It’s no question thatAnimal Crossingis one of the most popular series ever created by Nintendo. The quintessential cozy games, filled with quirky Villagers and crushing debts, have been popular since 2001, but unfortunately, there’s been no news from Nintendo about the next entry in the series.Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest game in the series, only came out five years ago, but the lack of content updates to that game have made fans eager for any news regarding the future of the series.
A recent - and slightly lackluster - Nintendo Direct confirmed that the Switch 2 wouldn’t receive very many first-party launch titles besidesMario Kart World,which means fans will have to wait even longer for news onAnimal Crossing.Though it was unlikely due to how long agoAC:NHcame out, there was still some lingering hope that someAnimal Crossingnews would drop in the Direct. Based on the release date ofNew Horizons,there may be a few reasons the sequelhas yet to be confirmed, mainly due to development cycles and console lifespans.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Helped To Boost The Switch Mid-Cycle
A Flagship Game Always Increases Sales
Animal Crossing: New Horizonswasa runaway success for Nintendo as soon as it launched. The epitome of a cozy game,New Horizonsallowed players to curate their very own island paradise from the ground up. Building relationships with cute NPCs, discovering collectibles from all over the island, and engaging in the turnip-based “stalk” market all captivated millions of people during the peak of Covid-19. The pandemic may have helped boost Nintendo’s sales, as no one could leave their house to actually dig for fossils or learn DIY recipes from their neighbors, but the game would’ve been successful regardless.
While having a successful game is always the goal for a company, the timing of the success was the cherry on top. Disregarding the pandemic, theNintendo Switch was nearly halfway through its lifecycle, which is typically when sales start to falter. The Nintendo Switch came out in 2017, and withAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsreleased in 2020, a huge influx of interest in the Switch came at the perfect time to prevent a mid-cycle slump.
Animal Crossing Has Always Been A Solid Moneymaker For Nintendo
Tom Nook Has Been Raking In The Cash For Over Two Decades
Animal Crossing, as a series, has always been reliable for Nintendo. Ever since the very first game came out in 2001, every subsequent sequel has been beloved by fans.New Horizonswas no exception. In fact, it sold out every other game in the series to become the 15th best-selling game of all time. Not only hasthe game been a reliable source of income for Nintendo to boost game and console sales, but also the release of limited-edition consoles. Shortly afterNew Horizonscame out, Nintendo dropped a special editionACNH-themedNintendo Switch.
The mint and cream console featured an adorable decal of Tom Nook and his nephews standing on an island, and since the limited-edition console came out in 2020, it was subject to an extreme amount of scalping. Nintendo was selling out of Switches as soon as they appeared on online retailers' sites. If Nintendo has learned any lesson fromAnimal Crossingand its special Switch,it’s that it’s best to release these products long after the initial wave of interestin the console has died down to reinvigorate sales.
The Switch 2 Doesn’t Have Many Launch Titles, But That May Be Intentional
Saving More For Later Could Be A Smart Move
The more in-depth reveal of the Switch 2 and its first launch title,Mario Kart World, in the recent Nintendo Direct wasn’t incredibly exciting. The console itself looks like a much improved, but fundamentally the same, version of the first Switch andMario Kart Worldlooks pretty good. After all the hype that came of the Switch 2, the realization thatthe nextMario Kartwas one of the only first-party launch title for the console was a bit of a letdown.
It’s possible that the sequel’s release date hovering around the middle of the Switch 2’s lifecycle is a happy coincidence for Nintendo, even if it’s not the best news forAnimal Crossingfans.
However, it’s entirely possible thatNintendo is simply waiting to announce more of its most popular seriesonce the Switch 2 has released and the first wave of sales dies down. That strategy worked forAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsin 2020 to increase interest in the console, and Nintendo could replicate that success to boost sales for the Switch 2 later on in its lifecycle. With this potential strategy in mind, the wait for a newAnimal Crossingon the Switch 2could also be that the long development periods of AAA titles are why the Switch 2 isn’t launching with many first-party titles.
For example, there were only four years betweenCity Folk(2008) andNew Leaf(2012), and eight years betweenNew LeafandNew Horizons(2020). SinceNew Horizonsonly came out five years ago, it’s possible that the sequel’s release date hovering around the middle of the Switch 2’s lifecycle is a happy coincidence for Nintendo, even if it’s not the best news forAnimal Crossingfans.
