Today's Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct was peppered with little spicy nuggets of information on the upcoming game, including rock solid confirmation that while the software will remain incompatible with Nintendo Switch Online's existing cloud back up system, Nintendo will indeed store your desert island's save data on their servers in case something calamitous happens and you are permanently parted from your Switch.
Available 'sometime after launch' and only in 'certain circumstances' ('console damage' and 'loss' are specifically cited in the video), the company will be able and prepared to restore your Animal Crossing: New Horizons save data enabling you to return to your paradise island on a different system. Phew.
However, in the small print on the section at the end of the Direct broadcast, it clearly states the following:
Nintendo Switch Online members can only have save data recovered one time due to the loss or damage of system.
The fact that there's a system in place to protect the many hours invested in your Animal Crossing island is reassuring, although you may want to be extra careful if you're a particularly unlucky person. Leaving your Switch on public transport or having some git steal it is unfortunate, but having it happen a second time is simply careless - at least in Nintendo's eyes.
Do you think a one-time-only recovery is sufficient? Have you ever lost or damaged multiple consoles? Let us know your thoughts on the matter below.
Comments 107
Man I hope I never ever need this service, however I am glad it's there just in case. I will say if I ever lose my system and use this I would NEVER take my Switch out of the house again lol
I mean...at least it has something!
I just don't understand it. Animal Crossing isn't a competitive game. I just. Don't. Get it.
...another reason to avoid getting Nintendo Switch Online
I would have avoided subscribing for a second year on September the 18th this year and I have seen no reason to change my stance yet.
@MasterGraveheart I do not understand this, you don’t, we all don’t brother.
So what this tells me is that they, to some extent, DO support Nintendo Switch Online Cloud Saves as they perform regular backups of your save.. but then prevent you from accessing this backup except for the one time.
This is not going to deter cheaters, as they are not using the NSO backup system anyway. They should just prevent you from restoring your backup more than once a week or once a month if they worry people will use it to re-try their luck on events or save scumm. It would not be worth waiting one month to retry an event for a better outcome. Nintendo is creating more problems than they are solving with this. Also, over the course of this game's lifetime, I may have upgraded to 3 separate switch consoles. I bought many new iterations of the 3DS. They are deterring people from purchasing any upgrades of the system by not allowing you to move your save.
Good OLD Nintendo
I will still buy the game and play...but this is complete trash. We should have cloud save, and should anyone fiddle with it like to cheat have Resetti show up for half an hour like back in the day. Don't like Resetti, don't mess with the cloud save-y.
Two steps forward ten steps back, Nintendo will never learn...😑
Definitely not sufficient IMO. This just seems archaic to me, especially this day and age. What about if the Switch Pro or different model comes out and I want to upgrade my system?
I have to choose between this game and getting an upgraded Switch down the line... Gah...
Well of course. You can't lose your Switch twice can you!
I'll accept that it's better than absolutely nothing, but it's still ridiculous. I get the whole cheat avoidance thing but this is nothing but an inconvenience to legit players (sadly a sentence that applies to too much with gaming) who may need to do this more than once.
Lets just accept Nintendo arent going to let us recover data whenever we please, they're super pro consumer like that......okay, then why not 1 transfer per system or 1 transfer every 6 months or something rather than just "everybody gets one"? Still not an ideal solution but anybody unfortunate enough to need to do this more than once wont be 'on edge' after the first time.
@MasterGraveheart Its not competitive but theres quite the 'market' online for items, patterns, villagers etc. It was also very easy to cheat more money with New Leaf making the currency a bit useless and making it pretty much impossible for legit players to engage in this aspect.
@MasterGraveheart The real question is can you play with random people online? If the answer is yes then big daddy Nintendo likes to control content.
Yes nintendolife-bot. I can't think of 'someting' (sic) more to say besides:
"But why?"
Is this a joke? As a subscriber you get to recover your save file once? Due to how stupid it is, I’m not going to renew my subscription and I encourage everyone to do the same. Simple quality of life things and Nintendo is twisting into their control, it’s not healthy letting them have that much reign on something YOU purchased.
Why are Nintendo so weird when it comes to things like this? They always have some obscure solution
@MasterGraveheart It doesn't need to be a competitive game to have game breaking exploits. A game like this depends heavily on playing a certain way. If there was a way for people to exploit the system in ways that gets everything fast or right away, then the experience can be ruined as I'd have less incentive to play "the right way", and a game like this depends heavily on that. Why would I bother going through all the process if even on the back of my head I knew there's a way to skip past them? Having a way to easily restore your progress is something that in reality only a relatively small part of the audience will need, but which at least in theory opens up many potential ways to exploit the game to everyone.
I don't necessarily agree on whether Nintendo's method is the best way to handle it, but I understand that they want to protect the experience of the game. It happened to me somewhat with BotW, where very near its release people started posting ways to exploit stamina use, making it pointless for me to bother with stamina recipes and the like as intended.
Regarding upgrading the system, some people on my AC forum believe the restriction applies to the save file transfer only, and you can still do a full system transfer to a new device. Has this ever been deconfirmed somewhere? It would be a little strange if you transfer the whole system as is, but one game would be excluded somehow. (If it really does work like that, I wonder if they'll change their mind when people inevitably stop upgrading their systems.)
The transfers thing is annoying, HOWEVER I don't think losing your save or starting over is going to be near as soul crushing as the old ones. In those, you had to rely on so much random stuff happening just right to really get your town how you want it. Now, it is fully 100% customizable and the systems are so optimized that you could whip up something new or just like your old one pretty easily
Cheaters ruin everything. Thanks for trying Nintendo. Animal Crossing now has permadeath, should make it more interesting.
My only problem with this was at one point when I played Wild World (or even the original), my work schedule was such that I would miss events because I was, surprise, working. So I thought nothing of rolling back the system clock to see & participate in those events.
It's not like I am going to create a time paradox by constantly jumping to the past and future (and possibly forgetting where I left), and creating a... well we don't talk about that village anymore and I am fairly sure that memory card won't even return...
Imagine if accessing this backup requires you to call Nintendo and explain your situation. They might end up automating the system once they become swamped with calls and such.
Nintendo, can you at least allow us to be able to transfer our island to another switch console?
i miss the old old days when this wasn't a concern.
@mesome713 .
Stop blaming imaginary Animal Crossing cheaters and put the blame where it belongs: squarely on Nintendo's overly paternal shoulders.
So someone can't play this game at home on a docked Switch and on the go with a Switch Lite?
So if you aren’t subscribed to their pay online service you can’t recover your save if your system dies? If so that is ridiculous and infuriating.
It isn't to do with cheaters. It is nintendo being controlling. This amount of control is ridiculous. If you cheat on animal crossing does it matter? And you can only recover the data once. If you need touse it again you can't.
What gets me about this is that... If your save data is clearly gonna be backed up and ready to recover at any time of loss, why only make it a one-time deal in a service you're actively paying for?
At the very least, give us a cool-down after any transfer. Or heck, since it's technically not part of the NSO cloud server, just charge folks per recovery/transfer.
I really hope they're just low balling things out the gate and will loosen their grips down the road; whether that's making it officially part of cloud saving, or actually allow you to locally transfer. Because this makes no sense...
@Manah Unfortunately, you cannot transfer your Animal Crossing save by doing a system transfer. System transfer on the Switch is just transferring each user separately. For Animal Crossing, the game save will not transfer with all your other user data.
https://animalcrossingworld.com/2020/02/ultimate-animal-crossing-new-horizons-save-data-guide-cloud-saves-one-island-per-switch-transfers/
I fail to see any cause for alarm lol. I guess I'm old fashioned.
Augh Nintendo why haven't I given up on you already. This new Animal Crossing could have been a perfect masterpiece from what I'm seeing, and you've gotta go and spoil it.
@mesome713 What exactly do you mean?
This is a relief, but it appears that this will be an update to NSO...does this mean that other games like Splatoon 2 will be applicable to this as well? I feel like it will just be a console wipe and full restore feature
Also, is this once per subscription term (aka if you subscribed for one month of one year)? Lots of interesting questions still remain, but it is nice that Nintendo is doing at least something about this!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH NINTENDO! Look, we get you want to stop cheating. and exploiting. But you are going too far, if people can only recover their data once, what is the point of having this solution? And you are paying for it(through nintendo switch online).
I literally don't understand this. People are going to find a way to cheat anyways, so what's the point of punishing the player base as a whole?
@nab1 very well written and with a solid point~!!
So I can't transfer cloud saves between my V1 and Lite, or am I not understanding this?
Well, I'll be skipping out on this title entirely.
This will only encourage hackers even more.
Guys... do you really not read the Nintendo website...
...like... at all?!
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Animal-Crossing-New-Horizons-1438623.html?#
Scroll all the way to the bottom
Cloud save backup
Boooooooooooooo
Free updates.
Nintendo you are the best
@nab1 I don' t get it: You pay a full price, 60 dollars, to hack your own game, your own save, not bothering anyone like in a multiplayer game- why would Nintendo even care what you do with your own save? The people who tamper with their saves know exactly what they are getting into, they know that they won't have the intended experience. So I don't think it's a good point. In my opinion they just want to sell more consoles. As a game developer myself, I see no other reasonable explanation. This will only encourage hackers further.
@sanderev This is compatible still with what was said in the direct, it could refer to a one-time only move if your lost your switch... I would want to believe otherwise but... yeah
I guess once is better than none...
This is a casual game mainly for relaxation so I don’t understand why they’re being so stingy especially when their online service is so expensive for what little it provides.
@inenai No that part is named separately.
Just above the quote of my prev reply.
So YES there will be a system to system transfer option made especially made for Animal Crossing later this year. They might limit that as well, but that isn't mentioned on the website.
@inenai If you are a game developer, there's a couple of particularly interesting quotes I suggest you read up on:
"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."[...]
"The greatest danger is that once a player discovers such an exploit, she will never be able to play the game again without using it – the knowledge cannot be ignored or forgotten, even if the player wishes otherwise."
Source: https://www.designer-notes.com/?p=369
@AnotherGoblin what? Game saves are internal memory only...
Nintendo IS Tom Nook. They are trying to give you a meta-experience of Animal Crossing by creating an emotional and monetary gag on your ability to play Animal Crossing. A bold new strategy
@sanderev That info about a feature to transfer users and save data to another console isnt mentioned on the NA site. It also only seemed to come out on the UK site after the Direct.
I'd like to remain optimistic (the UK branch wouldnt be saying this if there wasnt some credbility), but it'd be appreciated for Nintendo as a whole to give unilateral confirmation on this.
One time AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA pathetic. Like just put a limit per month or something that people can recover their data. Or have a system that tracks these recoveries. Three in one month, give them a warning for over using the recovery system. One time for life is ridiculous and a poor way to handle the system. Honestly this is just laughable
@mesome713
What are you talking about? What does 'It's a cruel world' have to do with it? It's a non-competitive game.
Nintendo isn't trying their best. They are saying we are naughty children who need their strong parental hand to play a video game the right way, their way.
Going against the grain is often nothing more than being bloody minded.
Back in my day games saved to the cart with a little battery that would eventually die and wipe out your save. Bye, complete Pokémon Blue and Silver Pokédex (this happened to me with both). At least there is an emergency backup option at all here. This isn’t the end of the world.
@DTFaux It's also on the Dutch website. It's not unique for NoE to give different information about game details than NoA. But it's still considered official Nintendo information. It might be a mistake, but I doubt that since it's translated into other languages.
Also that "one time transfer" is never mentioned in the Dutch version of the Direct or on the Dutch / UK Nintendo website.
@Kriven Most games have cloud saves. Only a small amount does not, with reasons.
@sanderev - thank you muchly for finding and posting that, I'll quote it again -
"This game does not currently support the ability to transfer your save file from one Nintendo Switch console to another. However, a function specific to Animal Crossing: New Horizons to move users and save data to another console is planned for later this year."
That answers my main concern.
As for save files - I lost 600 hours of New Leaf on the 3DS when my SD card corrupted. The situation on Switch is no worse. Or better.
I am actually confused how many are hurt by this.
Was everyone heavily ready to loose their saves repeatedly?
@justin233 Saying "Back in my day we didn't have cloud saves" is the gamer equivalent of "Back in my day we didn't have an indoor toilet, we had to walk outside to the outhouse in the middle of the night in the freezing cold." We have indoor plumbing now and Nintendo is giving us an outhouse we can only use once.
Makes zero sense.
My 3ds crapped out. Just would not charge. New battery didn't help. Second one is fine, but I could see the same thing happening....
@sanderev True, I guess it's just the lack of consistency that's most bothersome.
No one in one region should be required to see what the other region is saying to get the full story on the same game. It detracts from potential hype.
Goodness! Just make a backup of your MicroSD card once a week... not that hard.
...sounds like many people are planning to loose their console multiple times. It’s likely not gonna get lost a second time afterward, but you never know.
Are we sure it's not once per system? I mean, that would explain a lot: you can't loose or get your Switch destoryed twice, can you?
@Unit_DTH If savegames were on the SD card, nobody would be complaining. Unfortunately, they're locked to the system, so unless you hack it, you can't access it..
Something is better than nothing but this baffles me. I can see the clear disadvantages here but where is the benefit to anyone? I don't see the benefits from all this grief.
Its not like duplicating items will give any significant benefit / advanrage
Or if you want a revision of the Switch. Nintendo seems to have forgotten that they usually update their hardware or release limited edition consoles.
Idiots.
I get it’s not ideal, but it also wont impact 95% of people complaining.
Youd think everyone is losing their save data or entire consoles on a weekly basis.
.... [Just as he was about to type 'Wow, a lot of complaining on this comments section', he realised two important points
1) There has just been a Nintendo Direct
2) This is a comments section
Now, you could remove one of the above points and there will still be complaining but both together multiplies it. Considering all these factors, and the fact that a comments section without complaints is like a boxing match without punches, he decides not to comment at all]...
@mesome713
Perhaps you need a strong parental hand but I dont. I'm a grown woman. Nintendo isn't my great mother. Nintendo is a video game company that makes games, many of which I enjoy. They do so for profit. Not for altruism , not because they love you. Profit. I don't fully trust any corporation.
Having read many of your posts I'm left wondering if you work for them or have a parody account. Nothing else makes sense to me.
So is this one time recovery for each system lost? Like if I lose Switch 1, I can recover it. But if switch 2 is lost, I can recover from switch 2 but not switch 1.
OR
Is it lose switch 1 and you recover it but are ineligible for future recoveries ? And if I lose switch 2, I'm SOL?
@sanderev Thank you, I will repost it again until people calm down (I know this is impossible)
This game does not currently support the ability to transfer your save file from one Nintendo Switch console to another. However, a function specific to Animal Crossing: New Horizons to move users and save data to another console is planned for later this year.
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Animal-Crossing-New-Horizons-1438623.html?#
Scroll all the way to the bottom
Love Nintendo, but there is no excuse for this restriction.
I can understand not wanting people to abuse this system, but this seems an unnecessary restriction.
Unfortunate, but it's not too problematic for me. Thankfully, the Switch has a very low failure rate so it's not like we have too worry too much about our Switch bricking, failing etc. I dunno, just seems like a lot of fear mongering and what ifs.
This game looks way too fun to worry about "if" my Switch will explode or "if"something else happens.
I understand the issue though, it's a shame Nintendo couldn't find a work around with cheaters and item exploiting/whatever AND still enable regular cloud saves. Oh well.
Everyone can act like Nintendo is pulling these moves out of their posteriors just to troll them. The fact of the matter is that they have a good reason for doing all this: Anytime you have a game like this that allows interaction and trading, you're bound to have trouble concerning duped items and real-world money being exchanged. Some of the items in this game can take years to get. (e.g., The Zodiac set from New Leaf will take a full 12 years to obtain. If you're still playing that game without cheating, that means you're only a little over halfway in collecting the set in 2020. The game was released in 2013 (in North America).)
See what the problem is now?
So here we are, with Nintendo locking the island down like it's Alcatraz to help prevent such measures.
@Iacobus I should still be able to do a one way cut and paste transfer to a new switch.
I think the real problem is that because everyone sharing the console also have to share the island, it would be difficult to back up/restore cloud save files without messing with the other players since only back ups for subscribed members are the ones getting backed up which doesn't work well for shared consoles that have individual subscribers and non-subs together, this must be what conflicts with the cloud save feature and why they will only restore it if your system is lost or stolen.
I do think the "one time only" does seem kinda unnecessary though... that part doesn't make much sense to me...
@Seesh Then.. just use the local transfer feature??
@Braneman That's been a feature since the switch launched
i swear, thing like this push me closer and closer to CFW. None of my friends have a switch anyway so i won't be needing online features...
@Mallow Nope there's just a lot of "glass half empty" posters on this site.
Regular people would look at the game, think that looks like fun, buy the game and enjoy. People in here look at the game, think about when the servers will go down, what if the save file corrupts, way before thinking about whether the game is fun.
Hooray. Nintendo with Nintendo online, the most incompetent online service in existence.
Why did Nintendo destroy the massive forward strides with Wii U online, was it because it was built by a western company?
Like they've rolled back to 2006 here.
I understand it’s not ideal to some. At least it’s a compromise though. The other alternative would have been online connection always required.
It maybe once only officially. Perhaps Nintendo will make exceptions for revised hardware.
It’s Animal Crossing for gods sake, they are going through these kinds of rules for ANIMAL CROSSING. Fort Knox and NORAD called, they think Nintendo is going a little nuts on the security measures here.
So if my launch-day Switch dies in April, I get my AC save file transferred to its replacement. Then, in December, a sexy new Zelda Switch is released and, well, if I buy it I still have to use the old Switch just for Animal Crossing. This is not the end of the world, but surely a more workable system could have been devised.
I think I've only ever taken the Switch out of my apartment twice, maybe three times in total to do the Meltan box in Let's Go, for a co-worker at work, so this won't be a problem for me. I've never actually played an Animal Crossing game before, but I am looking forward to starting with New Horizons.
I seriously wish Nintendo would stop being so controlling and anti consumer. They've single-handledly killed my hype for this game as of late. And I planned to get a Switch just for this and Metroid Prime 4.
Guess I'll stick to my PC for a while.
@Manah that’s what I was thinking! A complete system transfer should move everything together... looking forward to really getting to the bottom of this!
They should do this one time exception with splatoon and pokemon too!
Some of the biggest games, Pokemon, Splatoon, and now Animal Crossing don’t have cloud save support. It’s just flat out madness.
@Unit_DTH does that work for games like splatoon and pokemon?
I dont mind build from scratch again, its AC game 😏
Does that mean each a single dave data recovery per user, or per console?
This sucks and there is no possible way to actually justify it.
@ummyeahnintendo But at least they let you use the outhouse at all (if only once) instead of making you crap in the woods and wipe with poison ivy. That’s my point. It’s better than nothing - I’m not saying I agree with the decision. Just be happy they are giving us this option at all.
@Mallow it's more than just about losing a console...
My way in to Switch gaming was the Lite, as it will have been for lots of people over Christmas. After a few months I was enjoying it enough to upgrade to a full Switch.
As it happens we're now just about to buy a Lite to compliment the Switch, particularly as my son has also really got into the Switch now. That becomes unnecessarily complicated when it comes to AC. Nintendo reported themselves that 30% of Lite buyers are now dual Switch/Lite owners.
@Burning_Spear No, as has been posted several times in this comment section already, the European website says they will add a function to transfer saves between Switches "later this year" (specifically for Animal Crossing, other games support this already).
@MasterGraveheart Because of f...g nintendo they always making problems for most companies and for they users.
Anti-consumer at best.
@Moonlessky not exactly sure. I have transferred my save from both of those between systems, but not just via SD card.
lmfao..... wow .
Nintendo being nintendo
@Manah If you read between the lines, this is exactly what it sounds like. Not once does Nintendo say "Nintendo Switch Online members can only have save data recovered one time period."
They are very SPECIFIC:
"Nintendo Switch Online members can only have save data recovered one time due to the loss or damage of system."
That means you should be able to transfer files just fine with the purchase of a new system.
People are getting up in arms over nothing as usual.
EDIT: LOL I just now saw this article after I posted this: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/02/animal_crossing_new_horizons_will_support_save_file_transfers_later_this_year
@sanderev You're right, it's two different paragraphs. But still... That text I've seen only in the european websites, UK's and Spain's have that description. But the american page says, at the bottom, in tiny letters: "Animal Crossing: New Horizons does not support the ability to transfer your save file from one Nintendo Switch system to another."
So maybe Europe will get a different treatment.
@nintendork64
OK, so it seems there are two different things. I can only use my cloud backup once, and it must be in an instance of console loss or failure, but there will soon be a feature that lets me transfer my AC game to another Switch. If I'm reciting this correctly, then that seems OK. I'd still rather have the security of the 24/7 cloud backup I'm paying for, but that's not a huge deal.
Still better than most games. I wish Nintendo would just reintroduce local saves, even if they had to sell a proprietary device or storage card which only works with Switch consoles.
Maybe they can do it like the 3DS and have the game cartridge save the game again. So even if we lose the console, if we still have the game cart, we can still continue playing with a new console.
@nintendork64
The reason they restrict the backup system in the first place is still very likely to prevent "cheating." There would be no need to add these limitations, that still don't mean you can transfer your save data to a new console if you just want to upgrade to a better model.
I'm under the impression that this last point is why the majority of the backlash happened, because it looks like Nintendo is paranoid enough to make sure players play it EXACTLY the way they expect. And there have been enough revisions made to the procedure now that the backlash has worked. Or maybe Nintendo realized they won't sell as many consoles if people choose keeping their save file over buying a new model. Either way, we're not stuck with their initial crap idea anymore and that's good.
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