While Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be getting a massive version 2.0 update and paid DLC in the form of Happy Home Paradise, Nintendo has also announced that these additions will be the last major content updates for the game that has sold over 33 million copies since it launched in March 2020.
In an era where season passes and battle passes and DLC are the norm, why does Nintendo continue to leave behind some of its most successful games, which could live on as live-service games? And even if “live service” is a step too far, Nintendo could still be finding ways to keep its biggest games supported in an era when launch day is hardly ever the last day most games see updates.
While Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t the only Nintendo game that could benefit from sustained post-launch support, the seemingly abrupt end to its major updates is perhaps the best example of the opportunities Nintendo is missing out on. Animal Crossing has all the makings of other continually updated games like Destiny, Fortnite, Final Fantasy XIV, and Call of Duty: Warzone. When it’s October 14 in our world, it is October 14 on your AC island (unless you've changed your clock). Things are constantly changing - seasons, weather, items, holidays, etc. - which means there consistently can be something new to find.
This set-up could be perfect for the constant addition of furniture, DIY recipes, game modes, cosmetics, and other elements that would allow Animal Crossing's creative community to thrive. All of that comes at the cost of more development, sure, but with such a success as New Horizons, which has an audience clearly eager for more, the payoff seems like it would be there.
If this were any other developer besides Nintendo, you could imagine a world where there were actual content seasons in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where there are free and paid content drops every few months. An MMO like Final Fantasy XIV, for example, usually always has some big expansion on the horizon, like the upcoming Endwalker, and smaller events, like the Halloween-themed All Saints’ Wake, leading up to them.
In a version of Nintendo’s What If…?, an alternate universe could see a Metroid Dread-themed season arriving in time with the game’s launch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons with items, costumes, furniture, and much more inspired by our favorite bounty hunter and her world. While crossovers are always wonderful, these updates could be a mixed bag of paid and free DLC that add reasons for players to come back for more. Not everyone may be interested in a paid Metroid-themed DLC pack, but some might love new free items to help ring in Christmas or the New Year.
Nintendo has actually experimented with this a bit in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for iOS and Android devices, and it gives fans an idea of what this more live-service take on Animal Crossing could be. If you were to log on to Pocket Camp today, you would see a few paid add-ons that deliver more than what is offered to all who start the free-to-play title. Pocket Camp’s extras are, of course, built on a free-to-play model that wouldn’t necessarily work for players of a full-priced console game, but if Nintendo already has an Animal Crossing it knows how to support so constantly with new updates, why not apply some of that thinking long term to New Horizons?
Granted, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has had a ton of free and wonderful post-launch support in the form of new cosmetics, items, seasonal goods, features like swimming in the ocean, and more. But support doesn’t have to end less than two years after launch. There could be room for a mix of continued free support like an improved and less-eggy Easter event that comes with some type of new themed items alongside paid upgrades like a new Island to explore or even The Legend of Zelda expansion packs timed to the series’ anniversary or new releases like the Breath of the Wild sequel.
Another living sim, The Sims 4, has demonstrated what years-long support can look like. There are countless Expansion, Game, and Stuff packs for the latest Sims, all of which offer different amounts and types of new content to expand upon the base experience. These are all completely optional, but their goal is to draw certain groups of people back into the world of The Sims 4 or keep them there longer.
Animal Crossing could have this type of support that could continue for years on end, much like The Sims 4, which just celebrated its seventh birthday. But Nintendo chose not to go that route, and this wasn’t the first time it has done so.
Nintendo’s Inconsistent Post-Launch Support
2019’s Super Mario Maker 2 was primed to be a live-service game that would continue to get support in the form of new items, objects, and themes. When it launched, the base game included Game Styles modeled after Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U. These styles would change not only the look of your levels to match a different Mario game, but it would add items and movement abilities from each specific game’s world.
Those four game styles were carried over from the original game, but a fifth - Super Mario 3D World - was the sole new addition and was placed under “Extra Game Styles.” The plurality of “Styles” gave hope that we would one day see other art styles introduced into the game. Alas, Super Mario Maker 2’s final update arrived less than a year after its launch and dashed all hope of this platform becoming something greater than it already was.
This abrupt end or lack of sustained support is a pattern for Nintendo, as while it can provide substantial post-launch content for its games, it does so for such a short time when taking into consideration how much these games are selling and how much the community surrounding them loves playing them. And that’s true of so many types of games, not just ones that could fit a live-service structure.
This point is further seen in Nintendo’s very inconsistent approach to post-launch DLC. Some games, including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Pokemon Sword and Shield, received strong post-launch support. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in particular was on the brink of becoming a “live” game before the announcement that Kingdom Hearts’ Sora would be the final fighter added to its impressive roster that saw 12 new characters join the fight.
While that was great for fans of those games, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Nintendo Switch’s best-selling game with 37.08 million copies sold since June 30, 2021 - received very little in the way of DLC besides such small additions as Link’s Champion’s Tunic and Master Cycle from Breath of the Wild and support for Nintendo Labo.