I don't understand Nintendo's missing support

[GetSchwifty]

Thanks to the pandemic AC has easily become one of N's best-known IPs.
I'm beyond baffled how little they do with it 3 years in. The updates during year 1 felt drip-fed (while being really important) and the game could use some good changes (which they could even charge money for if they want to).

So why do you think that is? :-/ I'm a little curious to be honest if you think there even is a reason. Theoretically this could be their golden goose and I for instance would gladly pay for some nice changes/updates.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I think it was by August 2020 when everyone finally stopped playing and even though that they released the 2.0 update back in November 2021. The thing is people have already moved on or given up on the game so it was already too late.

If they would've just released this content in 2020 maybe then game would've had more longevity in it to keep going just like New Leaf, but it was how the pacing of the way they did the updates was so slow. I know there is argument to be had that the pandemic had something to do with the development but still that doesn't excuse them for releasing a half baked game that costs like $60

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I think a big reason they dropped the game (beyond how they already made alot of money from it) was other corporations were using the custom design function to advertise thier stuff in dream addresses. It even went to a political scale.
Basically an IP thing.

 

[-Blue-]

We will never know truly why Nintendo does the things they do. As far as companies go, they're not very transparent or communicative with their consumers. They just do their own thing. Which sometimes it works in their favor and other times it does not. The Wii U is an example of this. Usually they are innovative and take risks.

But as I said, we will never know the real reasons because Nintendo just doesn't communicate. They could've decided to ride out the pandemic wave and made bank and realized the profits were good enough to just end it abruptly. They could've already had this whole thing planned out from the start. (They did delay the game from September 2019 to March of 2020. So they were possibly already behind.

So maybe they decided to just stop delaying the game and released a half-finished product and use drip-fed content as a means to drop the game and slowly update it as the months went on. I still feel as if the drip-fed content was too barebone and lackluster from them to have been working on it well in NH's 2020 life.

We also know that the dev team for NH was thinned out because they're the same ones who worked on Splatoon 3. Obviously at the time they didn't know that AC and NH were going to reach the same popularity as Splatoon. We will never know when they started working on Splatoon 3 or when the dev team was being pulled to work on that project. Could've been 50/50 or they could've even pulled all but 10% and those remaining had to scrap by with lackluster updates to stretch the game's lifespan out.

We just will never know why they decided to not capitalize on the game's popularity. But they didn't and the game suffered because of it.

 

[Hypno KK]

I don't see what they'd add in a new update. I'd love new features but they're unlikely to be part of Nintendo's plan for NH.

The game wasn't too unfinished wheb it was released and the update adding things like diving was released just a few months later.

I've seen criticism of the "big" update being released a year or two after interest in the game had peaked but they forget that the WA update for NL also took a while to be released. My guess is that they do this to have the extra development time and to reignite interest in the game.

I don't feel like the game is incomplete by this point. It seems to be lacking some older features but that's probably intentional based on the direction they took with this game.

I'd hate it if Nintendo released new paid updates. I didn't mind buying HHP because that was a whole extra game, but otherwise it would sound too much like EA's model for The Sims. I'd hate for that to happen to AC, especially since there's already other stuff to pay for like amiibo cards or online membership.

 

[GetSchwifty]

Wow, thanks guys A lot of what you all said does clear up things for me (f.e. how staff that worked on AC moved over to Splatoon 3).

I don't see what they'd add in a new update. I'd love new features but they're unlikely to be part of Nintendo's plan for NH.

The game wasn't too unfinished wheb it was released and the update adding things like diving was released just a few months later.

I've seen criticism of the "big" update being released a year or two after interest in the game had peaked but they forget that the WA update for NL also took a while to be released. My guess is that they do this to have the extra development time and to reignite interest in the game.

I don't feel like the game is incomplete by this point. It seems to be lacking some older features but that's probably intentional based on the direction they took with this game.

I'd hate it if Nintendo released new paid updates. I didn't mind buying HHP because that was a whole extra game, but otherwise it would sound too much like EA's model for The Sims. I'd hate for that to happen to AC, especially since there's already other stuff to pay for like amiibo cards or online membership.

I'd like to disagree with what you said (but just as a matter of opinion and not in a "you are wrong"-sense):
I do think that the game was highly unfinished when it released. I loved it from the very first minute - much more than I loved New Leaf but something about New Horizon felt "off" to me. There were clearly features missing (Brewster and art f.e.) that should have been there from the start and would have helped a lot with NPC rotation during every week. I know this because when I recently did a cold restart of my island, everything felt smoother because what should have been there on release is now neatly packed into the "finished product" and already feels like there's more variety from the very first moment. Nintendo has developed this unhealthy obsession with cutting content to drip-feed it later with their Switch games (most of their sports games are a good example).
That being said: I'd love to see more AC content pop up eventually (eventhough I'm not getting my hopes up) BUT what is there after the 2.0 update, one can not call "unfinished" anymore for sure.

 

[Hypno KK]

Wow, thanks guys A lot of what you all said does clear up things for me (f.e. how staff that worked on AC moved over to Splatoon 3).



I'd like to disagree with what you said (but just as a matter of opinion and not in a "you are wrong"-sense):
I do think that the game was highly unfinished when it released. I loved it from the very first minute - much more than I loved New Leaf but something about New Horizon felt "off" to me. There were clearly features missing (Brewster and art f.e.) that should have been there from the start and would have helped a lot with NPC rotation during every week. I know this because when I recently did a cold restart of my island, everything felt smoother because what should have been there on release is now neatly packed into the "finished product" and already feels like there's more variety from the very first moment. Nintendo has developed this unhealthy obsession with cutting content to drip-feed it later with their Switch games (most of their sports games are a good example).
That being said: I'd love to see more AC content pop up eventually (eventhough I'm not getting my hopes up) BUT what is there after the 2.0 update, one can not call "unfinished" anymore for sure.

That's why I said it wasn't "too unfinished" in the sense that some things were missing, though imo there was still a fair amount to do.

I was really excited for Brewster's return, but unfortunately I don't think it was worth it. It feels like he was added because players missed him but that there was nothing special planned for him The cafe feels much less interactive this time around. As to the art, I think that was released in one of the early updates, kind of like diving? I agree it could/should have been in the game from the start, but I don't think it was a huge wait or anything.

I feel like most of the gameplay was there from the start. Other than things like diving, Cyrus, etc. I don't really feel like the updates majorly changed the gameplay. I wish they would have (like Brewster!!!). Maybe I'm just biased, though haha.

 

[GetSchwifty]

That's why I said it wasn't "too unfinished" in the sense that some things were missing, though imo there was still a fair amount to do.

I was really excited for Brewster's return, but unfortunately I don't think it was worth it. It feels like he was added because players missed him but that there was nothing special planned for him The cafe feels much less interactive this time around. As to the art, I think that was released in one of the early updates, kind of like diving? I agree it could/should have been in the game from the start, but I don't think it was a huge wait or anything.

I feel like most of the gameplay was there from the start. Other than things like diving, Cyrus, etc. I don't really feel like the updates majorly changed the gameplay. I wish they would have (like Brewster!!!). Maybe I'm just biased, though haha.

Nah, I don't think you're biased, I think you put your emphasis on different things when the game came out.

How big the difference is for me I only recently found out when I did the restart and got a much smoother, varied start. I'm less than 7 days in and so much more is happening already (many little things) that it feels like a completely new game. I like how I can meet Redd (I love the idea of art collecting in the game) from the beginning now. When he was added with an update before, I suddenly only waited for him to show up because I already had everything from all the rest that I needed. Now the weekly NPC cycle is much more dynamic and colourful.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think that Nintendo stopped the updates because the main gimmick of this installment is crafting and customization. They were heavily featured and talked about during the reveal period and in the ads. You’re supposed to make things more than you are supposed to be buying already existing furniture sets. I mean the game has you literally creating so many different things including a working tv from only rocks, some iron nuggets and some fruit and a lamp from some clay, a couple of coconuts, and some iron nuggets. There’s no much need to keep adding new premade furniture and decorations.

 

[GetSchwifty]

I think that Nintendo stopped the updates because the main gimmick of this installment is crafting and customization. They were heavily featured and talked about during the reveal period and in the ads. You’re supposed to make things more than you are supposed to be buying already existing furniture sets. I mean the game has you literally creating so many different things including a working tv from only rocks, some iron nuggets and some fruit and a lamp from some clay, a couple of coconuts, and some iron nuggets. There’s no much need to keep adding new premade furniture and decorations.

That's actually a really good argument.

 

[-Blue-]

The problem with that though is you're stuck with only the DIY you learned. And sometimes I've learned a DIY only to find out that one of the materials is a DIY that I don't own. So finding that one was useless until I could get the other DIY. Or that a lot of the DIY were added through a mind numbing grind of hoping a balloon had a DIY card and not more clothes, materials, bells, ect.

When I first started I was getting DIY for flower crowns. It got to a point where I had so many different flower crown DIY and hardly any furniture DIY. So while I wanted to utilize crafting and the such, my repertoire/options were limited. Also, when this game released in March of 2020 everyone literally had the same room setups because the DIY and orderables were kind of limited. Everyone had the same kitchen theme with the ironwood kitchenette or whatever it was called.

They really could've introduced this better.

 

[VanitasFan26]

The problem with that though is you're stuck with only the DIY you learned. And sometimes I've learned a DIY only to find out that one of the materials is a DIY that I don't own. So finding that one was useless until I could get the other DIY. Or that a lot of the DIY were added through a mind numbing grind of hoping a balloon had a DIY card and not more clothes, materials, bells, ect.

This! I cannot tell you how many times I've been getting so many duplicate DIYS. its just so annoying with how RNG the game decides to give you DIYS that you haven't learned yet. I find myself having to like sell duplicate DIYS whenever I get them.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

The problem with that though is you're stuck with only the DIY you learned. And sometimes I've learned a DIY only to find out that one of the materials is a DIY that I don't own. So finding that one was useless until I could get the other DIY. Or that a lot of the DIY were added through a mind numbing grind of hoping a balloon had a DIY card and not more clothes, materials, bells, ect.

When I first started I was getting DIY for flower crowns. It got to a point where I had so many different flower crown DIY and hardly any furniture DIY. So while I wanted to utilize crafting and the such, my repertoire/options were limited. Also, when this game released in March of 2020 everyone literally had the same room setups because the DIY and orderables were kind of limited. Everyone had the same kitchen theme with the ironwood kitchenette or whatever it was called.

They really could've introduced this better.

It would have been nice if you could do a "request" for Cyrus by giving him materials he wants in exchange for a diy you didn't have. However, Cyrus wasn't even in the game until 2.0

 

[-Blue-]

This! I cannot tell you how many times I've been getting so many duplicate DIYS. its just so annoying with how RNG the game decides to give you DIYS that you haven't learned yet. I find myself having to like sell duplicate DIYS whenever I get them.

I usually hold on to my duplicate DIY and give it to my alt villagers so they can learn them and get the NookMile awards for learned DIY. Helps to give them some additional points to buy something on NM program. Sometimes I will hold on to harder to find/get/rare ones just in case someone might need it.

It would have been nice if you could do a "request" for Cyrus by giving him materials he wants in exchange for a diy you didn't have. However, Cyrus wasn't even in the game until 2.0

That would've been an interesting way to do that and a lot better. I remember mentioning how it would've been nice if Harriet could style your hair for a reasonable fee of bells. She could do all the styles, including the ones you can learn from her so that you don't have to buy the hairstyle package on the NM program. It'd be like a temp thing until you got enough to buy it yourself.

There's just so much they could've done to make the whole crafting thing work better. Like somehow 'dismantle' furniture to get materials out of it. Like a chair could give you something like 6 pieces of wood ect.

I really liked how in the beginning my villager would think up DIY themselves whenever they did or got something. Like fishing out trash, or catching a certain fish netted them a recipe to try. I really think they should've expanded on this more than the RNG balloon gods. Or in like some games like Botw, Grounded, ect you learned different recipes, but you could also experiment and learn a recipe through trial and error. Of course if you failed you ended up with garbage.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I usually hold on to my duplicate DIY and give it to my alt villagers so they can learn them and get the NookMile awards for learned DIY. Helps to give them some additional points to buy something on NM program. Sometimes I will hold on to harder to find/get/rare ones just in case someone might need it.

Oh that is a smart idea! Never really thought of that.

 

[Belle T]

I think that Nintendo stopped the updates because the main gimmick of this installment is crafting and customization. They were heavily featured and talked about during the reveal period and in the ads. You’re supposed to make things more than you are supposed to be buying already existing furniture sets. I mean the game has you literally creating so many different things including a working tv from only rocks, some iron nuggets and some fruit and a lamp from some clay, a couple of coconuts, and some iron nuggets. There’s no much need to keep adding new premade furniture and decorations.

In addition to the points outlined by Blue and others above, even if you collect every DIY recipe in the game, each recipe is limited to a set number of aesthetics. Outside of those pieces of furniture that can be decorated with a custom design (and even then, that's only to a very limited extent), there's functionally no difference between crafting a DIY and buying the item itself. It doesn't grant you any more options to make the items your own, or how they behave if they're interactable, or otherwise do anything that would increase replay value and subsequently lengthen the game's lifespan. It only gives you more options on how to obtain them, which is fine, I suppose. But it wouldn't replace updates.

Even if that were the intended philosophy, however, I find that highly questionable, when other games that rely on user creation still get major updates. As far as I know, even Pocket Camp is still receiving updates with new furniture and clothing items, some of which are better than the ones found in New Horizons. It would be a no-brainer to bring some of the Pocket Camp-exclusive items to New Horizons in the form of DLC in order to generate user interest. But we haven't even gotten that.

 

[azurill]

I think that Nintendo stopped the updates because the main gimmick of this installment is crafting and customization. They were heavily featured and talked about during the reveal period and in the ads. You’re supposed to make things more than you are supposed to be buying already existing furniture sets. I mean the game has you literally creating so many different things including a working tv from only rocks, some iron nuggets and some fruit and a lamp from some clay, a couple of coconuts, and some iron nuggets. There’s no much need to keep adding new premade furniture and decorations.

I think the problem with this is the customization for the crafting items is so limited. There are sets like the mermaid that you craft but can’t customize.

This! I cannot tell you how many times I've been getting so many duplicate DIYS. its just so annoying with how RNG the game decides to give you DIYS that you haven't learned yet. I find myself having to like sell duplicate DIYS whenever I get them.

I think the biggest problem with RNG and not just with DIY’s but furniture and clothing is that they wanted you to trade for them. They needed you to have a reason for getting the Nintendo subscription . Since they took out mini games to play with friends people don’t have much of a reason to play with friends. It would have been better if there was a way to prioritize not learned DIYS. I saved mine and when I restarted my second island gave them to a player I was moving to the new island .


I get most of the game revolves around decorating and crafting. It would be nice and open on so many design possibilities if we could use rugs and wall items on cliffs. It would also open up design slots since some of my designs are for rugs that are in game.

 

[-Blue-]

Even if that were the intended philosophy, however, I find that highly questionable, when other games that rely on user creation still get major updates. As far as I know, even Pocket Camp is still receiving updates with new furniture and clothing items, some of which are better than the ones found in New Horizons. It would be a no-brainer to bring some of the Pocket Camp-exclusive items to New Horizons in the form of DLC in order to generate user interest. But we haven't even gotten that.

This is what bothers me. I still see that Pocket Camp is getting updates whenever I see the thread titles on this forum. I know someone will mention how PC uses real money to utilize it the most, but NH is also Japan's best selling game and one of Nintendo's and the Switch's highest selling games. Only being beaten out by Mario Kart 8 Delux, which released in 2017. And NH almost caught up to that title and it released 3 years later.

This is a title that is niche and hardly known compared to Mario Kart. They should've supported the game more with better updates. The ones we did get were few and far between and barely enough to keep the declining interest.

I think the problem with this is the customization for the crafting items is so limited. There are sets like the mermaid that you craft but can’t customize.

Oh you just reminded me that it took them 8 months to patch the Mermaid fence in. They never mentioned it, but I'm pretty sure they forgot to add it in during the diving update.

 

[azurill]

Oh you just reminded me that it took them 8 months to patch the Mermaid fence in. They never mentioned it, but I'm pretty sure they forgot to add it in during the diving update.

Yea I’m pretty sure they forgot to add it. Shows how much they pay attention to what’s in game that it took that long for them to realize it wasn’t there.

 

[Belle T]

This is what bothers me. I still see that Pocket Camp is getting updates whenever I see the thread titles on this forum. I know someone will mention how PC uses real money to utilize it the most, but NH is also Japan's best selling game and one of Nintendo's and the Switch's highest selling games. Only being beaten out by Mario Kart 8 Delux, which released in 2017. And NH almost caught up to that title and it released 3 years later.

This is a title that is niche and hardly known compared to Mario Kart. They should've supported the game more with better updates. The ones we did get were few and far between and barely enough to keep the declining interest.

I'm not going to give Nintendo an inch by suggesting that it's more difficult to support New Horizons when they can't extort their players with microtransactions, so I hardly find that to be an excuse. It remains a rather curious case that Nintendo seems to have an aversion to making money through smart decisions that people would actually applaud them for. I was actually discussing with my group chat just last night about some of Nintendo's more puzzling decisions, such as discontinuing Super Mario Bros. 35 while it still had an extremely active userbase and was one of the few legitimate incentives Nintendo had for getting people to sign up for Switch Online. Or spending months on an English translation of a previously Japan-exclusive Fire Emblem game (albeit, it's a translation based on a more recent remake, rather than one built from the ground up) only to make it a three-month timed exclusive.

With these decisions, the only possible meaning I can ascribe to it is that they were hoping that players would experience such intense FOMO that they'd impulsively subscribe to NSO just to play before it's too late. But that's just a hypothesis. The main takeaway is that Nintendo's handling of the Switch has been questionable on all fronts. Sales data, public opinion, and opportunity costs seem to have absolutely no bearing on their business decisions, which would be great if the context were Nintendo be willing to sacrifice maximum profits for putting out more unique and entertaining player experiences. But at least recently, it's only been in the context of making bad decisions that make their products less enjoyable for the intended consumer, even when the game is effectively printing them money.

Disney is equally awful in this regard, but at least you can get a read on the motives behind their horrible decisions. With Nintendo, it's--at best--a game of speculation and random guessing. They're clearly making sufficient money, regardless. But I can't picture any manner in which one might make the case that these decisions are a calculated business decision that is maximizing revenue over the alternative.