Now that we've reached (or almost reached) all announced updates so faar... What next?

[VanitasFan26]

Paid DLC that lets you own two islands of the same size and the capacity to invite 10 animals to that one, letting you have 20 neighbors.

People will explode with rage. Nintendo will explode with money.

I hope they don't do that because that is going to really make people angry that they have to spend more money just to get more content. I know the topic of DLCs and Expansions have been pretty controversial in general but the thing is people have spent $60 on this game when it first came out back in March 2020 you would expect that the game would be complete. Again it was during the pandemic and they didn't have time to iron out all the issues that was going on so they focused on releasing the events and leave it until it was read to be fixed.

The point is there should not be a paid DLC if it contains returning features from past AC games. On one hand it can be a good thing if people wanted to make a 2nd island if it includes that because a lot of people were very angry when the game was limited to one island per switch and if they were to make a DLC where you can make another island that would only make it worse. Really think about this because Animal Crossing used to have a lot of stuff and people didn't have to wait this long just to have more things to do. Thats why New Horizons is lackluster because of stuff missing from past AC games.

While I do see them potentially doing an expansion I don't think it would be right to do it right now after the game has been out for a year. If you remember back in New Leaf with Welcome Amiibo it was a free update to download and it still fixed a lot of the issues that the game had when it launched and still added new content but that took only 3 years so we really don't know the case with New Horizons. Only time will tell.

 

[Xara]

i honestly have no idea which worries me a little bit. like others have already said, while i’ve enjoyed the events in nh so far, i really don’t want them to be the focus of every update. i’d much rather them start focusing on bringing back missing npcs + old features with some new stuff, as well. i also really hope that they don’t begin to hide content behind paid DLC but i wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what this is all leading up to. :/

 

[tybalt_cake]

I hope that, since it will be 1 year since the game launched, they will release a big update with lots of new features

 

[JellyBeans]

I am hoping for at least some kind of anniversary update but like others, I think it's time I stop expecting too much out of every single update otherwise I'm just always going to end up disappointed. I would at least like to get Brewster back, and at a stretch some qol updates would be nice but at this point who knows

 

[bam94-]

I’m trying not to get my hopes up, as always. To be honest, even though the game doesn’t have all of New Leaf’s features, I’m really happy with New Horizons and think the new features they’ve added to this game make up for it.

But the other part of me believes that there’s too many loose ends for them not to add new stuff. You know? Like the roped-off area in Nook’s Cranny. Or Brewster, when the villagers have referenced him before and Nintendo knows the café is a fan-favourite. Or the pier, like how the secret beach suddenly had a use when Redd came about, perhaps the pier will too?

I don’t know, it’s all speculation and just my opinion.

 

[Rosch]

I am not expecting much but, I am still holding onto the fact that we have unreleased content as supported by datamines such as:

Brewster, gyroids, museum shop, Nook's Cranny upgrades, remaining vegetables, Sanrio villagers, Shrunk, Katrina, & approximately 5,000 unreleased finished items.

Holidays are done, except for April Fools, so it is time to focus on gameplay and mechanic updates.

 

[Pintuition]

I’m thinking that since they rushed to get out the Mario stuff that they have something bigger planned for the 1 year anniversary. Otherwise they would have just done that on the day! I always kind of thought it would have been weird to celebrate another franchise’s anniversary on the NH anniversary, you know? Give both their day in the sun!

I’m hoping the Sanrio characters will be added by that point, which would line up perfectly with the release of the cards at the end of the month. I hope this will come with some major quality of life improvements as well. Or maybe some new items/content. Although this just could be NH fumbling a good time to send out a big update. We’ve been let down in the past so I’m going to try not to get my hopes up too high. Still, I’m hoping for something good!!

 

[Fridaynightcatlady]

I’m seeing a lot of pessimistic posts and, while I understand and definitely don’t blame you, I do believe that more is on the way.

I absolutely think that updates were slowed down because of Covid and perhaps Splatoon 3 development, but as it has been said before, a lot of content is hinted at in the data mining.

I don’t believe we’ll be getting all that has been hinted, but a lot of it was true as well (hints for Redd + museum expansion, Leif, vegetables in a way with the pumpkins, etc) and a lot of content that was disregarded and thought lost, came back (like swimming and Dream Codes; and even Dream codes got an update, with randomized dreams).

I do believe we’ll get Brewster + The Roost and gyroids back, solely because they have been heavily hinted in the game (villager dialogue, data mines) and because the AC (both japanese and western) have been very vocal about it (specially with regards to Brewster).

I do think villagers visiting your home will also make a comeback, as it has been hinted in data mine and there was also that video that was posted showing new dialogue and villagers in the player’s home.

So those things make me think that those features are already in game and will probably drop in a new (or series of new) update(s). At this point, I’m thinking an update will be coming late March and starting in April.

In terms of new NPC’s, I think the approach in NH is already a hint towards which kinds of NPC’s we can expect. I think a lot of those that have been cut were replaced with more efficient mechanisms (like post card stand, mirrors and the recycling bin or even the design panel in dreams). So I’m guessing that the sole reason a lot of NPC’s haven’t been brought back in is because they’re not filling a role in the game just yet. Having said that, I don’t think Gracie (maybe), Harriet, Pete, Pelly, Phylis, Copper, Booker and Wendell will return. Why? Because their roles were replaced. However, I do believe Kapp’n, Tortimer and Katrina will make a comeback, but, imo, they’re trying to fill their roles in the game. I could totally be wrong, though.

 

[JKDOS]

I do think villagers visiting your home will also make a comeback, as it has been hinted in data mine and there was also that video that was posted showing new dialogue and villagers in the player’s home.

According to recent data mines, v1.7 removed all hints of villager visits. I don't know if that means it was scraped or maybe Nintendo is hiding it for further work.

I do believe Kapp’n, Tortimer and Katrina will make a comeback, but, imo, they’re trying to fill their roles in the game. I could totally be wrong, though.

I feel Kapp'n has been replaced by the sea plane

 

[Fridaynightcatlady]

According to recent data mines, v1.7 removed all hints of villager visits. I don't know if that means it was scraped or maybe Nintendo is hiding it for further work.

Oh, I didn't know that. Has that happened with other data mining info?

 

[JKDOS]

Oh, I didn't know that. Has that happened with other data mining info?

Not that I know of or recall

 

[Fridaynightcatlady]

Not that I know of or recall

I slightly remember Ninji saying something of certain data disappearing in new datamining, but I can't really remember what exactly.

 

[Mu~]

I'm still holding out hope for an April Fools update with Blanca. I really need an easier way to get villager pics so...yeah.

Same, they missed some events I hope get added this year. Also store, land, custom design slots and home expansions, QoL features and indoor furniture. Lastly, update old events with new items.

 

[Matt0106]

Considering the Nintendo Twitter account has completely rebranded for Splatoon 3, the latest update trailer had no future announced updates, and progress has been slow even when this game had Nintendo's full attention... expecting anything more than "nothing" will be disappointing. There will be an update I'm sure, but timelines are completely out the window now. We know nothing.

I no longer assume this game will be finished, receive Brewster, or anything else. I am done pretending otherwise. Save yourself the heartache.

The Nintendo developers are moving on to the next game. The money has to be invested in something to be profitable and they have decided that is not New Horizons. Any updates of serious significance will be paid DLC now and won't arrive for a year or two. The most you can expect are updates that patch Bunny Day to work in 2021 (it doesn't right now, btw), and a few other adjustments to holidays. Nothing you want or care about will come for free.

I think this is a bit of a bleak statement. I don't think they're canning New Horizons; it's the second highest-selling game on the console and can continue to be so if they keep updating it. I'm sure at some point we'll see more updates (maybe just more spread out). Also keep in mind Zelda's 35th is around the corner, and therefore we'll probably be getting those items too, so there's definitely more, but we just don't know when.

And if not, we will probably get paid DLC, since I find it very hard to believe that they would scrap all the furniture sets and items that have been in previous games. While I personally would've preferred things to be free, I'll take whatever we get at this point. But, I still have hope we'll get something for April.

 

[JKDOS]

Well considering splatoon 3 was announced today, and a lot of the core animal crossing devs worked on splatoon 1 and 2, I'm gonna assume they're also mainly going to be working on splatoon 3 from now on and any updates we get from now on are gonna be meh (not that they haven't already been meh, and this announcement to me explained why they've been meh... because the devs have been working on splatoon lol).

Hope I'm proven wrong and they add significant updates, like a lot more items, more NPCs, more villagers, some stabilization for the horrible lag, etc. But I've basically given up at this point and I've only played like once a month since October now really disappointed with the game now that it's been one year out from release tbh

What happened to the team who worked on previous Animal Crossing games? Are they the same ones doing Splatoon? If the current Animal Crossing team is reassigned to Splatoons 3, perhaps another team will take over. The Pocket Camp team perhaps? I don't really play Pocket Camp, but I hop on every now and then and it blows me away how much attention the devs put towards that game. It appears to me that there is new content every time I turn around.

I feel like Animal Crossing has always been a backburner kind of project that Nintendo never did much with. I don't think they ever expected New Horizons to blow up the way it has, so they were were likely caught off guard.

 

[nammie]

What happened to the team who worked on previous Animal Crossing games? Are they the same ones doing Splatoon? If the current Animal Crossing team is reassigned to Splatoons 3, perhaps another team will take over. The Pocket Camp team perhaps? I don't really play Pocket Camp, but I hop on every now and then and it blows me away how much attention the devs put towards that game. It appears to me that there is new content every time I turn around.

I feel like Animal Crossing has always been a backburner kind of project that Nintendo never did much with. I don't think they ever expected New Horizons to blow up the way it has, so they were were likely caught off guard.

From what I remember reading a lot of the dev team who worked on Animal Crossing (like New Leaf), went on to work on Splatoon 1 and 2. Obviously this is speculation but I'm guessing that's partially why there was a whole 7 years between ACNL and ACNH. With Splatoon 3 being announced, I think this explains why the ACNH updates have been very lackluster (in my opinion)... since the same team has been also working on building yet another Splatoon game!!

The Pocket Camp team are also completely different if I remember correctly, and that's why they can do their own thing and release such cute items I mean I understand Pocket Camp is more microtransaction heavy, but I would pay for a ACNH DLC if we meant we could get that quality of items lol

I definitely feel your last point, which is so weird to me because Animal Crossing has always done pretty well?? Like the games always sell pretty well, at least in Japan, and you'd think even if they didn't predict ACNH blowing up, just by seeing it blow up last year they'd put more work into it to maintain its popularity, but nope the significant "update" every other month is literally mostly just them adding back holidays that were in every past game

 

[JKDOS]

From what I remember reading a lot of the dev team who worked on Animal Crossing (like New Leaf), went on to work on Splatoon 1 and 2. Obviously this is speculation but I'm guessing that's partially why there was a whole 7 years between ACNL and ACNH. With Splatoon 3 being announced, I think this explains why the ACNH updates have been very lackluster (in my opinion)... since the same team has been also working on building yet another Splatoon game!!

The Pocket Camp team are also completely different if I remember correctly, and that's why they can do their own thing and release such cute items I mean I understand Pocket Camp is more microtransaction heavy, but I would pay for a ACNH DLC if we meant we could get that quality of items lol

I definitely feel your last point, which is so weird to me because Animal Crossing has always done pretty well?? Like the games always sell pretty well, at least in Japan, and you'd think even if they didn't predict ACNH blowing up, just by seeing it blow up last year they'd put more work into it to maintain its popularity, but nope the significant "update" every other month is literally mostly just them adding back holidays that were in every past game

If New Horizons moved to being microtransaction heavy, I'd likely go bankrupt over it

If Nintendo didn't know before, they know now. So we can only hope for the best from here on out.

 

[Etown20]

I understand that Pocket Camp and New Horizons are made by different teams with different business models, but I have noticed Pocket Camp likes to celebrate/acknowledge the yearly anniversaries. I'm hopeful NH will do the same in some way, but I'm not sure what it will include.

 

[Monokuma73]

Paid DLC that lets you own two islands of the same size and the capacity to invite 10 animals to that one, letting you have 20 neighbors.

People will explode with rage. Nintendo will explode with money.

We have this one already, it's called "Buy another Switch and game". It's been released early 2020

 

[tajikey]

From what I remember reading a lot of the dev team who worked on Animal Crossing (like New Leaf), went on to work on Splatoon 1 and 2. Obviously this is speculation but I'm guessing that's partially why there was a whole 7 years between ACNL and ACNH. With Splatoon 3 being announced, I think this explains why the ACNH updates have been very lackluster (in my opinion)... since the same team has been also working on building yet another Splatoon game!!

The Pocket Camp team are also completely different if I remember correctly, and that's why they can do their own thing and release such cute items I mean I understand Pocket Camp is more microtransaction heavy, but I would pay for a ACNH DLC if we meant we could get that quality of items lol

I definitely feel your last point, which is so weird to me because Animal Crossing has always done pretty well?? Like the games always sell pretty well, at least in Japan, and you'd think even if they didn't predict ACNH blowing up, just by seeing it blow up last year they'd put more work into it to maintain its popularity, but nope the significant "update" every other month is literally mostly just them adding back holidays that were in every past game

Isn't Pocket Camp a Nintendo-licensed product, and not first party software? I imagine the team behind PC has more time and resources available, and greater motivation$ to update the game regularly.

I'd happily pay for DLC that allowed me access to an archipelago filled with shops, games, and other fun things, all accessible via DODO Airlines.