Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@skywake Just to clarify, is that plot normal gameboy, or GB + GBC? For some reason a lot of ranking lists and such combine GB+GBC even though they're different generations and can't play all the same games.

Neat graph btw.

What if they release a Switch Pro this year and we are still a couple of years away from it's successor?

@GrailUK Please no. I can’t bare more Switch Pro rumours 😭 Haven’t we suffered enough?

@FishyS
The only data I could find didn't separate GB from GBC so they're combined. Also worth noting that I used NA sales for everything before DS/Wii and global sales after. In NA the uptick in GB(C) sales largely aligns with the release of the GBC, which is what this graph shows. But in Japan the uptick in sales suspiciously starts two years before the GBC released.....

I'm not sure the GBC is what did it

@FragRed sorry

I just want a new console at this point. New gimmick, new way to play. Switch is fine, but it's starting to show it's age immensely, and I miss things like the dual screen. I think the successor will probably be like how the DS was, where it got the 3DS down the road. Same console, but more powerful, and a new gimmick to play games with. That's assuming Nintendo's creativity didn't go down the toilet, which at that point I'm unsure if it did or not given the state of some of their games this gen.

@BobTheBunkerGuy Zelda is fine to me, but the online multiplayer offerings, the refusal to use miis, the update models to release games unfinished, and the way series like Animal Crossing became soulless makes me feel less happy about the current state of the company.

@BobTheBunkerGuy I feel like with AC, the ball was dropped when they decided to release it. The state that the updates ended with was the state I feel the game should've been in at launch, with more being added down the line or something.

@BobTheBunkerGuy I think an update model can work for Animal Crossing, but it just needs a full game's worth of content at launch. I was fine with the holidays being seasonal updates, although I have some slight gripes with the holidays themselves. Also yeah, the sims is getting kind of iffy now. Sims 4 started rough, and is sort of alright now, but the sims 5 is just doubling down from what it looks like, and it hurts seeing it. Thankfully, there's a few sims-like competitors being developed, so hopefully one of those will end up doing well. Wish there were more games with the same charm and feel as mainline Animal Crossing.

@VoidofLight New Horizons was an interesting situation because it was the first animal crossing game for zillions of people because of covid (myself included). For a lot of us newcomers it felt like it had a ton of stuff at the start and the big summer update with wetsuits and such seemed to come out at the perfect time. I feel like the game would have felt a bit overwhelming if it had everything from the very start. Of course many people played 100s of hours over the first half year and then started getting burnt out, so the fact that the updates trailed off wasn't as much of an issue.

I can understand how all that logic gets thrown out the door with returning players though. If I buy an AC game on Switch 2, I may be a bit annoyed if it is missing lots of features I'm used to even though I specifically preferred it that way starting my first game.

@FishyS Ehhh I doubt that the game itself would've been hard to get into or too complex. New Leaf has more content than New Horizons 2.0 had outside of the decorating, and a lot of people weren't that overwhelmed. As for the wetsuits, the update was nice for newer players who didn't play the series before, but for the people who played the previous games, it was just another scrapped feature that didn't really make them amused to see it return.

With New Horizons, I got burned out about a month after playing. I have around 200 hours in the game, but I have around 500 in other games, if not a bit more. A lot of my gripes outside of the cut content was mostly just due to the game focusing more on the decorating side of things than on the life sim elements or the charm. They prioritized quality of life over making the world feel more lived in, by replacing series staple characters with objects. The shops don't really have many upgrades, and there wasn't much to sink my bells into outside of my house (which had less upgrades than previous entries), or buying furniture. A lot of people feel like things like watering flowers or talking to villagers was a hassle, but I miss when villagers would randomly move away, or when flowers would die without watering them. It gave me a sense of wanting to engage with the game a bit more, and check up on the town.

@VoidofLight Decorating (and crafting) was definitely a huge part of New Horizons. That and the multiplayer aspect, half of which was showing off how you decorated your island.

Since 30 million more people bought New Horizons than New Leaf, it will be interesting to see where the series goes. On the one hand all those newer returning players will want decorating to continue to be a big thing, but on the other hand they'll want new stuff so maybe bringing things back from New Leaf will make sense.

Note that I played New Horizons for several hundred hours but I kind of doubt I will play the next game quite as much; I feel like it's hard to light that type of magic in people twice and I'm going to be biased towards my first animal crossing.

Since this is a thread about Directs... when do people predict the next Animal Crossing game will be announced? All the early games were 4-ish years apart but New Leaf and New Horizons were 8 years, with the gap filled in with various spinoffs. Presumably it will be on the next console, but on Switch it took a few years to get AC.

@FishyS Maybe around 2027, that being if the Switch 2 launches in late 2024.

That's not to say they couldn't do a spin off or two in the meantime, preferably not an Amiibo party game but still!

I think the criticism of New Horizon's is overblown. Sure there were some bits that could've been there earlier but it's also a game where you a little bit every day. Not having everything on day 1 is the entire premise. And lets not forget that New Leaf also had free updates that added content

In any case, as much as there were things even at the end that I wish New Horizons had revisited. I'm not entirely sure why they removed ore when crafting was such a huge addition to New Horizons. And obviously Street Pass is absent, which is a huge negative. I understand why, the Switch isn't pocketable, but if there's one thing I wish Nintendo could find a way to bring back its Street Pass. Also for me I was pretty hyped when they introduced vegetables..... but at the same time they were added at a point where I was already over the game....

On the other side of the equation, terraforming and outdoor furniture. It's kinda hard to think back to previous AC games now and wonder what we did without those two additions. Of course New Leaf had public works but New Horizons just lets you put any item anywhere. Also, didn't New Leaf not have ramps as a Public Works? I think you just started with a layout that had ramps..... really, people forget how much New Horizons actually added

@FishyS
I think we're a long ways off the next Animal Crossing. 2026 at the earliest

@skywake New Leaf had a singular free content update years after the game launched. The issue I have isn't with free content updates, but with the game launching in a state where even the series staple features like Gyroids aren't even in the game at all. I get the point of Animal Crossing isn't to have everything unlocked on the first day of playing, but with it all being in the game on day one, you have goals you can decide to work towards at your own pace. Having this content confined to updates is less giving the player the option to choose what they want to strive for, and handing them content when the company feels like they should be able to have it. It's like being put in a sandbox, but not being given specific tools until hours later, when the person who put you there decided you could have them, rather than getting to it when you want to. Of course, now that the updates are done it's not as bad, but back when the game first came out it was awful having to wait for series staples and content from previous entries to make a return. Things like the Dream Suite, which should've been in the game at launch, especially given that New Horizons takes the town customization to higher levels than before.

I like the customization additions they've added to the game, and I enjoy things like being able to place furniture outside, as well as being able to edit the terrain.. however I don't see much use out of them, since I'm not really a design-focused player. At least not outside of decorating rooms. For someone like me, who's more focused on the life sim elements, a lot of the game just feels like it falls flat. I'm hoping that it was only a side effect of them moving onto HD console development, given that other developers had issues with their games, like Level 5 with Yokai Watch 4. Maybe the next gen Animal Crossing game will reuse the assets they made for New Horizons, and try to deliver an experience that both sides of the fanbase will love, instead of leaning heavily on one of the two aspects of the series.

@Wolfleaf The villagers have been declining for a while, but I feel it moreso in New Horizons. In 2.0 they gave us back the villagers visiting our homes unannounced, but made it more annoying than it was in New Leaf, where it would just happen on occasion every now and then.

There are some qualities I like about New Horizons. I think the graphics look great, and the customization is a huge leap from New Leaf's customization. I hope the next game gets rid of either the crafting or breakable tools though, since Golden Tools feel worthless. I also hope they bring back the smaller holidays, even if that means they can't do world-wide releases for the game itself, because that's one of the biggest things that I thought brought a lot of charm to the series. Things like the Summer and Winter solstices.

Speaking of Animal Crossing and wheeling back to potential new ideas. I could see a potential for AI acceleration using a small enough model and the Tensor cores in the rumoured SoC in Nintendo's next hardware

Animal Crossing is kinda the perfect game for it. You have these characters and most of your interactions are just straight up dialogue. Most of that dialogue is built on relatively straightforward triggers. You hit rocks, character talks about hitting rocks. Friend visits, character name drops friend

What if instead the game could do stuff like comment on your choice of clothing. Not just "you're wearing item X" but actually comment on the combination. Or comment on the collection of items you've placed in some specific area on the map. Or even have some kind of rudimentary culture develop amongst the characters. Like a shared style or way of talking

Obviously not Chat GPT tier, not nearly enough power for that. But if you used larger phrases as symbols you could probably have something interesting

@skywake
I think your Animal Crossing ideas are interesting, but I'm not sure it's feasible considering all the languages these games are being released in. Even if it were only Japanese and English, it'd seem to me that 2 entire sets of language coding would be needed for NPC's to be able to act that way, because straight up translations wouldn't cut it anymore.

They interact with some decorations — they water the flowers, sit on chairs and a few other decorations , strum musical instruments, get sodas out of soda machines you place. But if the game went full Tears-of-the-Kingdom-Meets-Animal-Crossing and had them interact meaningfully with literally everything, that would be amazing.

If you give a decoration to a villager, I also think it would be neat if they could use it to decorate the island themselves rather than only inside their house.

Also, you and your villagers should be able to swim in swimming pools.

@FishyS
I want to see Animal Crossing goes The Sims style with interactable objects and also have their purpose, not just only for eye candy.
For example, when you sleep on the bed, it will really replenish the Energy bar.
When you cook the ingredients on stove and eat them, it will replenish the Hunger bar.
When you watch the TV or listen to Stereo, your character will enjoy it and replenish the Fun bar.
Also, I want to see more gestures or emotion like martial art pose or dramatic pose so I can use it for funny photoshoot like Street Fighter or Boxing fight. 😆