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.
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.
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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.