Highlights

  • Seasonal catches in Animal Crossing bring new creatures and DIY recipes each year, keeping the game fresh and engaging for players.
  • Introducing new species through a live-service approach could revitalize Animal Crossing, attracting both new and returning players.
  • Exclusivity incentives for catching rare creatures within specific time frames could add excitement and value to players' collections, encouraging ongoing gameplay.

Time has flown since Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released and so far there is nothing new on the horizon for the massively popular title. The game enjoyed a resurgence of players after the release of New Horizons' Happy Home Paradise DLC, but that was back in 2021.

Players have been left to build and rebuild their ideal islands, catch everything that moves, and have the same conversations with their residents over and over again. Any new content would be a welcome addition to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and future Animal Crossing titles could utilize live-service features that keep the games fresh for years to come.

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The Case for a Live-Service Animal Crossing Game

The Animal Crossing franchise turning to a live-service approach could set a new game apart from its predecessors while still maintaining its charm.

Seasonal Catches in Animal Crossing Keep Things Fresh

One of the mechanics that kept players coming back is the seasonal nature of Animal Crossing. Each season brings new events, new items, and new creatures crawling around the island. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, impressive catches like the ocean sunfish and marlin are only available when the waters warm up in July. In the fall, as the leaves blaze into oranges and reds, violin beetles and monarch butterflies emerge.

Some deep-sea critters, like the lobster, are only available during certain months. To completely fill out the Nookipedia, players will have to hop onto their island throughout the year for these seasonal catches. This is to say nothing of Animal Crossing's seasonal DIY recipes that can only be crafted with autumn leaves, snowflakes, or cherry blossom petals.

In winter, 26 different DIY crafts can be made with regular and large snowflakes. In autumn, acorns, pine cones, and a variety of mushrooms can be used to make 32 different DIY recipes. In spring, 27 DIY crafts use cherry blossom petals and young spring bamboo.

New Species Could Come to Animal Crossing

By utilizing a live-service approach to the catch-able critters in the Animal Crossing games, Nintendo could not only breathe new life into established games like New Horizons but also establish a practice that keeps players coming back to new titles. Rather than resting on its laurels, Nintendo could entice players new and old by expanding the species found on the islands.

If each year brought in new bugs, fish, and sea creatures, then players determined to fill out their Nookipedia collections would have to continually log on to the game after its initial release. Currently, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has:

  • 80 fish
  • 80 bugs
  • 40 sea creatures

Other Animal Crossing titles feature fish that could swim onto Switch screens via a live-service feature. The herabuna, or Japanese white crucian carp, is a freshwater fish exclusive only to Dobutsu no Mori+ which was exclusively released in Japan in 2001. Similarly, the giant catfish is only available in first-generation Animal Crossing titles. Fruit beetles and house centipedes were left out of the latest game but were once roaming around in New Leaf. There are plenty of fish in the sea, and bugs on the ground, that could easily be added to current or future Animal Crossing games.

Exclusivity Incentivizes Animal Crossing Players

If there were creatures that players could only catch within a certain time frame, then that exclusivity would make them all the more valuable. For example, if a dragonfish or certain breed of dragonfly were only active during the 2024 Lunar New Year, then players would be incentivized to visit their island before they miss the chance to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. There would likewise be a market for critters that players missed out on from previous years.

Catching the same creatures time after time gets dull. There is no motivation for players who have a completed bug, fish, and sea creature collection to return to Animal Crossing: New Horizons with a net in hand. A live-service feature that continually updated the Nookipedia could keep players entertained in between releases.