Animal Crossing as an handheld title or as a console title

[Boccages]

I have been reading this site for years now. I have had every single Animal Crossing title that Nintendo has published in the Americas since the first GameCube game. And I was already (although that was quite a novelty at that time) enabled to vote when in September of 2002 Animal Crossing came out.

Ever since New Leaf was announced, people have been making assumptions as to why Animal Crossing was a title fitting better for handheld consoles. Even some members here are saying Nintendo won't make an Animal Crossing title for Wii U because, heck, compared to the DS title, the Wii game didn't sell as much. And I've been wondering why the hell anyone would think that.

Do you ever, ever, think Nintendo's corporate residents ever stopped by the fire once and told themselves : well, looking at the sales of Mario Kart Wii and comparing those numbers to the ones of the 3DS... well, we are NEVER going to spend ressources on making a Mario Kart title for a handheld console of ours EVER again.

Same thing would apply, I guess, with The Legend of Zelda serie. Why would Nintendo suddenly tell itself : well this title fits better the home console market so let's just not waste our time ans make Zelda titles for our handhelds. That's just not how a well managed company would think.

Nintendo might well think : well, let's try and sell some Wii U consoles to those young women that have, up to now, mostly been ignoring the Wii U. Lets-a-look at what we can do to please that demographic. A Metroid game ? Nub-Huh. A Kirby game ? Well it's going to be released in February 2015. An F-Zero game ? Nope. And looking at recent numbers, we are in luck, Animal Crossing has steadily become Nintendo's 4th pillar in term of sales after Mario, Pok?mon and The Legend of Zelda, obviously they are going to tell themselves : let's fund a Wii U Animal Crossing project to meet those ever elusive demographics.

But why would people say that they like Animal Crossing better on the go, while they can carry it around ? Well, I don't have all the answers but let us look at the demographics here for a minute. And you'll find that the Animal Crossing series has an unusual fan base in the video gaming industry. It's user base is mostly made of young women (may they be teen, young adults). It has gathered its own following and rightfully so. Good for women gamers, good for Nintendo and good for the industry that has been - from the get-go - a bit to male-centric. But let's just look at what sort of console the women gamers demographic owns. Women gamers tend to prefer handheld consoles, women gamers also tend to be more casual gamers. Now, now. Do not reply to this thread : but I'm a girl and I have a PlayStation 3 and a Wii U at home. Ok sure you do ! But again, statistics are never based on sentences starting with me, I.

So puh-lease ! An Animal Crossing title for Wii U is 100% sure already in the works although it has not been unveiled yet. You might want a new Animal Crossing for your 3DS and might not like the idea of buying the Wii U console. I'm fine with it. But no, Animal Crossing is not an handheld only kind of game and just like Mario fits on home and handheld consoles perfectly, so does the Animal Crossing serie.

 

[oath2order]

In the works? Yes, but it's not likely far in development by my guess. The team that does AC is doing Splatoon atm.

 

[Boccages]

Well its not going to release this year for sure. No. But how a game studio works. And I'm talking about big studios such as Nintendo and Ubisoft, for example : they don't lay off people once an abled worker is done with a project. For example, artists (such as 3D modelling or just people that draw art) are usually needed in the pre-alpha stage where art is created and slowly implemented into the game. They are working on the game while the concept is still being laid out. Once the game has reached beta stage, these have not much else to do since most of the work will be done by coders, beta testers, etc. So these artists are moved to another project that is just starting. Splatoon, at the moment, is (and that's a very good guess to make) far in development if it's to be released during the next few months, early summer. I would bet that the team involved in the creation of the game has moved on to something else, such as Animal Crossing Wii U during 2014's summer. What's left ahead ? Splatoon's beta period must have been started by now and they are putting the final touch to the game, crunching in big time and retying to iron out the many bugs it still have. Animal Crossing Wii U by 2016 ? Totally feasible.

 

[oath2order]

Still, I doubt 2016. 3 years? ehhh...I'd rather they take longer. 3 years was the difference between WW and CF and we know how that turned out

 

[Boccages]

Well they released in autumn 2012 for ACNL. After that, the team moved on to Splatoon with NoA handling the Spanish and French translation while NoE handled the Italian and German ones for a summer 2013 release.

 

[pika62221]

By the way, now shouldn't be the first time that's come up as a handheld only game. The original, in all its American and Japanese variants only managed about 3 million units, compared to the near 12 million of the DS, to the just over 3 million Wii's to the around 8 or 9 million now 3DS (Nintendo releases their numbers later this month). Look at the numbers too, majority of those buying it aren't Americans, they're Japanese! This game is bigger in Japan than America, at least as far as sales and merchandise go. Point is, should New Leaf finish around 12 million too, it's a pretty consistent number that roughly 3 million sales home, versus 10 to 12 million handheld. That's rather interesting how the handheld sells 3 to 4 times the console level. This point should have been said 5 to 10 years ago when Wild World was outselling the other console versions combined, now New Leaf is echoing it, which is bringing up this sentiment again.

They've been trying to link consoles to handhelds for years, especially in the Animal Crossing series. Look back at Animal Crossing. How did you get to the island again? What did you do to read the e-reader cards? See? Game Boy Advance also played Animal Island. Plus, on the Wii, what was that suitcase to port again? The file from Wild World. The next one Nintendo will somehow try to tie to the handheld, because they have this notion that consoles and handhelds can and should be tied together. Some did it better than others. It's a very safe bet the next game in the series- we already know another one will come out, will somehow tie to Amiibo. That's all we can be guaranteed right now. Will they pull a Smash, and put the game onto both the New 3DS and the Wii U to have them connect? Will they somehow tie New Leaf to it instead like Wild World? Whatever they've been working on will later be revealed, but they do make far more money off the handheld variants of this series than the console, and the same will happen again, because the Wii U, as it's going right now, will be lucky to reach Nintendo 64 lifetime sales, and with a MUCH smaller install base than the Wii, expect a Wii U Animal Crossing to again have low console sales.

By the way never say never, if ANYONE had said in 1992 during the heart of the console wars that Sega games would be made on Nintendo systems, people would have told them they were crazy. What do we have today?

 

[Ku_otaku1]

By the way, now shouldn't be the first time that's come up as a handheld only game. The original, in all its American and Japanese variants only managed about 3 million units, compared to the near 12 million of the DS, to the just over 3 million Wii's to the around 8 or 9 million now 3DS (Nintendo releases their numbers later this month). Look at the numbers too, majority of those buying it aren't Americans, they're Japanese! This game is bigger in Japan than America, at least as far as sales and merchandise go. Point is, should New Leaf finish around 12 million too, it's a pretty consistent number that roughly 3 million sales home, versus 10 to 12 million handheld. That's rather interesting how the handheld sells 3 to 4 times the console level. This point should have been said 5 to 10 years ago when Wild World was outselling the other console versions combined, now New Leaf is echoing it, which is bringing up this sentiment again.

They've been trying to link consoles to handhelds for years, especially in the Animal Crossing series. Look back at Animal Crossing. How did you get to the island again? What did you do to read the e-reader cards? See? Game Boy Advance also played Animal Island. Plus, on the Wii, what was that suitcase to port again? The file from Wild World. The next one Nintendo will somehow try to tie to the handheld, because they have this notion that consoles and handhelds can and should be tied together. Some did it better than others. It's a very safe bet the next game in the series- we already know another one will come out, will somehow tie to Amiibo. That's all we can be guaranteed right now. Will they pull a Smash, and put the game onto both the New 3DS and the Wii U to have them connect? Will they somehow tie New Leaf to it instead like Wild World? Whatever they've been working on will later be revealed, but they do make far more money off the handheld variants of this series than the console, and the same will happen again, because the Wii U, as it's going right now, will be lucky to reach Nintendo 64 lifetime sales, and with a MUCH smaller install base than the Wii, expect a Wii U Animal Crossing to again have low console sales.

By the way never say never, if ANYONE had said in 1992 during the heart of the console wars that Sega games would be made on Nintendo systems, people would have told them they were crazy. What do we have today?

Very well put!! I get so irritated when people say the next game will NOT be for 3ds it just won't happen and I kept telling everyone Nintendo could surprise us!! We never know whats headed our way and personally I think its better to change things up why stick to the same pattern. They could combine the new 3ds with the wii for the next AC release and start a whole new thing where all of their future AC games connect that would be awesome! Especially with Ambio out now who knows whats next!!