in an alternate universe that had basically new leaf w/ horizons mechanics in HD, do you think it would have sold more initially?

[PowerPlus]

I think it would have and I think I would have gave into it months after instead of getting paper Mario origami king ( I still regret buying it). I think having an improved new leaf soundtrack would be amazing.

Post automatically merged: Jul 22, 2022

I think it would have and I think I would have gave into it months after instead of getting paper Mario origami king ( I still regret buying it). I think having an improved new leaf soundtrack would be amazing.

Also basically do you think it would have sold more than new horizons

 

[Croconaw]

I don’t know. I think New Leaf was a damn near perfect game, but of course, it had its flaws. I think New Horizons took a huge step backwards, though. It didn’t even feel like an Animal Crossing game to me.

 

[Belle T]

The story of Animal Crossing's success has as much to do with time as it does with the actual quality of the games. Every game in the series has sold gradually better than the one that came before it as brand recognition has increased overtime. New Horizons was already a hotly-anticipated game, so it was going to sell well regardleess. But the fact that it was on Nintendo's most successful console to date, combined with the impact of the pandemic, made it an extremely lucrative game beyond anyone's wildest expectations. So if you're suggesting that this hypothetical game were released in the same time space as New Horizons, or instead of New Horizons, I don't think it would have made a difference to sales at all.

Regardless of one's own opinions on New Horizons--and I personally like the game, so I don't say this with intent to disparage it--the game is the second highest selling game on the Switch largely because of its pre-release hype alongside the circumstances in which it was released, not necessarily because of the quality of the game. If anything, its current numbers are a testament to the strength of the previous entries. Because sales figures do not (directly) denote the quality of the game, but the quality of the brand.

 

[RollingAntony]

New Leaf is not a magical thing that makes everything better, it's vastly overrated.

Before NH, Animal Crossing already had 2 sales juggernauts- the franchise thriving with its handheld entries. That's not to say its console entries were bad, the GC version of the original game is the 9th best seller of the console after all- it's just that CF was a bit disappointing since it didn't explode after WW (and even then, it's the 16th best seller). NL sales were truly fantastic, but even when it's the darling of certain parts of the fandom, it also increased its sales only for about 1 million after WW (and not that it was an easy feat, it's just to show that the perception of a vocal minority doesn't always translate to selling copies).

So, while the sales of NH were obviously impacted by the pandemic, they are not the only reason of its fantastic sales. It's also a bit futile to try to attribute NH success against other Nintendo franchises just because of the pandemic, since the industry in general bloomed through that period. NH has sold 38 million copies since its release on March 2020 and it has done so because it kept (and improved upon) the fantastic legs and evergreen status that the franchise already had previously and also obviously rode on a groundbreaking debut. This game was also selling extremely well on the following months after release, an early sign of the legs mentioned. The Nintendo Switch is also a tie-ratio beast with its hardware/software, so that helps too. And the game is of an excellent quality, with excellent word of mouth, critical acclaim, etc. When you combine everything, you get to become the monster that NH is.

For an even wider perspective, NH is the best selling game on Japan ever. It reached a hard saturation point but it keeps selling, it just won't stop. The game was one of Nintendo's top selling software for the fiscal year that just ended with 6 million additional copies. Very few games manage to sell that well LTD- NH sold more copies last year alone than most games on other established Nintendo franchises have ever done such as Kirby, Zelda, Mario Sports, Donkey Kong, etc. And the game is still selling well going into its third year, placing relatively high on most charts around the world- the NPD, Famitsu and Europe charts.

The quality of a game doesn't always corresponds to its sales- but at the same time, they are also not that different. You can't have the beautiful legs that NH has showcased if the game just didn't have the quality behind it to keep supporting them. As much as some people like to headcanon about the supposed bad quality of NH, that's not what the overall picture says. The AC franchise as a whole has always been overlooked by the general "gamer" population (and even by some Animal Crossing fans), thinking its a "niche" series when it already had very strong numbers, presence and reach. People trying to downplay the success of NH is not new on that regard, it's just that it has an added dose of bias thanks to the people that didn't like it.

NH is a monster sales-wise because it's the perfect storm backed by a very strong game and the game will keep selling and reach even higher goals. We have no way of knowing what imaginary games could have sold- an imaginary NL + NH is a bit contradictory by itself- as both games do things on its own. I guess it's fair to say that an Animal Crossing game that was at least as good as NH is could have reached a similar amount of sales- but "more" is amost impossible to estimate when the real one is still selling even though it has hit saturation. The next financial report is probably going to add around 800k to its total sales, who knows how high it will go.

 

[ztc0611]

I think it’s unlikely. A big part of NH was lucky timing, but I also think that it has way more mass market appeal than NL, unfortunately. It’s a lot less of a niche game and the extreme focus on customization (which I do not enjoy) is something that probably made it spread more via social media.

I wish we lived in this world because NH’s extreme success means AC is probably going to be like this for the foreseeable future.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Regardless of what you think of the new horizons or new leaf it sounds unlikely that it would have sold more as ‘new leaf repackaged’ as opposed to a new game.

Impossible to say of course. Just seems like less people would be excited to pay for a game that already existed than would be interested in giving a new game a try. I think realistically there would have been a lot of complaints if the new game had been too similar to the previous game.

For me personally, I thought about playing new leaf, but after reading about it a lot and looking at the differences between it and new horizons, it just doesn’t hold the appeal for me. So I would also not personally favor that scenario.

On a less flippant note, literally everything @RollingAntony wrote - a wonderful voice of reason.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

What mechanics exactly? NH brought a lot to the table and some of it may have collided with the vibe of New Leaf as it was and how it operated.

I'm not sure about other people, but the only reason why I navigated to ACNH was because of the crafting aspect of the game. With crafting, a player will often have a lot of free range in the game (for NH, it led to decorating the island). And I tend to like crafting in games because of that. Otherwise, ACNH would have been another Animal Crossing game I paid no mind to. (Granted I have way more interest in the villagers now, but I'm not sure I'd buy another animal crossing game if it lacked the free range of ACNH tbh. I'd just play an older AC game at that point for a fraction of the cost of a brand new game.)
It (decorating) was expanded upon even more with the DLC.

 

[Xara]

i honestly have no idea. i know it would likely be a huge hit, since i’ve seen a lot of people (myself included) say that new leaf with new horizons’ features and quality would be their dream ac game, but i don’t know if it would sell better than new horizons did. considering how many (valid) complaints i’ve seen about the game over the last almost 3 years, i think it’s definitely possible. i know i’d purchase it.

 

[JKDOS]

Probably not. New Leaf didn't sell poorly because it lacked features or HD, it sold poorly because it was a 3DS game. Not everyone had a 3DS, and not everyone wanted a 3DS. The 3DS was also probably seen as a childish or nerdy game system.

New Horizons didn't do well just because it had features that New Leaf didn't. The biggest reason New Horizons did so well was due to social media influencers. The game blew up and a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon. The pandemic having people in lockdown probably helped a little bit too as people out of work spent more time on social media and trying to find something to fix their boredom. Sure social media existed in 2013, but it was nowhere near as big as it is now.

 

[~Kilza~]

New Leaf didn't sell poorly because it lacked features or HD, it sold poorly because it was a 3DS game.

I'm curious, why do you think New Leaf sold poorly? It sold 13.01 million copies, 6th highest on the 3DS, only ~6 million behind Mario Kart 7 for 1st (source). It was the highest selling game in the series until New Horizons came along and smashed that record. I'd say it sold well. Really, everything in the series except Amiibo Festival has done alright and sold millions of copies.

Anyways, my answer to the question of the thread is no, any theoretical New Leaf HD game wouldn't have sold as well as New Horizons. The biggest reason why is that it would've just been a remaster of New Leaf at its core, regardless of whatever changes were made. We've already seen this play out with Wild World and City Folk. Wild World was pretty well received by the fans at the time. Not without its flaws, of course, but it was still pretty well regarded and enjoyed by people at the time. City Folk comes out, and generally it's not as well received as Wild World. Why? Because it essentially was a copy of Wild World. It did make changes and added some things in (like the city location), yes, but it was widely seen as just "Wild World 1.5", and you can argue the sale numbers reflect that (from 11.75 mil with World World on the DS to 4.32 mil with City Folk on the Wii). And that's what we would've seen once again in this theoretical scenario. Some people have complained about New Horizons, yes, but there would've been even more complaints about New Leaf HD not changing much from New Leaf and not really being justified to be released as a new game at full price on the Switch when the original New Leaf was still pretty accessible at that time and cheaper to boot. The end result would be New Leaf HD dying off much quicker than New Horizons. It still would've sold alright, but it would come nowhere close to the amount of sales New Horizons has had.

I do think it's important to note that having a new game is much better for the series than just rehashing the same game over and over. Not everybody will like the changes, but it does create more excitement around the releases and makes people more eager to buy and play the game and helps expand the series' fanbase. Like I do enjoy New Horizons, but I'd be disappointed if the next AC game was basically a clone of New Horizons, since I'll have experienced all New Horizons has had to offer and want to see how Nintendo can continue to innovate and improve the series further.

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

Anyways, my answer to the question of the thread is no, any theoretical New Leaf HD game wouldn't have sold as well as New Horizons. The biggest reason why is that it would've just been a remaster of New Leaf at its core, regardless of whatever changes were made. We've already seen this play out with Wild World and City Folk. Wild World was pretty well received by the fans at the time. Not without its flaws, of course, but it was still pretty well regarded and enjoyed by people at the time. City Folk comes out, and generally it's not as well received as Wild World. Why? Because it essentially was a copy of Wild World. It did make changes and added some things in (like the city location), yes, but it was widely seen as just "Wild World 1.5", and you can argue the sale numbers reflect that (from 11.75 mil with World World on the DS to 4.32 mil with City Folk on the Wii). And that's what we would've seen once again in this theoretical scenario. Some people have complained about New Horizons, yes, but there would've been even more complaints about New Leaf HD not changing much from New Leaf and not really being justified to be released as a new game at full price on the Switch when the original New Leaf was still pretty accessible at that time and cheaper to boot. The end result would be New Leaf HD dying off much quicker than New Horizons. It still would've sold alright, but it would come nowhere close to the amount of sales New Horizons has had.

The WW/CF analogy is strange, because the latter didn't just add/change things — it outright removed content from the previous game, and I personally disagree with the notion of it being "Wild World 1.5". It's more accurate to call it an amalgamation of both the GC game(s) and WW. It removed the fictional events from Wild World, but brought back the RL-based ones from the original game, and despite still keeping the Rolling Log mechanic, the town layout is structured more similarly to how it was in the first game. Villagers still had birthdays, but they didn't celebrate them, anymore, and dialogue options were stripped out entirely, save for favors and such; villagers didn't even have photos of themselves to give you, anymore, and there was only one Episode you could go through once per player, and it's in service of a then-new character. City Folk rightly deserves criticism because it plays it safe without improving upon the AC formula much, rather than it just being a "clone" of another game — which is a sentiment that frankly doesn't make much sense, in hindsight, because it ignores the actual problems of the game; issues that didn't exist in the first two games.

Also, the OP isn't about an HD New Leaf remaster. It's a hypothetical question of how the game would've sold if it had been developed as an HD title with New Horizons' mechanics in mind, instead of what it was (and is) when it released on 3DS.

 

[JKDOS]

I'm curious, why do you think New Leaf sold poorly?

I'm was just going based off what OP said which was "do you think it would have sold more initially?".

 

[Neb]

The gap between New Leaf and New Horizons was quite long. By 2020 people were desperately wanting something new to do with the series. If New Horizons was just a remaster of New Leaf people would've just called it a rehash. Personally I would've loved it since New Leaf was a part of my later childhood and the graphics are the only thing about it that hasn't aged well.

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

The gap between New Leaf and New Horizons was quite long. By 2020 people were desperately wanting something new to do with the series. If New Horizons was just a remaster of New Leaf people would've just called it a rehash. Personally I would've loved it since New Leaf was a part of my later childhood and the graphics are the only thing about it that hasn't aged well.

I think the graphics hold up nicely for something made on a portable console, and that goes for WW, as well, because the art style is timeless. Graphics aren't really a concern for these types of games, anyway.