Nintendo Reiterates Plans For Animal Crossing: New Horizons Save Data Workarounds

This is a headache. There's no ranked competitive play or online ecosystem to worry about so this just comes off as harmful to everyone involved. I'll still enjoy the game but this stuff is dumb.

I have a plan for multiple island.
I think i will buy two copies with different regions: USA and PAL, so i can have two different island on one console.
If i buy another Switch machine, i can make 4 different island by total. 😛

@Anti-Matter Are you sure that will work since every game on switch is region free? There is no PAL or USA version anymore afaik

@Mew Nintendo. 10 years backward about online stuff since ever.

Honestly this is no big deal for me. I can understand some people frustrations, but I don't share them.

@Anti-Matter You better make sure that works before you waste your money. I honestly seriously doubt that will work.

@Friendly There is a SMALL chance it will work. Splatoon 2 had different versions actually, I found it the hard way when I tried to buy Octo Expansion from US eShop despite owning European version, it didn't work. Plus, splatfests were locked to the region of the game.

HOWEVER, Animal Crossing is not a competitive game, so it's very likely it won't have any regional differences.

@Friendly Yeah, other than some games with quirks (Splatoon 2 uses different saves and servers for each region's copy, Superbeat XONIC has different names in the US and Europe so counts as two different games, for example), for the most part, all versions are the "same". I know with ACNH, I own the digital UK/PAL version, and it won't let me buy the US/JPN digital versions, so I'd assume they'd all use the same save file.

The reason Nintendo isn’t letting us easily transfer saves because that’s a great way to let hackers manipulate the game/items/money and they don’t want that happening with the games expanded online features. Now I really get that but I feel like Nintendo should have been developing a good way to save and/or transfer while they were developing the game. Maybe getting feedback from users or things like that.
The fact that they only realized this would be an issue after user backlash doesn’t surprise me being Nintendo, but you really hate to see them still being so out of touch in 2020.

Does this mean you cannot transfer the island from a main switch console to your switch lite and back again?
Please clarify? If not? ridiculous!

@Heavyarms55 @Friendly
Because of that, different region will be counted as individual games.
So, USA games will have their own Save data and will not overwriting the PAL games.
And it will have two same app icons on my Switch. 😁

Oh, btw...
I have Triple Dipped ACNL 3DS for 3 different towns (2 ACNL, 1 ACNL Welcome Amiibo) and 1 digital download of ACNL welcome Amiibo on my New 3DS XL just for villagers generator from temporary towns.
And i want to Sixtuple Dip for ACNL 3DS if i have a chance (Buy 3 more of ACNL Welcome Amiibo)
Yay... I will have 6 copies of ACNL 3DS. 😁

I have very cunning ideas, eh ? 😅

@Friendly games are region free but you still need to make an account for the region that game came from, after all you can't buy a game meant to be sold only to japan etc etc on your regions eshop

If we a Switch Lite and a Switch do we also need two copies of the game to have different islands (accepting that we wouldn't be able play at the same time if one copy of the game is allowed).

@Nic-Noc20th-C Not easily. The current only way would be by doing the full system transfer every time you wanted to swap consoles.

@Anti-Matter I think Nintendo should put a warning out saying only one Animal Crossing game per Customer, especially during these troubling times =0p

@ukaskew One copy of the game would be fine to make two islands over two consoles (it saves to the console, not the game card), you just wouldn't be able to play on both islands at the same time.

@Bisylizzie Blimey what a polava!
Thanks for confirmation.

@sikthvash
Psst...
I will ask my local game shop owner to provide two different region of ACNH for me (USA and PAL) 😁

@Anti-Matter
Nice plan but it's not going to work unfortunately, as others have already said, New Horizons everywhere is the same version (ACBAA).
Both game cards will just use the same icon / same save.
I'd have done the same if it would allow multiple islands, but unfortunately it doesn't this time. :/

if only they would have the pokemon approach and provide an AC new horizons Silver and gold edition with some villagers unique to a version. That would drive sales for them

That easier to understand FAQ seems quite vague and needlessly complicated.

@bluesun
Well, we will see if ACNH have different codes for each region.
Because by my logic, different region of games have different Save data. How could a Japanese ACNH with Japanese text will overwrite my USA ACNH Save data ?

@echoplex It's obviously a technical limitation related to the fact that they insisted on making it mandatory for all users on a single Switch system live on the same island. One user restoring their save would undo another user's progress, transferring one user's save would leave other users without a save, etc.

What I wish they would've done is make it optional and warn players when making an island that if they make it a multi-user island then Cloud Saves and Transfers will be disabled. I doubt very many people really want multi-user islands anyway.

It’s really frustrating because only like 0.5% or less of players will use cloud saves to exploit the game. This means everyone else gets shafted. Apart from Mario and Zelda, Animal Crossing and Pokémon are probably their two biggest franchises and also those best suited to portable play. As an owner of a Switch and a Switch Lite I’ve found myself using the Lite so much more.

But even bearing that in mind I’m also forced into a situation where I have to make an executive decision before I start the game to decide if I want my save for those two games to live on my Switch or my Lite. Pokémon is on the Lite as it’s visually not amazing and it’s always been a portable experience for me, but for Animal Crossing I’m really not sure what I’m going to do. Even with a save transfer coming, is it going to be a single use thing or is it going to work like most other games do now? There’s no concrete info yet and it’s really frustrating for Nintendo to limit save transfers for the franchises that really benefit the most out of owning the two systems they decided to make. I mean it’s a first world problem but it’s also classic Nintendo to create that problem in the first place...

"Even if you’re using multiple copies of the same software, you are only able to create one island per console."

But it didn't mention about different region.
Same software but different region will not counted as exactly same games.
Japan: LA-H-XXXXX-JPN
USA: LA-H-XXXXX-USA
Europe: LA-H-XXXXX-EUR
Asia: LA-H-XXXXX-ASI

I have Portal Knights Switch version in both physical and digital with same USA region and of course i can continue my Portal Knights with or without cartridge since i have two exactly same region games.

Btw, i will see the truth when ACNH already released. Maybe my theory of different region was not really correct for ACNH.

@Anti-Matter "How could a Japanese ACNH with Japanese text will overwrite my USA ACNH Save data ?"
Because it's just a language setting that can be changed at any time and has no bearing on the actual save data. You'll still wind up with only one island on your console.

@DarthXenos
Maybe my theory of different regions was not really correct for ACNH.
I will wait until the game released to see the truth with my eyes from Youtube video or i see it by myself if the game will be counted as ONE same games regardless of Regions.

@Anti-Matter I’m living in Japan right now and do a lot of downloading games from both the US and JP eshop and the only time it ever counts as a seperate copy is if English isn’t offered on the Japanese version (Dragon Quest 11, Monster Hunter Gen Ult to name a couple). Otherwise if I buy it from one or the other it will show up “purchased” on both eshops even though I only bought one copy. Regardless though, your money so do your thing, but just a heads up.

Madness. Nintendo really takes collecting furniture seriously.

@Anti-Matter
With the Switch, it's common to unite regions into one single version covering multiple regions. Something like 80-90% of US/EU games are united and work on the same save, for example.
If the serial code's the same, then the data's the same and the Switch can't tell the difference.
For Portal Knights, EU/US copies are AECYA, JP copies are AECYC.
So US+JP copies would get you two icons, but US+EU copies share the same one icon.
But ACNH is ACBAA everywhere, so we can tell it's the same icon everywhere.
If you can find a non-ACBAA copy I'd be interested in it myself, but there doesn't seem to be one.

As for languages, I'd like to find out how languages work for ACNH myself. I'm hoping it'll just take the system language at the time, and not do something like Pokémon and lock you into the first language chosen.

Nintendo just needs to do the right thing regarding the Coronavirus for those of us under lockdown, which is release Animal Crossing a few days earlier!

I don't know why people are complaining.

After reading this article THREE TIMES it is as clear as mud.

It's the same thing with Pokemon Sword/Shield and Splatoon 2. Nintendo seem intent on stopping cheating but don't realise people will cheat anyway 🙄

Edit: Daemon X Machina has the same bonkers restriction.

Normal save-files on Switch are tied to the User.

Animal Crossing uses some weird save system where your character is tied to the User but the Island is system wide.

Hence Animal Crossing uses a unique save style no other software uses and isn't supported by the OSs normal backup mechanics.

It's like a seperate beast and I can't fathom how this went through production without ANYONE raising an objection.

Why only one Island per console? I doubt the save files are prohibitively large, so this would appear to be an arbitrary design decision and not a technical consideration.

If you predownloaded the software and it and the name and the icon of the game will be changed to japanese when you change the system language to japanese, there won't be any regional different games.

@Dethmunk It's not only for cheater there are also people who would like to have 2 island and not habing to buy another console...
It's nice beeing able to visit the orther island but it's another story

Remember when you could make and visit as many islands as you want as long as you had the memory cards? Nintendo is all about imposing as many limitations as the technology allows.

Another reason I hate this "always online" climate. Copying save files only became an issue because of leaderboards and achievements. As someone who generally plays offline games I hate these restrictions.

The workaround is easy: you unlock a certain set of furniture in-game, and then the save data on cloud knows you have the full set. You lose the progress, you get the stuff you had unlocked in your previous save. So you still have to start over, but you have less work to do to recreate the save file.
There, I conjured up this solution in the span of 5 minutes.

@veesonic
Achievements are stupid, period.

So serial number or something like that as basis for creation.

Why does there need to be a "workaround" when the problem is caused by an intentional decision by Nintendo to not allow normal saving and back ups?

You're proposing to look for a solution for a problem you intentionally caused and refuse to stop causing.

Heres to nintendo being nintendo again...

@Anti-Matter I'm not trying to be rude when I say this, but I really don't think that plan is going to work. Different region copies of the game only work when the different region copies do not support those other languages. Example: Splatoon 2. The Japanese copy does not support English, so you can have different saves on the same account if you have a Japanese copy and an NA copy.

But Pokemon supports all languages off of the same game card. So if you have a Japanese and NA copy of the game, it will use the same save data.

Looking at the languages on the eshop, Animal Crossing will work like Pokemon, and have all the languages on one version of the game. This is why I don't think your plan of using different region copies for multiple saves will work.

Maybe I am wrong, but I just want to encourage you to confirm that you plan works before you buy extra copies (especially more expensive, imported copies) so you don't waste your money.

@Heavyarms55
Ow...
First time hear if the game support same language (English in this case) will be counted as exactly same game.

Because i have experience with other games that have different region but shares different Save Data.
In this case, i have two different copies of Ratchet & Clank PS4 (USA and Europe).
I bought the USA version first. When i inserted the Europe version, i saw two exactly same app icons popped up and it counted as different games even both of them have English language.
I haven't experienced yet with UniRegion games so far.
Maybe i have never knew about UniRegion games, but i will test my theory once the game out by investigating from Youtube or if my game shop owner have second handed games in different region so i can test my theory.

@Anti-Matter I do not know how Sony handles save data. And I haven't (obviously) tested ACNH yet. But just based on my experience with other games on Switch, I don't think it's going to work.

But I'm sure people will try it. All I am suggesting is you let other people try it and find out, before you spend the money importing a game that you have no use for.

@Anti-Matter I hate to break it to you, but the game will be the same, no matter what region it comes from.

I downloaded the game from the EU eShop. I changed the system language to japanese and the home screen icon changed to the japanese one. Also my japanese account can't buy it, because it's already purchased on that console.

I'm pretty sure this will be the same with cartridges. To have multiple islands it looks like you have to have multiple switches.

@IKAY
Ow...
Thanks for the clarification. 😀

So me and my wife can’t have our own islands??? What???

This is stupid.

Nonsensical BS. One of the games with a lot of rng, personal investment and an endless timesink doesn't have a way to back up save data... Ofc, nintendo won't do much because it will definitely not hurt sales...

So big burns nintendo did with the switch for me: No Bluetooth, No backup for my most important games, no patching up some joy con functions in games for the lite (SM:O) and no TV dock function on the lite.

There is no way they can just have normal saves like other games.

Because of their dumb decision to have one island per console, they cannot use any of the switch's save file features, because those only work on a per account basis.

What even is the reason for making one save per switch, that multiplayer looks boring