predictions for a possible new animal crossing?

[PugLovex]

with the switch 2 creeping up on us, i wanted to see other people's insights on whether or not a new title may be announced in the upcoming direct. i'm 50/50, i feel as though its possible, but i also wouldn't be super surprised if one was not announced right away. by the time the direct comes along, new horizons will be a 5 year old game. the gap between games usually being around 3 - 4 years (apart from new leaf to new horizons which had about an 8 year gap, primarily due to welcome amiibo update + pushbacks), it makes me wonder if we are due for another game yet hahaha.

i'm totally ready for a new game--don't get me wrong new horizons is a great game, but there is still a lot that it lacks, which prevents it from fully having that animal crossing magic. my ideal game would be one that has:
- graphics & design features of new horizons
- gameplay of new leaf
- soundtrack of wild world/city folk
- dialogue of population growing/gamecube (i miss the sassy charm hahaha)

what are your thoughts and hopes for a new animal crossing? i'm not saying we'll get one right away/announced at the upcoming direct but i think it's certainly possible. i'm ready to find life in a new animal crossing world, hopefully with my useless but fun-to-use toy hammer item ^

 

[chronic_fangirl]

I’d definitely want a lot of New Leaf’s gameplay (especially the multiplayer), paired with New Horizons’ graphics, player, and home customisation, the level of villager depth from older games (including all of the games and tasks they give you) and Wild World’s soundtrack. It would be cool if you could have a mish mash of New Leaf and New Horizons town customisation, like maybe the area around your house could have whatever you liked, but the rest of the place required permits and fund raising. I like the New Horizons island and “survival” gimic with crafting and such, but i like it contained to New Horizons exclusively, because it’s not very animal crossing in general, although that’s just personal, and I wouldn’t be upset by a similar thing to the previous game. In reality though, due to the wild success of Horizons, we’re probably gonna get even more customisation and things, but perhaps that’s just my Sims-pilled cynic brain talking.

(edited due to the debilitating neglect my caps lock key faced throughout the duration of this post’s creation).

 

[Isadoraisacat]

Just take pocket camp complete and new horizons and mix it together and I’ll be very happy

 

[Snek]

New Horizons is still going strong though I have to admit I have stopped playing it. I think a new game for Switch 2 is possible but not for this year. I am hopeful though because I really want a new AC game.

 

[astrorookie]

BRING BACK THE KITCHSY CLOCK!

and more fruits



BUT MOSTLY, I WANT THAT STUPID BRIGHT CLOCK!!

 

[Croconaw]

I want something like Tortimer’s Island back. I liked randomly meeting new people on that island. I understand why they got rid of it, but we could have something similar if it were executed a bit better.

 

[vanillasugar]

really late but i suspect they will wait untill the excitement of the new switch has died down, as that is what they did for new horizons (around three years after initial switch release). i’ve never played anything other then acnh, so i don’t really have stuff that i wish they would bring back, maybe more interactions with items and villagers?

 

[DookieTuesday]

My guess is sometime in 2027

 

[BakaRina]

I figure that they'll have news for a new game at least some months to a year or so before announcing a new Animal Crossing game since any big named games need time to be developed and stuff for the system.

 

[Ossiran]

I think we'll get an announcement later this year announcing a 2026 release. Next year will be Animal Crossing's 25th anniversary in Japan, so it'd be the perfect time to launch a new game. Though 2027 would be the 25th anniversary of the US release.

 

[Nuguns]

lets do quarantine again so we get another AC sooner

 

[Envy]

There was a big gap between the release of New Leaf and even the teasing of Animal Crossing New Horizons. I'm not saying that will for sure happen again, but I'm not betting on an Animal Crossing announcement for a while. Could be wrong, though, as it has now been five years since NH's release. (Yeah... that's a hard pill to swallow, that it actually has been a long time already! Wow!)

 

[McRibbie]

There was a big gap between the release of New Leaf and even the teasing of Animal Crossing New Horizons. I'm not saying that will for sure happen again, but I'm not betting on an Animal Crossing announcement for a while. Could be wrong, though, as it has now been five years since NH's release. (Yeah... that's a hard pill to swallow, that it actually has been a long time already! Wow!)

If you want an even scarier pill to swallow, it's been roughly the same timeframe between the American and European release of NL and NH's first teaser trailer (although if you go from Japanese release, we're still a good 7 months away from that being the case).

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think we might get news of a new game early next year as a way to hype up upcoming games for the year. Very rarely does news come out for a big release for a popular franchise without some sort of event or significant date is coming up.

 

[DylanMcGrann]

I have felt for a while the absolute earliest we will get the next Animal Crossing is spring 2026, and the earlier could see it announced is summer 2025. And my expectations are later than that—possibly years later (hopefully not though). I think there’s a slim chance it’s announced this year and a decent chance it is released next year.

I expect the game will carry over 90%+ of New Horizons like customizations, DIYs, outdoor decorating, the huge furniture catalog, the visual assets, the Nookphone features, etc. And they will probably expand on many of those features. They will probably also return some missing features from prior games like the Post Office, more shop upgrades, and a bit more villager interactions, different sized gyroids, etc.

Beyond that, I’m not sure. There’s several different directions they could take from there. I don’t think we will be on an island again, but I don’t know what they will do setting-wise. I hope they expand the animal villagers in a variety of ways, making them do more, interacting with more of the environment, and interact with the player more meaningfully. The villagers are definitely the weakest link in New Horizons (aside from online play), so hopefully this gets some real attention.

One direction they could go is ‘big.’ Not just in terms of landmass to design, but population too. This would let them expand on the job system introduced in Happy Hope Paradise, which could be interesting, and would require more businesses and institutions in town, which would be welcome as well.

I hope they retool online play though. While there is a good chance of this, I am not confident given that this is Nintendo we are talking about. The ideal should be seamless drop-in/drop-out play. Every player shouldn’t have to reload the game every time a new player joins. They should just come in the train station/airport seamlessly.

But one thing I do expect is they will probably find a creative use for the Switch 2 microphone and camera. The Animal Crossing team has a little bit history with this sort of thing, and I could see them wanting to revisit some ideas. Perhaps they’ll use Switch 2’s face tracking to have your character mimic your facial expressions, and look like it’s actually talking when you talk using the mic. I don’t know if they’ll go that far, but it would not surprise me.

 

[wonderwitch]

There's apparently rumours of animal crossing being mentioned in a july direct, but I don't like to put too much stock into things like that. Though if there IS even the slightest mention of the next animal crossing game in july, I would be over the moon! Regarding what I actually think will happen, I go back and forth between being optimistic and hopeful - some kind of announcement in 2025 - to more realistic, which is we will be lucky to have an announcement in 2026. I think I'd be very happy but surprised if we have the game before 2027. I'm still playing ACNH and am thinking of rebooting my ACNL and ACWW games if the itch for more AC gets too much, but the feeling that a new animal crossing could be soon is so exciting. Might be clouding my judgement and making me more hopeful haha

Something to consider is with the new switch 2 gamecube service being a thing, will the original animal crossing come to the switch 2? (And would that give nintendo more time to release the next installment or would it it be a great way to hype the next game?) I never thought nintendo would rerelease an animal crossing game on a new system - they seemed to be very happy with keeping each installment on their own original system - but I would love it if they brought back the original game, perhaps for the 25th anniversary? I don't know how many games and how often nintendo will release on their gamecube service, or whether bringing the original game is out of the question or not. I'm curious about what other people think and whether they think this would influence the next game's release too.