really hope Nintendo will change their mind about the cloud saving, I saw lot of people crying when a villager left, can you imagine a entirely town be gone forever ? I will be devastated for sure if I lost my town because we put a lot of feeling/work/time inside that game....that game helps me in so many ways IRL. I don't want to loose everything. that game is special, at least for me and I want to preserve it as long as I can.


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## will. (Aug 24, 2019)

it's interesting that nintendo hasn't said anything new about nh or cloud saves in general. maybe in the next direct they'll change their minds...


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## Tasty (Aug 24, 2019)

donnellcrossing said:


> it's interesting that nintendo hasn't said anything new about nh or cloud saves in general. maybe in the next direct they'll change their minds...



If they decide to make a change, I don't expect to get an update about it until December/January...  Two months to listen to feedback and decide to make a change seems too short for a normal video game development schedule.

Would love to be proven wrong! But hoping people don't get their hopes up for too much too soon.


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## Blue Cup (Aug 25, 2019)

Plus you have to give them time to figure out how to implement it while still avoiding their, or rather the directors, irrational fear of cheating.

They may not implement it in a way that most might expect. They could perhaps only backup certain aspects of your save data, such as the town/island development and layout, villagers and personal belongings like letters and patterns.

They could also have it where certain items, say the throne or large amounts of stacked bells as examples, get flagged and thus aren't included in a backup regardless of whether it's in inventory or sitting around town.


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## Tasty (Aug 25, 2019)

Blue Cup said:


> Plus you have to give them time to figure out how to implement it while still avoiding their, or rather the directors, irrational fear of cheating.
> 
> They may not implement it in a way that most might expect. They could perhaps only backup certain aspects of your save data, such as the town/island development and layout, villagers and personal belongings like letters and patterns.
> 
> They could also have it where certain items, say the throne or large amounts of stacked bells as examples, get flagged and thus aren't included in a backup regardless of whether it's in inventory or sitting around town.



Exactly. It might be some kind of weird, manual, partial-backup option if they agree to do it, but at this point anything is better than nothing.


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## will. (Aug 26, 2019)

i heard someone say they won't be purchasing new horizons strictly because it doesn't have cloud saves the other day and i just want to say _thats the silliest thing ive ever heard._

to not do something for the fear of losing it is dumb. it's like not getting in a car because you're afraid you'll crash.
you get in the car, and if you crash, you deal with it. i think if i lost my new horizons save was lost id be upset but it wouldn't launch me into a depression or make me boycott nintendo or anything. i still think saves are a good idea but also.. it's not that serious.

i contributed to the discussion previously and my stance was that we should be all for cloud saves, but now i think it's gonna be fine if we don't have them. i don't think we should be all that upset with nintendo if they decide to not do cloud saves after all; platoon 2 is doing just fine without it; many people have dedicated hundreds of hours to that and continue to do so.

so idk lol


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## Jason Voorhees (Aug 27, 2019)

I don't think it's _dumb_ at all.

I'm tired of trying to justify why it would suck to lose a town.

People work. They have kids. They don't have time to redo months or years of work, and why should anyone have to? 

Let us save to the damn SD card at the very least!


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## Sweetley (Aug 27, 2019)

That argument from Nintendo that New Horizons gets no Cloud Save support because of cheating is
dumb. Like come on, they treat us as if we are all "cheaters". Besides, what's even the point to offer 
Cloud Saving if a bunch of the big Switch titles doesn't even get supported anyway? If Nintendo has 
a fear that people would use the Cloud Saving for "cheating" then they shouldn't offering it at all or
may find a good solution for their problem.



donnellcrossing said:


> platoon 2 is doing just fine without it; many people have dedicated hundreds of hours to that and continue to do so.



Just because they spent hundreds of hours into the game doesn't mean they don't have any fear to 
lose their progress. I see people who love to play Splatoon but still wishes Nintendo would give it a 
Cloud Save support, even 2 years later after the game came out. Some people may can deal with
a lost save file, others however not.


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## will. (Aug 27, 2019)

Golbetty said:


> Just because they spent hundreds of hours into the game doesn't mean they don't have any fear to
> lose their progress. I see people who love to play Splatoon but still wishes Nintendo would give it a
> Cloud Save support, even 2 years later after the game came out. Some people may can deal with
> a lost save file, others however not.



good point!! that was directed towards people who are refusing to play new horizons because there isn't a cloud save option. of coure i want cloud saves but its unreasonable to not play it simply because there isn't safety garaunteed.


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## SnowGarden (Sep 12, 2019)

will. said:


> i heard someone say they won't be purchasing new horizons strictly because it doesn't have cloud saves the other day and i just want to say _thats the silliest thing ive ever heard._
> 
> to not do something for the fear of losing it is dumb. it's like not getting in a car because you're afraid you'll crash.
> you get in the car, and if you crash, you deal with it. i think if i lost my new horizons save was lost id be upset but it wouldn't launch me into a depression or make me boycott nintendo or anything. i still think saves are a good idea but also.. it's not that serious.
> ...



That car analogy is flawed.  Refusing to buy this game because it doesn't have cloud saves is like someone refusing to buy a car because it doesn't come with industry standard safety equipment such as airbags and seatbelts.  These features are meant to protect us if there is a crash and are expected now.  Especially galling when Nintendo is expecting players to spring for a subscription service for online that is supposed to include cloud saves as a feature.  We are paying for that feature.  If someone wanted to buy and get in a car with no seatbelts, it would be their choice, and I really hope nothing bad would happen to them.  I wouldn't look down on anyone who refused to get in that car though.  

Losing nearly 2000 hours worth of work (my og New Leaf town has 1700+ hours of playtime for example) in a town isn't life and death, but it would be a pretty lousy player experience.  I've read multiple stories of people who have had corrupted data and lost their towns or other games.  What seems to happen across the board was that the affected players lost their desire to play the game afterwards and simply stopped.  If I am buying a Switch specifically for this game, that's a particularly unpleasant prospect.  

I've had Terraria data corrupted by game updates for my PSVita, and the cloud save kept me from having to start from scratch.  It was daunting enough just having to redo the couple of boss battles and the hours of item gathering, building, and crafting that I lost from not having backed up as recently as I should have.  It took a couple months before I worked myself up to playing those parts over.  

There is so much about New Horizons that looks awesome.  There's also some aspects that I am on the fence about and awaiting more information regarding.  The cloud save feature is something that is important to me, and I don't see myself buying this game without some kind of save backup.  As far as I'm concerned it's unreasonable for Nintendo to charge me for cloud saves and not give me what I am paying for.


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## pensenaute (Oct 26, 2019)

Tasty said:


> Thank you! I'm glad you like the idea! Anything to help.
> 
> I love the text in the petition, probably will use something very close to it!
> 
> ...



I'M SO SORRY FOR REPLYING LATE! I really apologize! This sounds fantastic, you'll be happy to know that our letter to Nintendo has been translated into German, Japanese, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese! Not bad, right?  so far, we've shared them on twitter tagging the corresponding Nintendo/Isabelle twitter for that country. 

When I say ?we? in regards to those working on the petition stuff, it's myself (hi, I'm Lucia ), Julie (@loonep) and Alex from the US !

- - - Post Merge - - -



Tasty said:


> If they decide to make a change, I don't expect to get an update about it until December/January...  Two months to listen to feedback and decide to make a change seems too short for a normal video game development schedule.
> 
> Would love to be proven wrong! But hoping people don't get their hopes up for too much too soon.



I hope so too, and this is what Spawnwave said as well! Crossing our fingers 

- - - Post Merge - - -



SnowGarden said:


> That car analogy is flawed.  Refusing to buy this game because it doesn't have cloud saves is like someone refusing to buy a car because it doesn't come with industry standard safety equipment such as airbags and seatbelts.  These features are meant to protect us if there is a crash and are expected now.  Especially galling when Nintendo is expecting players to spring for a subscription service for online that is supposed to include cloud saves as a feature.  We are paying for that feature.  If someone wanted to buy and get in a car with no seatbelts, it would be their choice, and I really hope nothing bad would happen to them.  I wouldn't look down on anyone who refused to get in that car though.
> 
> Losing nearly 2000 hours worth of work (my og New Leaf town has 1700+ hours of playtime for example) in a town isn't life and death, but it would be a pretty lousy player experience.  I've read multiple stories of people who have had corrupted data and lost their towns or other games.  What seems to happen across the board was that the affected players lost their desire to play the game afterwards and simply stopped.  If I am buying a Switch specifically for this game, that's a particularly unpleasant prospect.
> 
> ...



I agree with this, I think it's not our place to tell someone else that their concerns for backup is silly... some people just get more emotionally involved than others, some people might not want their hours of gameplay to be wasted. You mentioned how you almost lost your Terraria data but I'm guessing if you had to start over, you'd just have to do everything again. In Animal Crossing this isn't possible, everything is so absolutely personalized that getting the same town again is impossible. I really hope they'll offer us some kind of total or partial backup, for the sake of everyone


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