Momentum

[Warrior]

While this is of course an animal crossing forum, I was wondering if anyone else was feeling like nintendo really dropped the ball on the momentum of this game release?

What I mean is, think about a game like smash. People are constantly expecting new fighter reveals prelaunch, there's a lot of hype of momentum before release.

I feel like animal crossing switch has massive potential to have a similar kind of hype, maybe if they dropped a little info per month (imagine something like showing off different fish/bugs, weather effects and maybe new features in a very short monthly 'tourism' style video)

When the game was announced in september I felt so excited, and there's was a lot of activity again and animal crossing was on peoples minds. As time goes on however, I find even myself caring less and less. Pocket camp is underwhelming and depressing, and I just honestly feel my love for the franchise waning.

But maybe I'm wrong! Maybe there are people who would prefer news closer to launch. Do you have confidence in this game? Do you think they can build excitement again?

Personally I feel a little worried. I feel like they are going to release animal crossing and pokemon within 3 weeks of eachother, and totally cannibalise the sales of the two series, as well as dividing the attention of the playerbase - as in my experience there's a giant overlap between pokemon players and animal crossing players.

 

[Stevey Queen]

I think the problem is they announced it too soon. It's been 6 months and we know as much as we did when it was announced. Nothing except that's its coming this year but release dates are never set in stone and can be changed anytime but hopefully that won't happen.

I think the only reason they announced it all was because they announced Isabelle for Smash and they expected people to freak out if nothing about an animal crossing main game was announced even though anybody who would complain about that is irrational. Nintendo really needs to stop announcing games by just showing a logo and no gameplay or trailer or anything at all. We all knew an animal crossing game for switch was coming. Nintendo would be foolish not to make one. They didnt do us any favors really just by telling us it was coming in 2019 in September of last year.

I think they should have announced it in the February direct with a trailer or a teaser trailer. The earliest this game can release this year is in August. The wait period between then and August would have been perfect and less excruciating and there would been hype building up instead of, like you said, your excitement waning from lack of interest and any new info to go on.

I think we'll see something of the game before e3 and then we'll get the full scoop or almost the full scoop during e3.

 

[Lanstar]

The way I see it, the fun of Animal Crossing is about finding discoveries. So much that spilling a bunch of new features in a direct muffles with the wonder of discovering them ourselves.

I mean, I'd love to at least see some basic graphics and other things in an Animal Crossing direct - like if they eliminated the annoying grass deterioration issue. But nothing that would spoil the sense of finding new things in the game. I say this even though I follow the speculation of Pokemon games.

No doubt: Spoilers can ruin the wonder of games if they are done incorrectly.

 

[Coach]

I agree, and I feel like this is becoming a common theme with Nintendo unfortunately. The pacing felt off during the Smash announcements, too, as they revealed too much too early and by the time the later directs were coming out people were underwhelmed in comparison. Featuring Mario Maker 2 at the start of an objectively boring direct was also pretty odd.

With Animal Crossing, revealing some details during the last direct would've been perfect, even it it was just a small gameplay trailer. Even the name of the Switch title would've been something! Instead, the radio silence kinda bummed everyone out who was rooting for animal crossing news. Obviously it won't affect sales for Nintendo, but it does make the wait much more boring. It also keeps discussion much more general, which can get repetitive, as obviously there is no confirmed new features to discuss.

 

[Snowesque]

Was this not what happened with the Welcome Amiibo update?

For me just the lack of information feels weird. I know that when game play was shown for New Leaf, the end product did look fairly different. Maybe they are avoiding showing a not finished product? I guess I am satisfied we have confirmation, but I am still concerned by the lack information and note of where this game is development-wise.

 

[Lady Timpani]

This isn't really affecting my love for the franchise, but I am tempering my expectations a lot when it comes to the new game. Not only in terms of the release date, but also things like whether or not it'll just be a slightly updated ACNL. I hope it isn't, but since we have literally nothing to go on right now, it's entirely possible it could be. Hopefully they'll give us something soon.

 

[Khaelis]

They definitely announced it too soon. They just revealed it due to the announcement of Isabelle being in Smash Bros. Ultimate and thought 'eh, announce it that we were making animal crossing on the switch as well'. Honestly, if we don't see a trailer for it at E3, chances are the game will be delayed to 2020.

 

[Warrior]

Yes, I also think the announced it too soon, as with a September announce I honestly expected the game like 9 months later, just as it was for smash bros. As for them holding onto the game till e3.... it just doesn't feel like an e3 game. The way they've handled e3 the last two years its basically been, one game, with a few small other games. I think having animal crossing be their e3 game would be a mistake, not because I would be unhappy, but because I believe pokemon and animal crossing both target the same audience, and the audience who is the most likely to be watching e3? well I don't know if it's the pokemon/animal crossing audience.

I know most of you watch e3, but we're all into animal crossing enough to join a dedicated forum for it, I don't think we represent a lot of animal crossing fans. From what I can tell looking at twitter and stuff, a lot of people want animal crossing for switch, but a lot of them don't seem to understand things like nintendo directs and e3, only knowing about the game coming to switch by word of mouth. Basically, animal crossing seems like a word of mouth game, and I think if it's their e3 game, it will pull down the mood for the hardcore gamers (yeah, we're all hardcore animal crossing fans but you know who I mean) and thus bring down the reputation of the animal crossing game too.

I hope I'm wrong and animal crossing gets it's own direct in april or may, I really, really think bringing it to e3 would be a mistake for nintendo.

 

[Stella-Io]

Since Nintendo has announced Sword & Sheild, their main focus rn is to advertise that. Idk if S&S is the main series Pok?mon game people wanted, or when it's release date is, but I think until it's released and a few months after the hype for it has dies down, THAT'S when we'll get AC Switch news.

I had predicted a Switch AC for April, but since Nintendo is focusing on S&S, I know think an AC game will come out in stores in July, September at the latest. Nintendo said slated for 2019, which makes me believe that they have been devoloping the game for quite some time now, and rn they're working on last touches.

Nintendo has a pattern of not releasing their big games on top of each other, so I doubt we will 1 get an AC game soon and 2 get any other news. But I agree with your earlier point, they really have dropped the ball on this game. The longer they wait, the more risk of disappointment for the game with the features they did/didn't add. It's been waaay too long without any news, and quite frankly it's like they don't care for their AC fans? I mean it's taken them this long to make the game, the Switch has been out for years now, I remember people buying it for Black Friday back when Miiverse was a thing, and I know that was such a long time ago. People can say 'it's taken them this long to make a main series Pok?mon game' but they have the mobile game and Pok?mon Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu. They got a SWITCH game to tie them over for S&S. Yes AC has pocket camp, but that's it. And the way it's run, I'd say Pocket Camp is running out of ideas/people's interest here pretty quick.

 

[Shellzilla_515]

Yeah, they haven't kept going since. It's like they ran out of gas or something. We've been left hanging for a long while now and the hype for it seems to be declining a bit for me. Please, I hope I'm proven wrong or something.