Animal Crossing: New Horizons exploded at launch, partially because everyone was stuck at home directly after it launched. It was a phenomenon that pushed it up on the sales charts, making it one of the best-selling Nintendo games of all time, as well as a top seller for the franchise, and a top-five seller on the Switch.
Everything wasn't perfect, though. Nintendo needed to make some key quality of life updates to the game over time, andthe "one island per system" policy was nightmarish for folks who had one Switch to share across an entire household.Switch 2 transfer issues exacerbated this, as some players lost their data in said transfer. The Switch 2 will add another wrinkle to the mix: accessibility.
The Next Animal Crossing Shouldn't Be Exclusive To Switch 2
There Are Many Original Switch Consoles In The Wild
It has been said time and time again that Nintendo should put families firstin the next iteration ofAnimal Crossing, and that's even more relevant with the Switch 2 becoming the core focus for the publisher. Given the enhanced effortto allow players to transfer most of their games over to the Switch 2 via backward compatibility (with enhancements in some cases), it would make sensefor Nintendo to release the nextAnimal Crossing on both Switch 1 and 2.
When The Next Animal Crossing Game Is Rumored To Release
Animal Crossing’s next installment may launch with the Nintendo Switch 2 and feature multiplayer cities, cars, and new adventure missions.
You already have a built-in audience of over 40 million players (and that's just the people who boughtNew Horizons), so financially, it would make a lot of sense for Nintendo to make it a dual-platform release.Animal Crossing also isn't the most taxing series in terms of graphical fidelity, so it stands to reason that you could make a similar experience that would run on the original handheld (with some boosts for the newest hardware, of course).
Animal Crossing's Core Themes Oppose Switch 2 Exclusivity
Sharing Is Caring
Most importantly, the core themes ofAnimal Crossing itself are at odds with Switch 2 exclusivity. The games themselves showcase sharing, friendship, and growth, and the idea of putting them in a walled garden is antithetical to those principles. Folks with limited finances also won't be keen to buy a new system anda premium-priced game,as the sticker shock on AAA game development continues to rise.
Why A New Animal Crossing Game Announcement Is Looking More & More Likely, Despite Total Silence From Nintendo
Fans of Animal Crossing are awaiting the next installment. New Horizons had an eight-year gap from New Leaf, but the next game might come out sooner.
Time will tell if the newAnimal Crossing is a massive leap forward foundationally, to the point where it would require a Switch 2 to run. But families have already had to deal with some roadblocks forAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, and it would be a shame if Nintendo repeated its mistakes in the future. While we're at it, hopefully, we can geta permanent solution to the "one island per Switch" issueafter Nintendo saw how much strife it caused the first time around.
