r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • 1d ago
Famitsu: Animal Crossing: New Horizons has surpassed 8 million physical copies sold in Japan
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202412/2899797
u/engagingbear 1d ago
It's crazy how this game has only had 1 DLC. My wife isn't a traditional gamer and has sunk so many hours into animal crossing.
86
u/ContinuumGuy 1d ago edited 1d ago
If Nintendo had wanted to, they could have been doing DLCs and other content updates for it throughout the entirety of the Switch's lifespan and people would have lapped it up. If ever there was a Nintendo series that could be a GAAS and not be an abomination in the process, it's AC.
Wouldn't be surprised if they go with that with the next AC.
50
u/iceburg77779 1d ago
Nintendo doesn’t seem to be interested in heavily investing into GAAS games, especially for their flagship IPs. It would become harder for audiences to justify the premium pricing of Nintendo games if they became filled with DLC, and Nintendo would rather have their devs move onto other projects.
26
u/oopsydazys 20h ago
I think Nintendo knows they have a core audience who loves to play a lot of their games, and GAAS are time eaters. They're typically meant to get you in the door cheap or free and spend a lot of money. Nintendo is one of the only companies - maybe the ONLY company today - that can sell an insane amount of copies of their games at or near full price. I feel like FROM has been going this route more lately but they still discount their games more.
Splatoon being a live service kinda thing works well because it's one of their very few games that goes that route. Pokemon KIND OF skirts this too and they have stuff like Tetris 99 going on too.
Animal Crossing could really benefit from some kind of long term treatment though, because it's one of the only games that many people actually play consistently for weeks, months, even years.
12
u/UnidentifiedRoot 14h ago
Yeah, I know there's the "Nintendo is so out of touch" meme but I actually do think they silently pay a LOT of attention to the things their most hardcore fans want, like skipping Paper Mario 64 to remake the seemingly less in need of a remake TTYD instead doesn't make much sense until you realize that's the one their core audience seemed to hold as the gold standard. Investing as much as they seem to have into Metroid Prime 4 doesn't make any sense given the series past performance unless you accept that they are motivated at least somewhat by what their most core base is asking for.
32
u/ContinuumGuy 1d ago
And while I generally like them for that, I do feel it does hinder Animal Crossing a bit.
15
u/MandoDoughMan 20h ago
Animal Crossing would be perfect for GaaS. I would have spent an embarrassing amount of money if I could subscribe to regular new items, new villagers, new NPCs, new events, new dialogue, new buildings, new locations, new features, etc. I would happily be Nintendo's whale.
4
u/Skawt24 11h ago
Animal crossing did do GaaS though and they shut it down and released an offline version.
2
u/SilverShako 5h ago
Pocket Camp lasted 7 yrs before it shut down though, so I’d argue it just ran its course. Also it was a mobile game lacking a large chunk of what makes Animal Crossing what it is.
4
u/verrius 11h ago
The biggest hurdle with GAAS is migrating players to the next thing. Because once people have invested so much into the content, its hard to get them to want to start from zero. And from a feature standpoint, the next game will not have nearly as many bells and whistles as the one that's had years of live service improvements. For a studio that's trying to launch a new franchise, this is fine; a new game becoming an eternal success without the possibility for a follow up is an amazing "problem" to have. For Nintendo though, it breaks their model of generally visiting every big franchise only once or twice a generation, where they also usually try to do something that only the new hardware lets them do.
14
u/DooDooDave 21h ago
I wish it correlated with Pocket Camp. So many features, items and tasks that could have been brought over from PC that would have made the Switch AC better.
1
u/Blood_Paragon 13h ago
Could always try to ignite some absolutely out there hope that they Mario Kart Tour -> 8 Deluxe it (which itself was just wild, dlc 5 years after launch, and the sheer amount of tracks; but I digress) with the sunsetting of Pocket Camp.
6
u/thedreadfulwhale 11h ago
AC is up there but Splatoon literally is their closest game to being a GaaS shooter which is the most popular type of online multiplayer game (aside maybe from MMOs?). Coincidentally both games share dev teams inside Nintendo.
Personally wouldn't have minded if they supported Mario Maker 2 a lot longer than they did lol
1
u/AtsignAmpersat 11h ago
My wife and I played a ton of it when it first dropped during the pandemic.
1
u/princessprity 19h ago
I didn't even know they made a DLC for it. Honestly, I can't stand playing the game anymore because it gives me horrid flashbacks to 2020. But that's my problem, not the game's.
23
u/FappingMouse 1d ago edited 1d ago
anecdotally friends with lots of Japanese people both people who play games and those who don't really every I'm 90% sure every single one of them has switch and all of them have animal crossing atleast every girl i I know has a switch has animal crossing even if they have and play no other games it's kind if crazy
•
u/Taiyaki11 3h ago
It's either AC, splatoon, or Momotaru Dentetsu lol. Gamer, nongamer, everyone has played at least one of those three
•
29
u/LuckyHitman 1d ago
Here's hoping that the Switch 2 launches with a new Animal Crossing game, they definitely dropped support for New Horizons way too early given its popularity. Imagine a full AC game that was continuously updated and given support over several years, it would be a hit.
8
u/Bebobopbe 22h ago
Eh they hit their life time sale for the game is dont think it's worth sinking more money into it without a way to charge more. Gaas doesn't work if you can't get repeat purchases.
15
u/jerrrrremy 23h ago
it would be a hit.
Only on reddit can you find people telling Nintendo how they should make their games in the comments of an article about one of their games becoming the best selling physical release of all time in their home country.
20
u/LuckyHitman 22h ago
Genuinely not sure where the antagonism is coming from here, could you explain why it would be a bad move for Nintendo to keep producing content for Animal Crossing New Horizons?
11
u/blogoman 22h ago
I think it is because you are saying " it would be a hit" to implement your suggestions for a game on an article that is literally talking about how big of a hit the game was. The only game that sold better on the Switch was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
6
u/LuckyHitman 21h ago
The only game that sold better on the Switch was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Which happens to be a game that received a ton of post-launch support, extending six years past its initial Switch release with the last of the booster pack courses releasing in 2023. All I'm saying is that I think that Nintendo dropped the ball by ending development for ACNH when they could have capitalized on the success further.
It feels like another New Leaf to New Horizons situation, where there was an 8 year gap between entries with the only update being a small house design mode (Happy Home Designer and Happy Home Paradise respectively).
9
u/pornographic_realism 17h ago
Mario kart 8 was originally a wii u game too so you could justifiably claim it's been supported longer than the actual switch itself.
1
u/Maxximillianaire 5h ago
Switch 2 launch is definitely too soon, i'm guessing the next animal crossing is still a few years out
5
u/iTellItLikeISeeIt 21h ago
Pretty random/funny/impressive headline to read after getting the urge to start a new island a couple weeks ago, more than 2 years since the last time I played (I spoke with Chadder, my favorite vil, one last time before deleting the save data.) The series just never loses its charm.
15
u/souppuos123 1d ago
With how incredibly successful this game was, its a crime that two years after release, they only released one content update and one DLC and then completely abandoned it.
And the content update didn't include any of the big QoL updates to things people were complaining for years about. Just sad how they handled it.
13
2
u/Geoff_with_a_J 1d ago
Animal Crossing physical would drive me crazy. I like to just randomly check in on my island in between other gaming sessions. If i had to swap cartridges each time I'd either quit or break/lose something eventually. Or I'd end up just buying a separate Switch Lite just for it.
209
u/Roliq 1d ago edited 1d ago
For people who do not know why this is news, it has become the best-selling physical game in Japan of all time, surpassing the original Pokemon Red & Green