I'm on Team There Will Be No Major Anniversary Update.
I am interested to see what updates might come out now that they have all the holidays released. This upcoming year will be the make or break year for the live service model.
Exactly my point of view. I hope they take notice of the criticism they've received and change their update-plans. After all, they also added cloud save by popular demand. Nevertheless, I'm pessimistic in regards to the future updates - so that I won't be disappointed again.
Nintendo would have teased a major update at least a little in the last trailer, instead of just hinting at Mario-items.
At this point, Im convinced Nintendo doesn’t and probably never did care about New Horizons.
They saw a gap in the market. Fans of the series were baying for another game since New Leaf. It didn’t matter if they released a decent game or not - people would still buy it. NH sailed on the success of NL and it worked.
Now Nintendo has our money in its pockets they have no incentive to make the game better. The free updates were a mask of good faith to keep sales up - empty promises of the game we should have had.
I remember when I questioned people about this idea of an Anniversary Update, asking them where did it come from... Turned out, it was just people projecting their expectations on the game and they started to believe it was true.
I don't think I even need to explain why such behavior is harmful (because it's not something that only happens in these situations), but when you start projecting your expectations onto something (or someone), your setting yourself up to disappointment.
At this point, I don't need to say I don't think there's gonna be any kind of bug anniversary update, but also, I think we all should drastically tone down our expectations towards the game and especially towards Nintendo. AC already made a lot of money for them, and they're probably more interested in spending time and resources in other games, like BotW 2, Metroid Prime 4, and the Switch Pro (or whatever they end up calling it).
We may see a big update (kinda like Welcome Amiibo) IF - and that's a big if - they find themselves needing some money on a dry season of releases. Generally, companies release remasters in times like these, to make some money with minimum spending. If there's really that much content being held "hostage" in NH's code, they may just keep holding that up until they actually feel like it's time to release a paid dlc.
I actually never had the idea that they would have a massive update for their 1 year anniversary until people started pointing it out that it could be a possibility. It's true that it is a possibility but I think there's a low chance of that happening because I feel that Nintendo would have already started hyping that up if it were the case. If they don't include anything amazing that we have been wanting in future updates like new NPC's and the roost and such I would be very disappointed but I actually have faith that Nintendo knows what they're doing. I lost faith for a bit, but I think I've come to understand they want to give us a little bit of content at a time. There may never be a massive update with a ton of stuff we want, but we will keep getting things we want little by little.
I do think certain QOL things are on the back burner for them though or just never going to happen (like bulk crafting, buying multiple things in ables, ordering more things per day at nook shopping). I think these things that are frustrating for a lot of us may just be their way of wanting people to take things slower. The reason I think this is because I feel that they would have updated those things way earlier on. I think I remember someone who is creating a game on their own commenting that it wouldn't take long and would be pretty simple for Nintendo to upgrade a lot of these things for us so I do feel it's just not the way they want the game to be. I personally don't like it, but oh well.
I had never thought about this big anniversary update until people started to talk about it, too... I must admit I would be disappointed if the update consisted of just Mario items, but well, that is what they said they were going to add, not an exceptional anniversary update full of new features. I really, really hope they will give us something more than Mario furniture but I am afraid my hopes are a bit too high now because of all the fuss about this hypothetical big update. In the end, it doesn’t really matter what they’re going to give us in the next update if they’re going to release free updates for the next year or two, as they said they would do. I actually like how they’re releasing just a bit of content at a time, even though a big anniversary update does seem like something that should have more content than usual but again I‘m exaggerating here. As you can see from the confusion of this post, I’m actually a bit conflicted about it for some reason but I know I’ll just enjoy the game as always. I was disappointed with this update too but I soon came to appreciate it. I love Animal Crossing too much to be disappointed with something about it for more than a couple of hours lol.
I think alot of people figured after one year of getting holiday updates that nintendo would move on to something else for updates such as more furinture items nook mile stuff and more game mechanics. So the thought of a large update after one year kind of took wind. But if they ever do a larger than normal update i wonder if it would be during a time of the year where there isn't much going on in the ac world if there is such a time in the year. (I dont know anything about minor holidays that may have been skipped in acnh)
as nice as it would be to get a big anniversary update, it's not feeling very likely. I'd be disappointed if the march update is just mario stuff, but that is all we know - and all we knew for this update was festivale and that really is all we got. I'm learning to not get my hopes up too much when it comes to updates because then I just end up disappointed and don't actually appreciate any of the new content the update brings. perhaps a larger update is coming, just not as soon as we would perhaps like it to.
I've said this before in the thread for the most recent update (and countless others), but I believe Nintendo's priority for the first year of the game was adding the main event NPCs, as well as adding support for the save data cloud backup and further content for the Nintendo Switch Online app.
Now that that's past, we're going to see more updates like the 1.2.0-1.4.0 updates. Not MASSIVE DROPS OF CONTENT each time, but definitely something involving returning NPCs. There's never been an update without a returning NPC, there's evidence in the code that suggests they've worked on all but 3 event NPCs (although the value that implies it is also set to 0 for Rover, so make of that what you will), and I sincerely doubt that the next update's just Mario furniture.
Nothing incredibly groundbreaking, maybe just the return of Phineas in a similar role to what he did in the Wii game or the return of the Sanrio villagers (which I feel's INCREDIBLY likely, given the reissuing of the amiibo cards in March and the fact that there's been some updates to their data in the most recent datamine) but also nothing disappointing, because I don't believe it's wise to go from being wildly optimistic to extremely pessimistic about the game.
But there's going to be something.
(also for the record, I sincerely doubt Nintendo doesn't care about the game, since it's making a LOT of money for them)
I won't be disappointed, I still have a lot to do in NH. of course it's nice to think they'll add Brewster back, but like... nothing like that has been promised. I love Brewster myself but if he's brought back I don't think the people complaining he's not in the game are gonna do a 180 with NH. I do think at some point within the next year he'll be reintroduced, I believe the first year we had updates purely for main events and now we'll start to see more for smaller features. I could be wrong tho!
but for the March update, I'm only expecting Mario items. this isn't a huge deal for me, I'm uninterested in Mario DLC but I think it'll be interesting to see what furniture we get!
I love Animal Crossing for the nature of the game, not on the condition that they'll add features that I want.
Before release, I thought there would be new content updates like the team did with Splatoon. Now a year later it's been mostly re-adding old features that had been part of the base games prior to NH, with a handful of new furniture thrown in. I don't expect much of anything anymore.
I don't understand why everyone is acting as if the game was on its deathbed or something, we barely touched the one year gap. The game isn't dying, it's barely begun because the exciting part is about to come (goodbye holiday updates!), just look at all the features that are "locked" behind in the code, there are over 5,000 items that are yet to be released, upgrades and features that we might not have seen just yet. While I agree that this one won't be a grand update, I am sure there is still so much to see!
I don't understand why everyone is acting as if the game was on its deathbed or something, we barely touched the one year gap. The game isn't dying, it's barely begun because the exciting part is about to come (goodbye holiday updates!), just look at all the features that are "locked" behind in the code, there are over 5,000 items that are yet to be released, upgrades and features that we might not have seen just yet. While I agree that this one won't be a grand update, I am sure there is still so much to see!
To add to that, like I've mentioned on the 1.7.0 Update thread, other recent datamined info suggests that Katrina and Shrunk could potentially return. A Mario-style sidescrolling minigame and a 'Simon Says' dancing minigame is also potentially coming.
Let's not forget all the other datamined info that are still unreleased, such as Brewster, gyroids, the remaining veggies, and shop upgrades.
This year will most likely be focused on mechanics and gameplay updates.
EDIT: Not saying that all of these are dropping all at once. Just laying down all the things that are coming. So it's okay to be optimistic because we know these things are there.
Think about the update themselves they are events that have happened in past games. I think the reason they have them as updates is because they don’t want people to time travel to them. People would be mad if they had to pay for events that should be free. Your right we should by now have low expectations of updates. With this update I am glad that they have more color variations then what I thought they would.
I believe Nintendo's priority for the first year of the game was adding the main event NPCs, as well as adding support for the save data cloud backup and further content for the Nintendo Switch Online app.
This would make the most sense time and resource-wise. Now that all the events are in the game to stay, they don't need to stress over beating a deadline to get them ready. They are now free to explore other aspects. After their 35-year Mario celebration, things can only get better for Animal Crossing.
Think about the update themselves they are events that have happened in past games. I think the reason they have them as updates is because they don’t want people to time travel to them. People would be mad if they had to pay for events that should be free. Your right we should by now have low expectations of updates. With this update I am glad that they have more color variations then what I thought they would.
The events were time locked even after the updates. An example is TT to Feb 15, you won't see Pave or Festivale. So I don't think withholding them from release was to stop TT. I believe holding the events from us among other things allowed them to get the game out there on the shelves without having to come out and say "Sorry, guys, we are going to delay it again. We're not quite ready. Look for the game Summer/Fall 2020". And since Covid was unplanned for, they could have delayed it a 3rd time saying something like "Due to unforeseen pandemic-related hardships, we are asking fans wait until 2021".
Me personally, I'd rather have some of the game and wait for updates than to have none of the game and wait for release.
This would make the most sense time and resource-wise. Now that all the events are in the game to stay, they don't need to stress over beating a deadline to get them ready. They are now free to explore other aspects. After their 35-year Mario celebration, things can only get better for Animal Crossing.
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The events were time locked even after the updates. An example is TT to Feb 15, you won't see Pave or Festivale. So I don't think withholding them from release was to stop TT. I believe holding the events from us among other things allowed them to get the game out there on the shelves without having to come out and say "Sorry, guys, we are going to delay it again. We're not quite ready. Look for the game Summer/Fall 2020". And since Covid was unplanned for, they could have delayed it a 3rd time saying something like "Due to unforeseen pandemic-related hardships, we are asking fans wait until 2021".
Me personally, I'd rather have some of the game and wait for updates than to have none of the game and wait for release.
Covid probably waspart of it or they could have been planning on doing the updates this way anyway. Updates are a good thing they can change something if the have to. It can also give them time.
Answer is SIMPLE: I will be no significant update.
Who still believes is "happy return" of Brewster or any extra buildings... please, wake up. It's still a chance ACNH will be played until the end of 2021 because will be no point to play any longer. It will be pointless to play longer than a year, because everything will be seen, most of achievements will be completed and playing just because of 50th Birthday of CEO's aunt event will be so insignificant and will not give any motivation to play.
Who is missing a good content of New Leaf - my advice, do exactly the same as I did. Play in NL, do not sell 3DS or whatever you have, if you did, consider to buy one second hand, as New Horizons never will have such a content.
I was disappointed with this update too but I soon came to appreciate it. I love Animal Crossing too much to be disappointed with something about it for more than a couple of hours lol.
