Animal Crossing New Horizons has gone 2 months without an update and we’re going into July with not only no new features or events but nothing new at

[-Blue-]

Don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed the game it for what it is, but when I say that I have given up on any substantial update, I mean I have just accepted it for what the game is. In the beginning, yeah I was pretty bummed out because I was hoping for more and the Summer updates suckered me in (and the pumpkins to), but I know the game focused heavily on designing first and foremost.

I do expect there to be an update to bring back the fireworks. Still don't think the holidays should be timelocked. Let people experience that at their leisurely. I just don't expect more than that. And that is fine. I will be happy if there is more, but it is what it is if there isn't any.

I did get suckered in by a Switch news article on the system, that started its header with something like 'What to expect next for New Horizons' Wasn't sure if I missed some trailer or whatever, so I clicked it and they stated at the end of the article that this 'Was posted last year (this time) and we thought it appropriate to do again because it's summer time.' I did get a laugh out of that.

But I am fine with what we have. Some QoL updates to terraforming and crafting would be nice along with some minor tweaks for a better experience like tools telling you when they will break. I don't see that happening and the game served its purpose, more or less with each individual.

 

[McRibbie]

The update's also designed with this month in mind, given it's got items for Marine Day and the French Revolution celebration involved (as well as the Japanese website mentioning the fishing tourney on Saturday as well as the Bug-Off), so I'd say we're about 3 weeks out from the release of the next update.

Aside from the return of the Fireworks Festival and the Chinese Tanabata items, I'm not sure what specifically's coming to the game. The most recent update reads as a "NOTHING'S QUITE READY YET, ENJOY DOING THESE THINGS AGAIN, SEE YOU IN LATE JULY" update, down to the lack of an update gift, so I'm hoping there's something more substantial coming... although that could either mean something gamechanging like Kapp'n or something like the 1.9.0 update. As long as it's a bit more meaty than 1.10.0, I'll be happy.

But yeah, either way, 3 weeks til fireworks again!

 

[Pintuition]

Honestly I haven't really played in a substantive way since April, I think I've only played like 5 or 6 times over the last few months. I love NH but there's just not enough left to do that's capturing my attention. So many people have given up on NH already, they're really not doing themselves any favors. If they can't get updates together, fine, but at least give us a sneak peek or hint at what it will be. Otherwise they've basically abandoned their game.

In my opinion it's a huge mistake if they don't at least do a small update before summer ends. Otherwise, why keep playing? They definitely stand to lose a lot more players if they don't get it together soon. Then again, they already got our money a year ago, so it must not be hurting them much! I don't know how motivated they'd really be to make additional changes considering that, you know?

 

[justina]

I am a bit surprised there hasn’t been a big update in a while, I thought Nintendo said they’d support the game for at least 3 years? I am hopeful that there will be some sort of update soon. I always wished that NH was like pocket camp and we’d get frequent clothing and furniture updates. The possibilities are endless.

 

[JKDOS]

Within the next 3 weeks, we're going to get the Firework Show update for August. Whether or not there will be more to the update is unknown. I wouldn't count on much more.

Post automatically merged: Jul 8, 2021

I am a bit surprised there hasn’t been a big update in a while, I thought Nintendo said they’d support the game for at least 3 years?

From what I read, they may not have promised that, a quote was translated to English which roughly said something like "We hope players continue to find new surprises over the next couple years". Really, a game can have no updates, and players still find new surprises. Example

Skyrim Player Makes New Discovery After Playing the Game for Seven Years

One Skyrim player has frequented the game for seven years now, and yet, they just came across a previously unexplored area on their part.

gamerant.com

 

[MidnightAura]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what I read. That they hoped players would still be finding surprises three years down the line, not that they were committed to three years worth of updates. Happy to be corrected.

That being said if all the updates are just patching in the same holidays year in and year out and throwing a new decor item or two, I do not think that’s praise worthy.

New Leaf’s welcome amiibo update was different as that game was complete and felt complete. New horizons still feels early access like in some ways.

 

[*~ Croissant ~*]

I pretty much have low to zero expectations of Nintendo at this point. Unless they’re planning to do some huge drop like the Welcome Amiibo update on New Leaf, I wouldn’t expect anything from those grubby cash grabbers at Nintendo. Even if they ever do plan an actual substantial drop of a ton of new UX, NPCs and furniture series, that won’t happen until 3-5 years from now when New Horizons hype is totally dead and they feel pressure to promote the game again.

Again and again, Nintendo has been promising “more, just wait a little longer.” And again and again, they don’t deliver. They give like less than a megabyte’s worth of an update. And the next week, we hear the same promise. “Nintendo’s working on something! They said so!” Yeah, well I’m not holding my breath. All Nintendo does is make false promises and try to build up their own hype only as long as it correlates with $$$.

Animal Crossing is such an iconic game, so I don’t know why Nintendo disrespects the fandom by giving peasize updates once a month, to outright skipping entire months, for over a year. They can’t seem to get it together. I mean, Switch is five damn years old, and they didn’t even make any hardware and software updates to the new one they just announced. They drummed up hype for the past year, implying that the new Switch would have at least 4K or some sick new hardware, but all they did was make their 5-year old toy white and slightly bigger. Oh, and instead of trying to make the Switch an even more powerful portable console, they added the Ethernet port at the back so it’s actually less portable . Nintendo to me, it seems, is either lazy AF or doesn’t care at all about what they’re doing. Their work lately has been so low effort that they are crossing into scammer territory. It’s as if all their updates and consols are Being produced by the power of a single person, when they are a huge international corporation with a ton of manpower and the ability to produce so much more.

Didn’t mean to turn this into a rant about the Switch

 

[coldpotato]

I will check in around August to see what happens, but, I don't expect anything more than them adding the fireworks and maybe a few new items. It feels like they don't care about the game at all anymore. I would love to be proven wrong. It would be cool to maybe get a large update in a few months that shows how hard they have been working on updating the game, but that feels pretty unrealistic. The timing would also be way, way off. If they wanted to add something amazing to draw people back in they should have done it months ago. Most people who were heavily into the game have moved on and don't even want to bother opening it anymore, no matter what they add. Things people wanted that would have made the game more enjoyable (Brewster, bulk crafting, more NPCs, minigames etc) really don't matter much anymore. A lot of people waited long enough without getting anything that even if they got it now, it doesn't matter because they have already moved on and so have all their friends who played the game with them. The right time to add this stuff has long passed for a lot of people. I know I'd still love to see things added, but the more time goes on without getting anything, the less I care.

 

[Solio]

You know, I think if it werent for the updates, I might have enjoyed the game a little more. Although it would still feel lacking in many ways, at least I could have accepted the game easier for what it is.

Like this, however, there is always the chance of improvement, but they never take it, because they'd rather recycle holidays over and over. This is honestly way more frustrating than if they would not update the game at all.

 

[Hsn97]

I guessing there will be an update in some form because as of now, the august events aren’t even in the game. We need an update if we’re going to have the firework display etc.

As for other content… I’m not expecting much. Maybe some new catalog items. But that’s about it. This is Nintendo we’re talking about and they’ve been a let down ever since NH was launched. You’ll kidding yourselves if you think some mystical update is on the horizon with tones of new content and additions.

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

There are 2 new items for july in the nook stop. A pirate wall item, and a hat.

 

[Amilee]

honestly i was pretty happy with the updates so far until the last one dropped. last update was very little items for the amount of time it included. we will definitely get an update at the end of the months. like other people said they need to patch in the fireworks still.
im not sure if the update will be big but i hope its atleast bigger than the last one.

 

[windwake-me-up-inside]

At least the lack of a huge update has given me a chance to catch up getting last year's seasonal items, and it's given me room to make my town better without worrying about missing all the items for each holiday like last year. I had to trade for a lot of what I needed for my Christmas Cafe, for instance.

 

[Edge]

Isn’t the team that worked on Animal Crossing: New Horizons the same team that works on Spatoon? Spatoon 3 is due to come out 2022 so maybe they are putting more resources into making sure it is ready for its release date.

I wouldn’t base the length of time we haven’t seen a substantial update on the size of the next update in August. I’m sure that we will see more exciting additions in the future but it could be years from now just like New Leafs was.

Yes, I’m bummed, but I think it’s my own fault for reading into code found by hackers.

 

[Soigne]

i doubt there's much more going to be added to this game. they don't have a great track record for this kind of stuff. remember when new leaf came out & they promised to do the free monthly DLC like they had been doing in japan for months / how they did in city folk? that lasted for all of like, what, 3 months after the game released? then they stopped pushing stuff out.

 

[Jaco]

I've enjoyed the core game and updates, but I'm also disappointed that New Horizons seems to have been mostly forgotten by Nintendo. There's so much opportunity for DLC and other new content for this game and they've just dropped the ball.

That said, there has to be an update soon because the August fireworks aren't even in the game right now.

 

[moonlights]

I wouldn't expect a complete overhaul of events with tens of new items every year because it's literally never been like that in Animal Crossing. also I don't think covid's gone away quite yet so that's probably causing a delay of sorts, especially if that same team is working on splatoon.

I'd like to see kapp'n and brewster return eventually though, kapp'n could have a really interesting function similar to what he does in New Leaf & I want a café on my island with brewster as barista haha

 

[BluebearL]

I think that the OP has put it right, the best attitude towards ANCH rn is to accept that it is what it is. Personally, it has been a disappointing game and certainly not one of my favourites. It was the reason I bought the switch so I was definitely expecting more for my money. However, there are other great games out there for the system that I have been enjoying far more and I am very satisfied with the system. Stardew Valley, FE3H, the wide range of great mario games and indie games + more has really filled in my time on the switch. Looking into the future, while the game could be improved a lot I doubt anything is going to change so I don't see myself getting many more hours out of it. I have the older games to enjoy, but I think I moved on from the switch installation of animal crossing quite some time ago. It's been almost a year since I last played it seriously and months since I have played it at all.

A lot of people waited long enough without getting anything that even if they got it now, it doesn't matter because they have already moved on and so have all their friends who played the game with them. The right time to add this stuff has long passed for a lot of people. I know I'd still love to see things added, but the more time goes on without getting anything, the less I care.

^^ This.

 

[-Blue-]

The head scratcher though is that Brewster dialogue was found (in the actual game and not coding) back when the game first launched, but was quickly patched out soon after.

File:NH Removed Brewster Dialogue.jpg

Lazy villager dialogue involving Brewster, which was removed in version 1.2.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

nookipedia.com

That has to imply they either jumped the gun with some of the stuff and had to take it out or they decided to just leave the game in the state it is in because of pandemic, that it went way over their predicted sale numbers, Splatoon 3 development, or all of the above.

I'm really not expecting anything big for the August update or forward, but you still have to wonder why they even bothered to take out dialogue.

 

[Peach_Jam]

I think the reason people continue to feel disappointed is because we're waiting for big features to be brought back since the game from release was a little lacking.

I wish the updates were reserved for seasonal events/items only, and that the finished game already included important features from the get go such as swimming, Redd, Luna, Brewster etc. I've been seeing so many games release half finished versions and then "make up for it" by promising months of updates or dlc. Not the biggest fan of that :c