one island per console

[telluric]

Yeah I don’t like it. I have multiple people on my island one played for an hour and then never again. Now I have a house on my island that I don’t know how to get rid of. The other two are fighting over what the town flag should be. I don’t like the island name and would love to restart and name it something better. And can’t I don’t like the villager line up/would like to rotate and experience different ones, but I can’t. I’m stuck and it’s my own game.

If you know for sure the other isn't going to play again, I'm guessing you could "log in" as them (go on their switch account) and play as them to delete their save. Or, just move their house somewhere out of the way for now

 

[Cosmic-chan]

It's whatever. I mean it make sense. If we were allowed more than one island it would eat up so much space on the switch. I mean nintendo has always done this. It's no different from acnl. I wasn't really expecting a change

 

[Sach]

I went out and bought a Switch Lite just to play animal crossing because I refuse to share an island with my sister. And we get along real well almost all the time, but I tell you there would have been FIGHTS if we had shared. Sorry to those of you who are sharing with a sibling, especially if you have widly different opions about decoration and style.

 

[fallenchaoskitten]

I hate it so much... I wish it did like every other game and a different profile had a different save profile/game.
If it worked this way, I definitely would have made extra profile(s) and added them to my switch family plan so I could do trades and villager cycling easier.

I wish it was like New Leaf. It either saved to the cartridge (or the sd card if digital) so if you had a second cartridge (... or digital and a cartridge) that you could have another island. Any DLC/updates would just save to the SD Card (like any other game.)
This way if you had more than one console (or original damaged) you could take your cartridge out, boot up your game on the new console, and play your regular island. So much more security.
Also with that way, you would have more game sales, too. I would have bought a second copy immediately if this were the case... I love my two copies of New Leaf and can actually tell you which town is which by the cartridge serial number. Lol

 

[Cosmic-chan]

I mean me and my sister are sad but it works out better that we don't have to share the switch and instead we could play with each other like we did with NL. I don't care tbh and my sister doesn't either she's planning on getting the switch lite and i'm buying her acnh so meh. I'm not bothered. why do I feel like i'm the only one who agrees with the one island per console?

 

[GEEBRASS]

As others have said, I wish they would make the islands per-cartridge. I'd bet the net gain Nintendo would make from households buying multiple ACNH cartridges instead of multiple Switches would be substantial. I could be wrong, though. Philosophically, I think I get why they've made it so restrictive, but mainly I'd love a second island just to experiment with extreme terraforming & design.

 

[monsieurberry]

Oh man, I just remembered something so ridiculous I just had to come back to this thread to mention it:

The reason why people on twitter said you were wrong to get mad over this? Because apparently, there’s some alternate universe these people lived in where every other game was like this too... even though in GC you can buy another memory card and in WW & NL the data is on the cartridge so only CF has been this way... and yet that’s what people I encountered kept saying, “lol why are people mad, this is nothing new, you could never have more than one town on the same console lol”. It gave me such a headache! But not as bad as the one I get from having to deal with the feature itself.

I mean it’s clear that Nintendo is trying to limit everyone to one island. Having to buy a second copy of the game isn’t exactly a difference in philosophy from having to buy a new switch. It’s gross either way.

Nintendo clearly has monetary values in mind which lead them to make this decision and people really need to stand against it.

 

[starlightsong]

since this is just an objectively negative thing (I can't see a single upside to being forced to play a certain way) I don't think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who is happy with this decision, I think it'd just be downright impossible.

that being said, I don't think this is a ploy by nintendo at all. this seems to be how every switch game works, and I wouldn't be surprised if the devs were forced to go down this route for technical/nintendoey reasons.
if they wanted more money, making it the same as NL and requiring a new cartridge for a new island would be the best idea. many more people (including many people here and myself) would jump at the chance to get 1 or even multiple new islands if it only costed an extra cartridge as proven by the fact that lots of people here had/have up to EIGHT new leaf towns.

but the vast majority of people are not gonna buy a new console specifically for AC unless they are absolutely desperate for a new island. and only a very small minority of superfans are gonna bite the bullet and do that, provided they can even afford it

so from where I'm standing, it doesn't seem like a great idea economically either, to limit players to 1 island per switch. I'm assuming there's another reason behind it that we don't know.

I can’t find the tweet again but I swear I saw somebody who said they were glad about having one island per console because they enjoyed sharing their town with their brother as a kid and thought that was the best way to play. This was on twitter a few months ago, it made me so mad and I still have the chat log where I complained about it to my friends in discord and man I wish I had saved the tweet now. I agree with you though, I see absolutely no positives to this decision and I still wonder how that person didn’t realize that nobody was asking for the option for them to share with their brother to be taken away, only for the rest of us to have the option not to.

That being said, though, I realize that it’s probably different with Animal Crossing on a technical level somehow because of how the game works, but every other game on the switch lets you have a completely clean, unique save per game on each profile created. I would be so, so angry if I had to share saves in Zelda and Pokemon and Mario and so on with my dad and brother unless I bought another console or even just a cartridge—I don’t, though, as we all have our own individual profiles where we make our own progress and I even have two Pokemon SWSH games across my own two profiles.
I understand that Animal Crossing has always provided an option to share your town with another player who lives there as a separate character while these games have never had that type of thing so it’s a different situation, but I just don’t get why there couldn’t be some sort of option to either move onto the island of another user on the console or create your own. It feels anti-consumer to me even if they didn’t do it to make money, and made me initially plan to not buy the game until early August at the least.

 

[kojuuro]

The way this one island per console was implemented just reeks of greed to me on Nintendo's part imo. The secondary players on the island have basically no power (especially at the beginning of the game). I was initially going to share a switch with my sister, but after seeing the 1 island per console (not even per game), it forced us to get another console which really leaves a poor taste in my mouth. It only got worse when I found out how limited secondary characters are.

 

[Sloom]

I can’t find the tweet again but I swear I saw somebody who said they were glad about having one island per console because they enjoyed sharing their town with their brother as a kid and thought that was the best way to play. This was on twitter a few months ago, it made me so mad and I still have the chat log where I complained about it to my friends in discord and man I wish I had saved the tweet now. I agree with you though, I see absolutely no positives to this decision and I still wonder how that person didn’t realize that nobody was asking for the option for them to share with their brother to be taken away, only for the rest of us to have the option not to.

That being said, though, I realize that it’s probably different with Animal Crossing on a technical level somehow because of how the game works, but every other game on the switch lets you have a completely clean, unique save per game on each profile created. I would be so, so angry if I had to share saves in Zelda and Pokemon and Mario and so on with my dad and brother unless I bought another console or even just a cartridge—I don’t, though, as we all have our own individual profiles where we make our own progress and I even have two Pokemon SWSH games across my own two profiles.
I understand that Animal Crossing has always provided an option to share your town with another player who lives there as a separate character while these games have never had that type of thing so it’s a different situation, but I just don’t get why there couldn’t be some sort of option to either move onto the island of another user on the console or create your own. It feels anti-consumer to me even if they didn’t do it to make money, and made me initially plan to not buy the game until early August at the least.

haha, that person sounds extremely misguided. what a great honking idiot, that's not even a valid reason for supporting the decision lmao

also yeah, I think I was completely wrong about my point with other switch games, I was thinking about my very limited selection of games (but I don't even have more than 1 switch profile so I don't even know if an extra profile means an extra save file lol).

my heart really does go out to people who have family members/SO's etc also interested in playing on the same animal crossing file. animal crossing is my favourite game ever but having to share my very personal island with someone and have to make sacrifices and compromises over every decision would drive me insane and I'd probably end up not wanting to play at all, even if I were really close to that person. it is completely anti-consumer and a baffling decision honestly. I really wish there was some kind of a workaround other than buying an entirely new console.

 

[BambieTheMayor]

I'd like if there were an option to choose at the beginning.

For example, you boot up a new account, click on Animal Crossing, and during the airport scene with Timmy and Tommy, they'll ask "Oh no! We seem to have lost record of the island you're departing to. Which island are you departing to today? today? "
It will then give you the option of the islands you have already on your console, or an option of "Somewhere Else" that allows you to choose a brand new location.

I feel this way would allow people to have their own islands if you share your account with multiple people, while also maintaining the ability to share (or, if you're like me, and have a Switch for yourself but have extra profiles around the island to use the houses as restaurants/hotels/etc.)

 

[Arckaniel]

I find it real stupid tbh, and as someone who actually wants a second island I considered buying a Nintendo Switch Lite just for a second island so I guess Nintendo's plan is working lol... But ultimately decided it's not worth it so I'm holding off for now, sorry Nintendo

 

[starlightsong]

haha, that person sounds extremely misguided. what a great honking idiot, that's not even a valid reason for supporting the decision lmao

also yeah, I think I was completely wrong about my point with other switch games, I was thinking about my very limited selection of games (but I don't even have more than 1 switch profile so I don't even know if an extra profile means an extra save file lol).

my heart really does go out to people who have family members/SO's etc also interested in playing on the same animal crossing file. animal crossing is my favourite game ever but having to share my very personal island with someone and have to make sacrifices and compromises over every decision would drive me insane and I'd probably end up not wanting to play at all, even if I were really close to that person. it is completely anti-consumer and a baffling decision honestly. I really wish there was some kind of a workaround other than buying an entirely new console.

You know, I went looking for that specific example I mentioned and didn’t find it but I did find these particular examples (among many others, unfortunately) of people defending the decision and saying things like “just buy another switch” and “every game was like this”:

Spoiler

It may seem impossible and unfathomable, but twitter is a dark place and sadly you can find people defending anything somehow, even the most extremely anti-consumer decisions where all people are asking for is to have an option to play the way they want. I’m so glad TBT isn’t like this and people instead see this decision for the frustrating, limiting thing that it is. I didn’t even consider that other switch games might be this way as I can vouch for the fact that everyone in my family is a gamer with their own switch profile and has their own individual save in everything except for, of course, Animal Crossing. But any game that is this way absolutely shouldn’t be imo.
And yeah, the reason I probably wasn’t gonna buy the game until August specifically is because that’s when my brother’s birthday is and therefore the most likely time he’d be able to get his own switch. I told all of my friends this and fully planned on sticking to it, but a close friend bought the game as a gift for me so now I’m sharing with my brother and my dad who both live with me and wanted to play. It’s been fun teaching my dad to play, but so frustrating having his and my brother’s houses take up space and that I can’t reset my island when I so badly want to because I just can’t delete their progress like that. I actually have stopped playing just like you said you would. I don’t know if there’s some reason for this that we just don’t understand, but I’d literally even be willing to pay money for an add-on that lets another player have another island. Just anything other than having to buy a whole entire extra console because of one game.

Post automatically merged: May 23, 2020

I feel like it must have something do with the multiplayer they introduced, where multiple people from the same island can play at once. (I don't believe we've had this in other games, the only place I could see it working was City Folk with the wii remotes but I don't remember having that). So maybe that's a part of it. But it's definitely not an equal trade-off by any means because, how often is that going to be used? I'm the only user of my switch, so I haven't done it, but it just seems a little bit gimmicky. Can you even terraform together using that?

The co-op in NH is actually so so bad and I didn’t try terraforming with it but I highly doubt that you can. I was excited to try it with my dad but with him as the leader, anything I caught or picked up automatically went to the recycle box because I couldn’t access my inventory. If he walked a certain distance away from me I’d be magically plopped down in his location. He walked by Able Sisters and I saw something in the window I wanted to buy—well too bad lol, I couldn’t go in the door! So I asked him to take us in there but then I couldn’t even buy anything. We gave up on the whole thing after about 10 minutes and haven’t tried it since then because we mutually agreed that it was a worthless feature and should’ve just been a split-screen thing. The leader might be able to terraform, but the second player? They can hardly do a single thing and might as well not even be there. It’s really disappointing and, as you said, not an equal trade-off at all

 

[Matt0106]

Even though I'm lucky enough to have my own Switch, I could definitely see how this is a big issue. Hearing the stuff some of you have to go through with family members low-key gives me anxiety lol. Nintendo NEEDS to address this issue.

 

[Feraligator]

It's whatever. I mean it make sense. If we were allowed more than one island it would eat up so much space on the switch. I mean nintendo has always done this. It's no different from acnl. I wasn't really expecting a change

Actually it IS different from ACNL. You could buy a second copy of ACNL and have a different town on the same 3DS console. You can't do this for the Switch.
You could buy another memory card for the GCN and have two towns there also.
But no matter how many SD cards or physical ACNH copies you have, you will always have one island on the Switch. I believe this is the main point of the OP.
I assume the mechanics wouldn't be the same for the Switch but not being able to buy a second copy for a second town is...annoying.

 

[Cosmic-chan]

Actually it IS different from ACNL. You could buy a second copy of ACNL and have a different town on the same 3DS console. You can't do this for the Switch.
You could buy another memory card for the GCN and have two towns there also.
But no matter how many SD cards or physical ACNH copies you have, you will always have one island on the Switch. I believe this is the main point of the OP.
I assume the mechanics wouldn't be the same for the Switch but not being able to buy a second copy for a second town is...annoying.

Oh? I guess I just..I'm not bothered. I figured nintedo purposely set it up that way in order to get more people to buy switches and acnh.

 

[Feraligator]

Oh? I guess I just..I'm not bothered. I figured nintedo purposely set it up that way in order to get more people to buy switches and acnh.

Yeah, I wanted a 2nd copy but I'm not buying another Switch for that lol. I'm thankful that I don't have to share with family. Just wish physical copies worked like ACNL.

 

[Cheallaigh]

lol my hubby and i have two switches, i love him to death... no way we could share an island. i like to decorate and typically he doesn't but he's happily doing it in this game. i figure there's technical reasons fdor this horrible setup. i'd really like more than one island...

 

[Lotusblossom]

It's just not fair.. Not only that but then if u do get 2 switches then you'll just get all the void vilagers u didnt want going back and forth between islands.. for this very reason I'm returning my second switch good riddens I almost wish I never baught a switch or this game at all at this point was it worth it? No. It will take me so long WEEKS to get my island to how I would like to enjoy it maybe even impossible with the small things that we cant change and the map resetting hell...why should I even waste my time anymore??

 

[Cheallaigh]

It's just not fair.. Not only that but then if u do get 2 switches then you'll just get all the void vilagers u didnt want going back and forth between islands.. for this very reason I'm returning my second switch good riddens I almost wish I never baught a switch or this game at all at this point was it worth it? No. It will take me so long WEEKS to get my island to how I would like to enjoy it maybe even impossible with the small things that we cant change and the map resetting hell...why should I even waste my time anymore??

honestly? take a break, play something else for a while, i know you're frustrated.