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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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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.