What does the Switch 2 mean for Animal Crossing?
It’s now been a little over a month since Nintendo Switch 2 was revealed and we’re still about a month away from Nintendo’s next generation console launching which is an incredibly exciting time to be in.
We finally have confirmation about some of the key specs of the new console and more details about some of the games which are coming to Nintendo Switch 2. However, there was big omission in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct which has left many cosy gamers confused.
The omission of any Animal Crossing news or updates was not what cosy gamers expected and it has left many thinking that Nintendo forgot about cosy gamers. But, I don’t think this is as much of a problem as it originally seems.
I still believe there are a lot of incredibly exciting things which have been announced which can give us real hope for the future of Animal Crossing. So, today I want to take a look at everything we know about Nintendo Switch 2 and explore what this means for the Animal Crossing franchise.
A better experience
What we can say about Nintendo Switch 2 is that the performance of the console will be significantly improved compared to Nintendo Switch.
Natively, Nintendo Switch 2 will run games at 1080p 120FPS (frames per second) in handheld mode and this will jump up to 4K and 60FPS when the console is docked. However, whether games will run at these levels will depend on the game and if you need to download a Switch 2 version of the game to take advantages of these improved visuals.
Credit: Nintendo
Nintendo has shown off The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild running with improved performance and, from what I’ve seen, the feedback has been largely positive. It’s clear there is a big difference between what you will see in Nintendo Switch 2 compared to Nintendo Switch in just that game alone.
This should mean that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will look cleaner and sharper than it did before, but as it seems Nintendo is going down the route of pushing for Nintendo Switch 2 Editions needing to be purchased before you can take advantage of these improved visuals, I would suspect that we may see a Switch 2 Edition of ACNH coming up at some point in the near future.
Taking a look at some of the other specs for Nintendo Switch 2, it looks like NVIDIA has given Switch 2 a massive leap forward in performance. Without going into the nitty gritty of this, I am pretty confident that the internals of Nintendo Switch 2 means that we should be seeing the end of overly decorated islands lagging and potentially faster loading screens which will make villager hunting way faster than it is at the moment. Both of which are welcome additions to the Animal Crossing community!
Sadly though, this may mean that we can’t make the joke of an island not being done until it starts lagging. I’m sure we will find some other way to break our Animal Crossing islands though. There’s always fun to be had in that regard.
New and exciting features
There are a few things which make me really excited though about the future of Animal Crossing on Switch 2, the biggest one is that the increased performance of Nintendo Switch 2 could mean that we will get even bigger spaces to play and decorate in.
New Horizons islands were much bigger than the New Leaf towns and this was very needed to allow us to decorate our spaces in the way we want. However, for the Switch successor, what I am really hoping for is that the map will be much larger. Given games like Elden Ring which have large, open worlds are now able to play smoothly on a Nintendo console, I honestly believe that the Animal Crossing developers will be pushing the limits on play spaces and giving us more room to decorate than we’ve ever had before in Animal Crossing.
In addition to this, the hardware Switch 2 has is potentially going to really change the way we play Animal Crossing in both familiar and new ways which I am really excited for.
The easy one which is likely to happen is the reintroduction of the megaphone. For those of you who have been around on my YouTube channel for a while, you will know that I have a real love for the megaphone from New Leaf and I really want to see it reintroduced into a new Animal Crossing.
The megaphone was introduced in Animal Crossing: New Leaf and works by you calling a villager’s name at the press of a button and on the screen a bubble appears telling you which direction they are in. If you didn’t see a bubble appear, the villager was in a building. The reason why this was removed from New Horizons was because the Nintendo Switch does not have a built in microphone. Therefore, there was no way for this feature to carry over.
As a result of it being removed and the islands being much bigger than New Leaf, more than once I’ve been really annoyed that I can’t find a villager when I know they are somewhere on my island. I am personally crossing all of my fingers and toes that, if nothing else, the megaphone comes back in the next game and, if the space we will be playing in is going to be bigger than in New Horizons, we are going to need it!
Credit: Nintendo
The other hardware feature which I think is going to really change how I play Animal Crossing is the mouse controls that Joy-Con 2 offer. As much as I love decorating in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it can sometimes be a bit fiddly. You have to stand in just the right place to drop an item from your pockets and if you are standing at just the wrong angle, the item is then facing the wrong way and you need to pull, push and turn the item to get it exactly where you want it.
What I can see the Animal Crossing developers doing is capitalising on mouse controls and allowing you the option to freely decorate using a mouse movement, which will be incredibly helpful for those of us who are used to decorating in games like The Sims 4 on a PC or Mac.
If this were to be expanded on, what I would really hope to see is the option to turn items on a diagonal to really customise your space properly. When I saw Palia had a 24-point diagonal turn in decorating, I was blown away and absolutely thrilled! Even if Animal Crossing introduced an 8-point turn, it would make a massive difference in decorating. Having the option to decorate on a diagonal would give so many more options in island design and I really hope that this does appear in the next game.
The one thing I will say now is that I am a bit worried about mouse controls generally. From those who have been hands on with the Switch 2 so far, all of them have said that although the mouse controls work great in Joy-Con 2, you are going to experience pain after a few minutes because the controllers are so narrow that they are awkward to hold. I’ve personally not tried them out for myself, but this has been a consistent piece of feedback that I’ve heard and is something that we would have to keep in mind because if the mouse controls are forced in all areas of decorating for future Animal Crossing games, it could be the case that designing a space isn’t something you can really do for long periods of time. However, we will see what happens with this in time.
Better multiplayer modes
Okay, this is purely speculation now, but I’m going to say it out loud and manifest this into the world because, quite frankly, Nintendo can do better than the multiplayer experience we had with New Horizons.
The multiplayer isn’t the worst by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s slow, clunky and your connection to other people’s islands can be terminated because someone else’s internet went down and they weren’t the person hosting you.
There’s also the issue that outside of a timer and playing in game Animal Crossing events with our friends, there isn’t really anything for you to do multiplayer wise. New Leaf had Tortimer’s Island which contained a series of mini games you could play with other people, but players were surprised when this feature was removed for New Horizons and we’ve all begged Nintendo for more options to play with our friends.
There is a lot that the developers can do to make the experience of playing Animal Crossing with friends on Nintendo Switch 2 better, and since the Direct, I’m quietly confident we will see some major changes and improvements.
The impression I’m getting from everything that was shown off in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct is that Nintendo is really pushing Switch 2 as a social console. Historically, Nintendo have always pushed for couch play. The idea of you being in the same room as your friends and giving them a controller to experience a game at the same time as you is fundamental to their gaming experience. You just have to look at Switch and how you can give a Joy-Con to a friend and you can both play without needing to purchase an additional controller to share the fun.
For Switch 2, GameChat has been introduced which is essentially like Discord on a Nintendo console. Voice calls are not new to consoles, but Nintendo has not had an inbuilt voice chat function with its Switch system. To me, this is a sign that Nintendo is supporting more social features on Switch 2 and if you want more evidence of this, you only need to look at Mario Kart World having 24 players racing at the same time. Now, I know, it’s a completely different franchise but hear me out on this.
We know there are severe server issues in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The connection to other people’s islands is tenuous at best. Historically, Mario Kart games have only supported up to 12 players. If the newest entry to the Mario Kart franchise allows for double the number of players previous entries, that to me is a sign that the online servers for Nintendo Switch 2 are going to be set up in such a way that they can not only support that number of players, but potentially allow for some new and exciting things.
As much as I would love to see 24 players on an Animal Crossing island, I don’t think this is going to happen. But, if we could get 12 players on an island at the same time, that would be amazing. But, what I would really like to see is the return of mini games to Animal Crossing and some kind of team system involved in the mini games.
If you can have more friends on your island, then the idea of playing games with your friends will allow for more options you can do in Animal Crossing. I also think that having a team mode and maybe being able to have some kind of battle mode would be a lot of fun to get involved with mini games to make the experience more fun for everyone.
Should we be worried Animal Crossing wasn’t at the Direct?
Despite all of this there is still a question around whether or not you should be concerned that Animal Crossing didn’t have a much of a presence in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. Right now, I honestly don’t think there is a major cause for concern.
We know that Nintendo hasn’t completely forgotten about the Animal Crossing franchise as there have been a couple of big things which has supported the franchise. We have had several Animal Crossing LEGO sets launch in the last year or so and the Animal Crossing x Sea Life Exhibit which was previously only in American has now expanded its tour to the UK.
Before New Horizons, Animal Crossing didn’t see that level of support. Nintendo is fully aware that Animal Crossers and cosy gamers are looking for more updates and I don’t think it will be too long before we get an update on what’s next for Animal Crossing. My guess is that we will get an entire Direct dedicated to whatever is being planned for Animal Crossing in the same way as we did with the reveal of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, when that will come out though remains to be seen.
What I personally think is likely to happen next with Animal Crossing is very similar to what we have seen with the support for The Legend of Zelda. During the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, Switch 2 editions were shown off for both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, these upgrades have been priced as £8 / $10 USD / €10 each and give the games enhanced performance and better graphics which take advantage of the Switch 2’s hardware.
What we do know about the Animal Crossing franchise is that some of the development team is shared with the Splatoon game and part of the reason we had the rushed 2.0 update in the way we had for New Horizons was because the team needed to be moved across to Splatoon 3. The additional content for Splatoon 3 came to an end in Summer 2024 so I don’t think it’s outside of the realms of possibility to say that the development team has probably gone back to working on Animal Crossing again.
Will Animal Crossing cost $80?
As there’s not going to be enough time to work on a brand new game just yet, what I suspect may happen is that we will get an upgrade pack for New Horizons which should hopefully reduce the lag on islands and increase the speed of the dialogue menus. That alone would make a massive difference to New Horizons. However, it’s not what I really want to see. Like many Animal Crossing fans, I am looking for a brand new game and that begs a massive question, will Animal Crossing be an $80 game and if it were that price, would I buy it?
At this point in time, we don’t know if a new Animal Crossing game is coming. But, as it’s now been 5 years since Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched, I would like to think we will be hearing something about a new Animal Crossing title soon.
When it comes to pricing though, that’s where I’m a little concerned. Doug Bowser, President of Nintendo of America made it clear that Nintendo games will have variable pricing and don’t have an upper price cap, and I honestly do think this means we could be seeing a new Animal Crossing game launching at $80.
When I compare the number of hours I’ve played on one Nintendo Switch in both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it’s like night and day! I have significantly more game time in Animal Crossing.
If Nintendo are seeing the hours people put into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and believe that’s worth $80, then I think it’s more than likely that a new Animal Crossing will be at least $80.
I hope the next Animal Crossing isn’t that expensive, but if it came down to it, I would buy it. Why? I love Animal Crossing and I have enjoyed my time with New Horizons and will continue to play it for the foreseeable future.
There are lots of reasons to be excited for Nintendo Switch 2. We’ve now had it confirmed that the Switch successor will have better performance and faster frame rates which are going to have a positive effect on the next generation Nintendo console. I’m also really excited about the physical features like the microphone which are going to have potentially huge benefits for cosy gamers and I think, more than anything else, this is a really exciting time to be in which will lead to some positive results for cosy gamers in the future, even if the Switch 2 Direct wasn’t great for cosy gamers.
What do you think about Nintendo Switch 2? Do you think it’s going to take Animal Crossing forward and what are you excited to see in the next Animal Crossing game? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll see you in the next one.
