After a launch year which saw Animal Crossing: New Horizons' become a worldwide phenomenon, 2021 has been disappointingly slow. Nintendo's E3 presentation, while delivering major trailers for Breath of the Wild 2, Metroid Dread, and WarioWare, did not mention Animal Crossing at all. Just a year ago, ACNH was the Switch's most popular game, so the radio silence on updates is confounding. It either means Nintendo is phasing out ACNH, which is very unlikely, or that it's waiting to announce something - hopefully, a major update or DLC.
ANCH's updates have been lackluster since Festivale in January and the eruption of Mario items in February. A March update focused on New Horizons' anniversary and gave new customizable variety goods, like a photo stand, to the Custom Design app; an April update added minimal tweaks to last year's spring and summer holidays. Essentially, players have been reliving the same annual content without sufficiently new spice - if they've visited their islands at all.
There was a slew of excellent updates after the game's launch - including swimming, the addition of museum's art wing, and Leif's flower shop - so the lack of new activities to draw players back into the game in 2021 has been surprising. In June, Doug Bowser, President of Nintendo of America, said Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting new content. Bowser promised there were plans in the works so that the "33 million people who have islands out there have new and fun activities to engage with." But what could those "new and fun activities" be, and when are they coming?
New Horizons greatly expanded upon the possibilities of previous Animal Crossing games, so it's strange that certain series mainstays are still absent. The most obvious omission is gyroids, pieces of furniture which are typically dug up from the ground. They've been in the series since the first game, and their main purpose is to look strangely charming and wiggle. By now, most long-term players have dug up every fossil, so something new to hunt for would be a great feature.
Brewster and The Roost in Animal Crossing are another aspect fans are awaiting in New Horizons. Brewster is a very dapper pigeon with a mustache, and he owns a café where he serves excellent coffee. In previous games, the player could even work at the Roost. The café has also served as place to store gyroids, which could be an indication that New Horizons is hoping to bundle those two features. Other New Horizons locations could use a boost, too, and previous games allowed players to expand Nook's Cranny into a full multi-level department store. Adding expansion incentives to Nook's Cranny and other buildings, like the Town Hall and the Able Sisters, would add a new goalpost to ACNH's gameplay, which it sorely needs to attract its players again.
Simply expanding features already in the game could also be a great move. An influx of new Able Sisters clothing items would be exciting, as finding repeats in the shop has become commonplace. New fossils, fish, and bugs would also be welcome, as many players have likely collected them all. Increasing the number of villagers who can live on the island would send many players immediately scouring campsites and remote islands, even more so if an update or DLC added entirely new villagers to the game. New summer holidays to round out the cute-but-bizarre "Wedding Season" would also be welcomed.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a great game which, for many, made a difficult period of time more bearable. The lack of updates in its second year is downright puzzling. Hopefully, those "new and fun activities" will be enough to help players rediscover the magic of their islands. And hopefully, with real-world summer holiday season in full swing, they're just around the corner.
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