What do you think is the reason for missing features?

[meggiewes]

to be honest, when I first got the game I didn't actually know it was delayed. I don't know anything about the development or how long it took, so I'm only speculating. I think they intended to do regular updates and re-introduce features from previous games, i.e. the events. I doubt the game was "unfinished" just because they weren't in the base game, and they probably had planned to introduce them at some point after release, even if they were still in development.
for someone who plays like myself and doesn't time travel, I would've been waiting to play the events in real time anyway, so I guess that's why I'm not as anti-update as some of the people that have posted already.
also, I'm unsure as to how Pocket Camp is relevant? I play both games, and they're completely different. PC is extremely repetitive, the main "objective" of the game is to collect furniture to decorate your campsite and cabin, which is why I think there's much more varied furniture in the app.

I agree with you. I don't think PC is relevant because it is designed as a mobile gotcha game with AC graphics. It plays almost nothing like the main games. I guess the only similarities is that there are uodates/events which are present in almost every active mobile gatcha game.

 

[Elias_]

I guess the only thing Pocket Camp and NH have in common is the fact that both receive regular updates to keep players interested. But I fully agree, there's a huge different as Pocket Camp actually generates more money when players keep paying for in-App purchases. In case of NH, it doesn't really change as much. If anything, I think they would have kept more people keep playing had they released the game with more content. But that's just my opinion on it.

 

[Fantasyland]

I brought it up because others were discussing this turning them off Animal Crossing games in the future, or at least turning them off all Animal Crossing games with content being released periodically! I don't think the update schedule is the problem (for me and some others) so much as paid content being added being the problem. For that reason and the gacha reason it's the only one I boycott! Or, I guess, if ones in the future are like Pocket Camp I'd probably boycott them? But I did have a little Pocket Camp phase where I spent a ton of money, so maybe I'd give it a chance if it were added to New Horizons or any future game??? Depends on how cute things are, as per usual.

 

[John Wick]

I brought it up because others were discussing this turning them off Animal Crossing games in the future,

I've been playing AC since 2005, and NH has definately put me off any future games in this series.

 

[Snek]

I believe its a mixture but yeah...they intentionally delayed the updates. No doubt about that. No better way to keep people playing than to release an unfinished game and monthly update as you go under the guise of releasing "new content". But, on the other hand, I also believe that the devs want us to play the game in a certain way. This is why they didn't want us TT'ing to the special holiday events like Toy Day.

 

[Feraligator]

Agreed, I also think they wanted Animal Crossing to be a "games as a service" - experience. I guess it would make sense for them to withhold certain features like the festivals just to keep the game fresh over a longer period of time. I'm not sure, though, whether that was the right approach. I know a lot of people that quit the game because they didn't feel there was much to do after a while. Shop upgrades for example could have been kept and would have motivated players to keep playing. That's a shame because in maybe one or two years, NH could catch up to New Leaf in terms of features and a lot of players will never experience that. I hope there will be some larger updates this year that can get players to return to the game.

I've had friends experience exactly this. 5 of them—2 played NL before and hated NH because they described it as dry, and 3 of them new to AC as a series who thought the game looked really good and stopped playing only 2 months later. I think we were most surprised at how boring the online was, and how there was no multiplayer mini games like NL. That alone could've kept us hooked for months.

I'm still fine playing NH as it is but with no idea what's coming it's both exciting and disappointing. At this point they've kept shop upgrades from us for so long that I'd be excited for a new one, but it's pretty annoying having not gotten one for the past 3 updates, when we'd probably be on TIY or Nookway in other AC games by now (or even Nookingtons/Emporium).

 

[Pokeking]

My primary believe is for updates. I recall in base game, there was an animation for swimming mechanics before it was added in the game. Something like that.

 

[SlEEPYTEARRS]

i really just feel like they're keeping them for updates. what updates we get seem a bit scarce in my opinion, with a lack of items being released and the events only taking around 10 minutes to complete. i wouldnt mind waiting for each update if they just gave us more furniture and items

Post automatically merged: Jan 19, 2021

To suggest something like Pocket Camp having any bearing on the game’s quality is almost pure cynicism, IMHO. Pocket Camp has a completely separate development team from the main series, and the primary reason it was created, just as well as the other mobile Nintendo games, was to increase exposure to their franchises. New Horizons has quickly become the fastest and best selling Animal Crossing game to date, and I think ACPC had some bearing on its success. With that said though, I’m almost certain the player base of ACPC has dropped significantly since the release of ACNH. I went on solely to check my friends list, and it’s primarily dead with the exception of around 4 players (out of a number far greater than that). Nintendo knows customer retention and satisfaction as well as profits are all found within selling their own hardware and complete games rather than freemium games using their existing IPs, even though they pull in some profit, too.

yeah i was thinking the same way, blaming pocket camp seems kind of weird to me. ive played pocket camp since launch and i can play both it and nh, pocket camp only keeps me about 10 minutes at a time while i spend around a couple hours on new horizons a day, plus a lot of my friends list died out when new horizons was released as well. it seems to just come from "ugh we wont get pocket camp items i hate pocket camp" and "i hate mobile games" when those things dont really have to do with nh

(and no im not defending because "ur a whale!!" i just save up my leaf tickets from events and leveling up, i dont like spending money on mobile games)

 

[DrewAC]

i really just feel like they're keeping them for updates. what updates we get seem a bit scarce in my opinion, with a lack of items being released and the events only taking around 10 minutes to complete. i wouldnt mind waiting for each update if they just gave us more furniture and items

Post automatically merged: Jan 19, 2021

yeah i was thinking the same way, blaming pocket camp seems kind of weird to me. ive played pocket camp since launch and i can play both it and nh, pocket camp only keeps me about 10 minutes at a time while i spend around a couple hours on new horizons a day, plus a lot of my friends list died out when new horizons was released as well. it seems to just come from "ugh we wont get pocket camp items i hate pocket camp" and "i hate mobile games" when those things dont really have to do with nh

(and no im not defending because "ur a whale!!" i just save up my leaf tickets from events and leveling up, i dont like spending money on mobile games)

Yeah, I haven't spent a single cent on Pocket Camp, and I never will. You're basically renting a hollow, soul-less, and grindy version of Animal Crossing that will one day disappear from the App Store forever when Nintendo decides to pull the plug.

It serves its purpose to increase the accessibility of the brand, but I don't think it's by any means worth it for anyone to spend money on it. That's just my opinion though, I'm sure it brings a subset of players happiness. The thing is, that happiness is temporary. The main series, on the other hand, will never go away. With them, you have a higher level of control that cannot be taken away.

 

[-Blue-]

I want to say all 3 of the above but I also want to say Covid.

They ran out of time, because they already pushed the game back to March 2020. It was supposed to be 2019. I feel like if covid didn't happen and everyone wasn't stuck at home with orders, they would had pushed it back again, but they took the opportunity they otherwise wouldn't have had and made it work. Albeit not to everyone's approval.

I mean, they were already having people sending them death threats on twitter and petitions to bring the game out sooner than March 2020 because of the covid and how it would help them with this serious time. Those people were disgusting, but they were a small, yet vocal group of the AC community when the rest of us were silently and patiently waiting.

The slow drip-feed was put in place because of them running out of time and so they could slowly implement it when it was ready and to spike activity. I don't think the slow updates and the holidays (that were on the same level as the other games/subpar/a little better) would had been as well received if it weren't for the pandemic and everyone being on lockdown for a good remainder of 2020. There's quite a few of people who are already getting tired of the slow updates.

 

[Peach_Jam]

They definitely withheld for future updates and maybe to take the game in a different direction, but I don't think it was because they ran out of development time. There's an 8 year gap between NL and NH, so I feel like they definitely take their time with these games.

I feel like the reason for missing features might also stem from the fact that they were directing their attention to other things like the furniture details or ensuring the graphics are as realistic as possible.

 

[sleepydreepy]

Honestly I think its a combination of all three, leaning more on the "intentionally withheld for future updates." I think they probably had big plans, ran out of time, and decided to add the missing content in future updates. I also think some things were intentionally left out to take the game in a different direction since they probably want ACNH to be memorable as its own game rather than being a carbon copy of ACNL, for example.

 

[LuchaSloth]

It's definitely a combination.

Developers always set out to make a game as complete as possible...but, running out of development time will cause them to curtail certain aspects and save them for future updates. It's one of those things that I wish the general public would grow to understand about game development, tbh. We saw a lot of it recently with Cyberpunk. And I feel like people just genuinely don't know how things work sometimes. It was handled a lot better in Animal Crossing than it was in something like Cyberpunk, or even with the backlash from Pokemon Sword and Shield missing a ton of creatures...but, it's all the same story. Those were more extreme shortcomings that were more difficult to dance around. New Horizons actually compartmentalized rather well. You meet the deadline while aiming for the closest thing to completion as you can...and you fix the mistakes or shortcomings later.

 

[Elias_]

I've had friends experience exactly this. 5 of them—2 played NL before and hated NH because they described it as dry, and 3 of them new to AC as a series who thought the game looked really good and stopped playing only 2 months later. I think we were most surprised at how boring the online was, and how there was no multiplayer mini games like NL. That alone could've kept us hooked for months.

I'm still fine playing NH as it is but with no idea what's coming it's both exciting and disappointing. At this point they've kept shop upgrades from us for so long that I'd be excited for a new one, but it's pretty annoying having not gotten one for the past 3 updates, when we'd probably be on TIY or Nookway in other AC games by now (or even Nookingtons/Emporium).

I fully agree. This is exactly what I have experienced and it's really disappointing. All they had to do was introduce e.g. new shops or some shop upgrades to have a motivation to keep playing and reintroduce the mini games in the Summer update to give people something to do online. I still really like the game, which is why I find it so sad that nobody around me plays it anymore. It's just such a different experience when everyone around you plays the game as well. I'm still hopeful that around the anniversary, they release a big update that brings back a lot of players.

 

[-Blue-]

I fully agree. This is exactly what I have experienced and it's really disappointing. All they had to do was introduce e.g. new shops or some shop upgrades to have a motivation to keep playing and reintroduce the mini games in the Summer update to give people something to do online. I still really like the game, which is why I find it so sad that nobody around me plays it anymore. It's just such a different experience when everyone around you plays the game as well. I'm still hopeful that around the anniversary, they release a big update that brings back a lot of players.

I thought about adding more to my first post, but I was afraid it'd look like more of an attack to NH, but all of my friends who got NH during launch now don't play it at all. Heck, I never even got to play with most of them online before they lost interest.

 

[Cinderoflibertine]

Because it's New Horizons and not New Leaf 2.

Honestly, I think they have taken things in a different direction. The whole concept of moving to a (mostly) barren island and building it from scratch goes along with the idea of not having everything at your fingertips from day one. The updates and things that have come into the game are at a good pace and allow island development to progress nicely. I wouldn't have wanted to be able to plunk everything down in the first week. What's the point of continuing to play and develop my island into something unique that reflects me?

You definitely nailed it. I think people complaining about being sold an “incomplete” game are overlooking the entire theme of this game. New leaf dumps you into an already established town to let you figure it out. New horizons is there for you to build and develop from scratch. The phased updates are very natural and fit with the idea of developing a deserted island into a thriving city. The best possible experience comes from buying the game at launch and paying through these updates.

 

[Marshmallows]

I think some missing features were withheld for updates (diving, npcs, holidays, etc)... the service model, as others have mentioned. Personally I find the updates to be too slow and pretty light on content, but at least they are something to look forward to.

There's also a noticeable change in direction and style, due to the design team. A lot of the more quirky or whimsical things are replaced with more realistic items. In the older games (and even Pocket Camp) they almost never used real letters or words, and in NH there's several examples. When it comes to the lack of furniture sets, time constraints probably kept them from adding all the extra sets that maybe didn't get used much in favor of more basic realistic sets. They went all out with clothes and seemed to come up short with furniture.

Things like the cafe, the post office, shampoodle, and the police station were probably cut out due to a combination of lack of time and cost cutting. Because even if they added the mirror feature (which is really convenient), they could have still allowed us to build a spa or beauty parlor.

I also can't help feel like they don't want to upstage Pocket Camp. It's not just that Pocket Camp gets new items often, it's the variety and grandiosity of those items that make them more interesting. Being able to place furniture outdoors was a great addition, but outdoor makeshift cafes and libraries get boring after a while. I wish we had themes and public works projects for big interactive furniture that belongs outside.

 

[Monokuma73]

If (BIG "if") the game has been delayed due to COVID, since March 2020 developers had more than enough time to bring missing features, (ANOTHER "if") if they planned to.

(...)
There's also a noticeable change in direction and style, due to the design team. A lot of the more quirky or whimsical things are replaced with more realistic items. In the older games (and even Pocket Camp) they almost never used real letters or words, and in NH there's several examples. When it comes to the lack of furniture sets, time constraints probably kept them from adding all the extra sets that maybe didn't get used much in favor of more basic realistic sets. They went all out with clothes and seemed to come up short with furniture.

Things like the cafe, the post office, shampoodle, and the police station were probably cut out due to a combination of lack of time and cost cutting. Because even if they added the mirror feature (which is really convenient), they could have still allowed us to build a spa or beauty parlor.

(...)

If this game was planned as realistic game, animals shouldn't be talking
I do agree... a specific this, like buildings and characters they cut due to (.........................................) anything, including cost cutting, laziness, management... whatever. But it's still more... updated features in many occasion were simplified. Examples:
1. Diving - almost exactly copy/paste from NL (including Pascal), however catching creatures is easier, no jellyfish existence.
2. Shopping (Timmy and Tommy) - not mentioning lack of further updates, some interesting features been taken away, examples: fortune cookies, megaphone, checking carpets & wallpaper before purchase etc.
3. HHA - turned in NH into secret organisation, without a single NPC. Now, we just receiving letters... nothing more. No existence of Digby (Isabelle's brother) and his showcase, no Lyle and Lottie existence.

In aspect of interaction of animals, again - so many has been taken from us, examples:

• Villagers not asking for fruits
• Villagers are not proactive and rarely initiating conversation
• Villagers not asking for a help replacing their furnitures
• No more scheduled visiting or hosting
• Animals are not visiting our home, ever
• Minigames reduced to treasure hunt or giving back lost items.

 

[Hsn97]

I think it was a combination of them running out of development time as well as wanting to hold content back for updates.
I think they saw how popular and successful PC was and wanted to use the same formula not realising that a mobile game and console game are two very different creatures.

 

[LeenaM]

You definitely nailed it. I think people complaining about being sold an “incomplete” game are overlooking the entire theme of this game. New leaf dumps you into an already established town to let you figure it out. New horizons is there for you to build and develop from scratch. The phased updates are very natural and fit with the idea of developing a deserted island into a thriving city. The best possible experience comes from buying the game at launch and paying through these updates.

I'm not sure I completely agree with you, that might be what the devs planned for but as we can see from all the people who dropped this game, it didn't work out. It's a good idea for the udaptes to come as players are developping their island but then we should've gotten more furniture or buildings, to actually help with the growth of the island. After almost a year of updates my island doesn't feel very different from when I started playing in March. So many people already finished their island and are now on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th island. The updates don't really take the game further, they bring back some players but a lot of them are bored again after just a day.

That's not necessarily Nintendo's of the devs fault, they couldn't plan that people would get stuck at home playing AC all day and get burnout from a game that's meant to be enjoyed slowly. It's just a problem of balance, it feels like NH's biggest focus is decorating but we don't get additionnal furniture, the crafting mecanics is interesting but it's repetitive and tedious when you're trying to decorate an area but you have to craft stuff one by one or you run out of materials. Back in March I didn't care about decorating, but I got bored of the repetitive dialog with villagers and npcs and the lack of choice or growth at the shops. Even if you want to have fun with friends there's not much to do in multiplayer. The main problem I have is that even if NH was first sold as an "incomplete game", after almost a year it doesn't feel any more complete. It's pretty much the same game.

Not to say that I don't like the game, I've been playing almost everyday since March! But it's because I really like this game that I hope there's more planned for it.