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Predictions In which year of the Next Generation Switch’s life will the next Animal Crossing get released?

In which year will the Next Gen Switch get a brand new Animal Crossing?

  • Year 1 - They’ll have it ready for within a year after launch.

    Votes: 5 6.5%

  • Year 2 - It won’t be there in the first year after launch, but not long after.

    Votes: 34 44.2%

  • Year 3 - It won’t be ready until Year 3.

    Votes: 29 37.7%

  • Year 4 or Beyond - It’s going to be quite a while until the next mainline Animal Crossing.

    Votes: 9 11.7%
  • Total voters
    77
Derachi

Derachi

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I love Animal Crossing New Horizons, but I’m ready for whatever is next for the franchise. How long do you think we’ll be waiting for the Next Generation Animal Crossing? Personally, I think the franchise has, after the monumental success of New Horizons, become a huge priority for Nintendo, so personally I think it’ll be ready within the first year of the system’s life. I also think it makes a fair bit of sense: Splatoon 3 is out, and I know they’re working on DLC but I have to imagine that the bulk of that team (AC and Splatoon share a team IIRC) are already back onto AC. They already have most of the game’s assets and systems HD-System ready with New Horizons so I can’t imagine it’s going to be THAT long but also I’m not a game developer, so what do I know!

But what do you think? Do you think we’ll be waiting long to once again get shaken down by Tom Nook?
 
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I'm thinking early year 2. If Switch 1 is H2 2024, late 2025/early 2026 seems about right following 2020. It'll be a big seller that can help sell systems early as well.

I expect year 1 slate's heavy hitters to be 3D Mario, Metroid Prime 4, Mario Kart, and maybe the new DK game alongside possibly a new IP.
 
I say very close to launch this time. I don't expect lot of first party releases in 2025 but Animal Crossing alone could carry the whole year for them. March or April 2025, will be shown at the September 2024 Direct.
 
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I think we will see it teased at the Switch 2 presentation but will release early year 2 either in Fall '25 or early '26.
 
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mmmmm, I think Animal Crossing will only appear after Splatoon 3 is done with the DLC in 2024, and even then, that could potentially take a couple of years as if we were to assume that the devs for Animal Crossing immediately started to think of ideas and concepts for the next game as soon as updates were done with New Horizons, maybe in 2026-2027 could be possible, or if both games are being worked on side by side potentially it could come after Splat 3 in 2024 but I think the chance of this is incredibly slim.
I'm leaning more to Year 3 in this case.
 
within the first 2 years. They will want to have another multimillion seller on the level of New horizons as soon as possible.
 
Animal Crossing can be a huge time sink to play. I don't think it will be a launch title but will be a little later when there's some room for it to breathe.

I also hope they do a lot to make it feel distinct from New Horizons. It was a great game, but due to the timing of release during the pandemic, it's hard to go back to without some negative associations from that whole time period.
 
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I notice you said the next Animal Crossing, not the next new Animal Crossing, which then leads me to speculate that Nintendo will keep up the GameCube remasters/remakes and deliver us a remaster/remake of Animal Crossing.
 
EvilChameleon said:
I notice you said the next Animal Crossing, not the next new Animal Crossing, which then leads me to speculate that Nintendo will keep up the GameCube remasters/remakes and deliver us a remaster/remake of Animal Crossing.
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hmm I’ll take it
 
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A lot of the Splatoon team works on Animal Crossing, right? I kinda figure it'll be a while after they're done with content for Splatoon 3 so I agree with @FloofGaming that it'll probably be Year 3

Also hoping we see more of a focus on the villagers and some more interactivity, like arcade cabinets with some mini-games or maybe the ability to skate or something to have it be more dynamic. I like the games a lot but I've always felt they could do better in this regard
 
Gamecube animal crossing would be neat to be seen remade, but I'd worry about dialogue being changed for the rerelease, which was what made up a lot of it's charm. If they were going to port any animal crossing games at this point I think WW/CF would be pretty likely as a sort of fun mix between the two, or the rarer 3ds port with New Leaf, which I doubt would happen.
 
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SuperFakerBros said:
A lot of the Splatoon team works on Animal Crossing, right? I kinda figure it'll be a while after they're done with content for Splatoon 3 so I agree with @FloofGaming that it'll probably be Year 3

Also hoping we see more of a focus on the villagers and some more interactivity, like arcade cabinets with some mini-games or maybe the ability to skate or something to have it be more dynamic. I like the games a lot but I've always felt they could do better in this regard
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I think it's a situation where a couple of people from the animal crossing dev teams work on Splatoon but not all of them, but that's why I think it won't happen until after splatoon 3 is finished up.

I do hope we see more villager interaction as well and possibly pull away from the decorating angle and tailor it back to the living in a village aspect more. I think bringing the city back but expanded would be neat as well if they were to add in skateboards and more minigames, and potentially make the city a more expanded version of Tortimers Island. I also hope that with the extra time more of the classic furniture sets are able to come back.
 
Year 3, so 2026.

I don't think it is close, but I think Nintendo will build off the foundation from New Horizons.
 
I think it will "swap" places with Smash Bros. in the Switch 2's life cycle, meaning Animal Crossing with arrive within a 1.5 to 2 years after the Switch 2's release and Smash Bros. within 3 years.
 
SuperFakerBros said:
Also hoping we see more of a focus on the villagers and some more interactivity, like arcade cabinets with some mini-games or maybe the ability to skate or something to have it be more dynamic. I like the games a lot but I've always felt they could do better in this regard
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I’m 100% with you here. Look, maybe it’s just because I’m a Yakuza freak, but when I see an arcade cabinet or dartboard or something that a human could conceivably engage with in a video game, I expect to be able to actually engage with it. I think it’d be way more fun if, for example, I could place the fighting arcade cabinet down, and then play against one of my villagers. Maybe each villager could have a hidden “video game skill” stat that would be a hidden difficulty slider. I think there are a number of small-ish things like that that would make the world feel much more interactive, and also give the villagers that much more distinction
 
I think the best scenario for the Super Switch would be a Year 2 launch. However, unless it's just an iterative sequel with small changes, I'm not confident there's been enough time for 2025.

For that reason, I voted year 3 (2026). That would give them enough time to really polish the new systems, improve the online experience, and make it truly feel like a next-gen experience.
 
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It doesn't feel like it's a big priority to me. The support for it feels lacking for a game that sold so much. NH has been such a big disappointment that I think it's best if I wait till after the next game comes out to see if it's a better experience. I don't want any more awkward crafting, focus almost completely on decorating instead of being a life sim, and villagers that aren't worth interacting with. I've loved the series since the beginning with the Gamecube game and it hurts that they didn't evolve the life sim part and focused so much on decorating. Imagine an AC with good decorating AND good interactions with villagers and actual things to do. And minigames.
 
I want Nintendo to have Animal Crossing ready for Switch 2's launch.

I think Nintendo is going to wait until 2026 to capitalize on the casual market that didn't immediately jump in on the Switch 2 at launch.

If Switch 2 somehow doesn't sell well after the first 6 months or so I wouldn't be surprised if AC gets expedited to a late 2025 launch.

Either way I believe we see Animal Crossing release at some point in the first 2-3 years of launch, and announced as early as the Switch 2 reveal.
 
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Guess the second or third year, ideally. If it turns out to be a very ambitious project then maybe even later.
 
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Happy Home Paradise came out late 2021. I think the team needs at least 4 years to make a sequel, which would be 2025, or year 2, but I also don't think fervor for a new Animal Crossing will hit optimal levels until 2026, so I vote year 3.
 
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FloofGaming said:
I think it's a situation where a couple of people from the animal crossing dev teams work on Splatoon but not all of them, but that's why I think it won't happen until after splatoon 3 is finished up.

I do hope we see more villager interaction as well and possibly pull away from the decorating angle and tailor it back to the living in a village aspect more. I think bringing the city back but expanded would be neat as well if they were to add in skateboards and more minigames, and potentially make the city a more expanded version of Tortimers Island. I also hope that with the extra time more of the classic furniture sets are able to come back.
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Right, yeah, it's enough that it'd still slow down getting going with a new Animal Crossing

That's definitely something that they've been leaning into more lately and, while I don't think they should necessarily cut back on it as a lot of folk like it, more of a focus on just being a villager and interacting or playing or whatever with the other villagers would be more in line with what I'd want. Can't say I disagree with your suggestions there. Would also be cool if they could also have it feel like a part of a bigger community, like other areas to travel to and what not via trains or busses or something

Derachi said:
I’m 100% with you here. Look, maybe it’s just because I’m a Yakuza freak, but when I see an arcade cabinet or dartboard or something that a human could conceivably engage with in a video game, I expect to be able to actually engage with it. I think it’d be way more fun if, for example, I could place the fighting arcade cabinet down, and then play against one of my villagers. Maybe each villager could have a hidden “video game skill” stat that would be a hidden difficulty slider. I think there are a number of small-ish things like that that would make the world feel much more interactive, and also give the villagers that much more distinction
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Exactly! Plus it'd just make the game a lot more fun and give the various furniture and clothing more functionality and interesting to get aside from just being decorations. Even as a kid, I questioned why you couldn't do more with them
 
My guess is 2026, so I guess year 3, maybe slides into year 4 if the game is a big change up again the way New Horizons was.
 
Maybe I should also make a “what would you like to see in the next Animal Crossing” thread…

or would that be too many AC threads for one day? haha
 
I think it would be smart to have a new Animal Crossing not too far from launch, maybe not at launch but within a year. I'm not sure if it would be possible though, so I voted year 2.
 
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I think getting something Animal Crossing on the new system within the first 18 months is a high priority. What form it takes probably depends on their creative direction.

If the next Animal Crossing is still following the basic formula set by previous games, I expect we'll get said new game in that 18 month window. If they plan to do something more radical, like greatly expand the online features, rework the simulation aspects, or any other combination of thorough changes, then I personally expect to see a remaster or remake of an older game in the first year, probably pretty close to launch. My choice would be, of course, Animal Crossing e++, but a New Leaf remaster would likely be a popular choice. The new game would then come a few years later, having received the protracted development period demanded by the new direction.
 
Early year 2 feels right to me. I'm figuring it won't be part of the initial "you need to buy a Switch 2 and here's why" salvo, but once there's already a solid "core" install base, they'll have Animal Crossing as they focus on moving the more causal stragglers onto next-gen.
 
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I feel like none of the prior to NH animal crossings are really in the cards as targets for meaningful ports, the focus on being able to design the entire island instead of only small outside things isn't something they can walk back from, and while you probably could retroactively bolt that on to new leaf, it's a non trivial amount of work that would be better spent just getting a new one out the door.

There's also the massive elephant in the room that one of the reasons they remade all assets from the ground up, even returning ones, was because they weren't happy with continuing to just port the models from as far back as the n64 for some items any more, and that's not going to change either.
 
Derachi said:
Maybe I should also make a “what would you like to see in the next Animal Crossing” thread…

or would that be too many AC threads for one day? haha
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I would personally like to see this as I just remembered I made like 2 pieces of concept art pages for an animal crossing fan thing I was working on that I think would be neat to share.
 
I would say around end of 2025/beginning of 2026, mainly as game development is about 4 to 6 years nowadays and the DLC of Animal Crossing was finished in 2021 or at least released. So I would say the second year as I expect the new Switch be released in 2024.
 
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For some reason AC NH still feels like yesterday. Maybe bc covid blurred time, or my own life has been crazy. But it almost feels too soon to see the next mainline Animal Crossing. I sorta think Nintendo has something going with the 8 year wait between New Leaf and New Horizons (okay, 8 years is a few years too long, I'll admit). It helps the same routine not feel stale, people actually get nostalgic about the old one, and it feels like a rare event a la a new GTA

I voted for year 3, which is also around the timeline of NH for Switch. Though if NH came out in 2019 I would have said year 2
 
Early 2025. It would be 5 years since new horizons, and 3 1/2 years since the end of DLC. Also, when you look at the release schedule between splatoon and animal crossing games, new horizons came out three years after splatoon 2. A 2025 new AC would be 3 years after splatoon 3
 
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FloofGaming said:
mmmmm, I think Animal Crossing will only appear after Splatoon 3 is done with the DLC in 2024, and even then, that could potentially take a couple of years as if we were to assume that the devs for Animal Crossing immediately started to think of ideas and concepts for the next game as soon as updates were done with New Horizons, maybe in 2026-2027 could be possible, or if both games are being worked on side by side potentially it could come after Splat 3 in 2024 but I think the chance of this is incredibly slim.
I'm leaning more to Year 3 in this case.
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Splatoon 3 and Animal Crossing are in the same Production Team, though Director and co. are different.

The workforce at Nintendo EPD is more organized like a pool I believe, so many of them are not necessarily tied to the overseeing Team and more to the Game Series (Like only doing Splatoon Games) or are just free to work on many projects. Especially those who are mainly in implementation or asset creation etc.

It would also make sense because certain roles in Game Devs are not needed during the whole time of the Development of the Game. For example most Game Mechanic Designers who worked on Splatoon 3 likely would have moved on to different projects mid-development of the Game.

On the other hand programmers are usually almost the whole time part of the development. So for them the next Game after Octo Expansion would not have been Animal Crossing. It was Splatoon 3.

Of course I don‘t know how the internal teams are exactly organised, but it seems to me that some of them handle two projects at the same time at different stages of development (early and late).

It‘s very likely that the full production of the next Animal Crossing started after the last Update + DLC of Horizons in 2021.

Edit: Grammar and adding Context
 
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If the Switch 2 is released for the holiday 2024, I expect it to be there late 2026 at the latest (H1 2026 sounds good, 6 years after the last game in the franchise).
 
squinters said:
For some reason AC NH still feels like yesterday. Maybe bc covid blurred time, or my own life has been crazy. But it almost feels too soon to see the next mainline Animal Crossing. I sorta think Nintendo has something going with the 8 year wait between New Leaf and New Horizons (okay, 8 years is a few years too long, I'll admit). It helps the same routine not feel stale, people actually get nostalgic about the old one, and it feels like a rare event a la a new GTA

I voted for year 3, which is also around the timeline of NH for Switch. Though if NH came out in 2019 I would have said year 2
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It was only 8 years because the Wii U was such a disaster that whatever they would have released there got shelved and repurposed in to that terrible amiibo game, and the welcome amiibo update that came out of nowhere in 2016 which was probably repurposed ideas that started out being intended for what would have been the console version of new leaf (similar to city folk basically being wild world with only some differences)

Otherwise animal crossing has just always been a one per platform game since the series Inception.

... though I suppose, with platform lifespans as they are now 7-8 years between entries actually will be the reality going forward, though I fully expect this one to be a bit shorter because they're not going to wait 3 years from launch for the next one
 
Let’s not forget that Nintendo initially planed to release Animal Crossing in 2019. Two years after Splatoon 2 and one year after Octo Expansion. It’s not unreasonable to expect that we could see the next Animal Crossing in 2025.
 
I think it's gonna get the spot Smash often takes of being the first massive game outside those shown near launch. So year 2 fits.
 
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