Nintendo's President Discusses Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Impact On Future Game Development

Did he just say the by Nintendo standards forbidden words 'We want to provide games that can allow communication between friends and families'?

I can't even imagine what a game would look like that would have a chat function, a voice function or video function built into it. Next gen stuff right here!

Botw online? If they can make it not drop below 25 fps, yes please!

Or maybe, just do something simple like update the switch UI so we can have themes and folders??

Am I the only one who feels some trepidation, reading this? Alas that my ability to read Japanese is so minimal, that I cannot judge for myself; Furukawa-san's words could be construed as an endorsement of "games as a service" here, though.

If this is how Nintendo wants to release their games in future, let's hope it ends up more like Splatoon than New Horizons.

Both games slowly added content over time, but while Splatoon eventually became a complete game, ACNH is still lacking a ton of features from previous games that I doubt we'll ever get at this point.

Everything Furukawa ever says sounds vague and unambiguous enough to cover all avenues. 😐 Safe PR talk. I wouldn't read too much into any of it tbh.

I respect Furukawa for what he's saying but the big reason for Animal Crossing doing so well had to do with the pandemic not so much with it having a long lifespan.

@COVIDberry No, that was my first thought also. The quote seems awfully vague, so hopefully we're jumping the gun, but I am sceptical that Furukawa was referring to something else.

It would suffice to go back to fundamentals. I havent had any memorable interactions with other islanders. Wheres the sass, the grumpyness, the craziness? Everyones so bland now. The lack of dialogue is also kind of embarrassing. I dont need to hear 'there are no news for today' from Isabelle half the time I play..just let me in and dont say anything then. Theres not many people to make a comparison since this game destroys every other entry saleswise but people should know this series used to have much more charm and personality.

Not sure what to make of this. I want more long term games, but they need to have more varied content. I would still be playing acnh if they added more substantial updates

You know, I bet on their job description there is a line that reads:
Ability to speak without really saying anything. This guy's at Nintendo are masters at this craft, Regie, Dough, this Furukawa guy, the previous one I can't recall his name (kimishima?) and the list goes on...it's very impressive when you think of it

"We want to provide games that can allow communication between friends and families."
Here come the complaints about no voice chat within the console itself...

@Abweegee
I've been skeptical before and I will continue to be. How in the heck would a BotW multiplayer game even work? As a co-op game, maybe I can see that working, but only as an offline game where you have direct communication with your teammate. As a competitive PvP, absolutely NOT. The combat system was not built for PvP.

Sounds to me like Nintendo is moving from the early 2010s into the late 2010s and skipping the mid 2010s loot box era because more countries are taking serious action against loot boxes.

So stuff like Games as a Service becoming the norm, battle passes, etc.

Nintendo is too tepid. I know we’re in a pandemic, but they should have planned a lot more content for AC. Built it like a service game to ride that wave. Instead they rounded on a year and it looks more of the same.

Nintendo’s netcode would die instantly trying to handle Botw’s physic engine.

@God_of_Nowt Didn't they implement some bluetooth stuff with the latest firmware?

It can't be a coincidence that he's saying this now.

@COVIDberry I also read it as games as a service moving forward.

@ModdedInkling an MMORPG in the vein of ESO set in the BotW universe, I would definitely be up for that. They would have to vastly increase the map size as well as adding in dungeons and raids etc, but if they got the endgame content right and had regular expansions it could run forever.

I'm increasingly convinced this guy's a robot. Everything he says is so manufactured, derivative and dull.

It's funny how everyone takes away something different from these vague quotes. Probably based on preconceived feelings they already have on Nintendo and what they feel the direction (whether positive or negative) the company is going in.

What do these comments mean? Who knows and we obviously won't know for a while or at least until the next huge games are released. Personally, I'm gonna go on the assumption we will see more of the same ala Animal Crossing or any other game that's been on the Switch. At the moment, there are methods of communicating with friends and family when playing Animal Crossing that already exist. Whether they're ideal or user friendly is another story. But they already exist and I don't see Nintendo necessarily going above and beyond that unless they've had some miraculous epiphany in the last few years regarding voice chat within games and on the Switch

As for the games and their content themselves as far as long term support goes, they've already shown with Splatoon, Smash Bros and ACNH (and others to various extents) that they are willing to continue to support games well past their initial launch. So until they state or show otherwise, I'm not gonna assume the worst

@EriXz That's pretty much any corporation with a huge consumer base or any business that has some form of customer interaction and customers with big expectations. Heck, even at my small little printshop, we have to be careful when we're communicating with customers and clients in that things aren't misconstrued or or own words used against us later if things don't go as plan.

@UmbreonsPapa I was making fun mate, relax. (I know how this things work)

Something not a lot would like, but imagine an MMO animal crossing game where multiple people could all meet and chat. Something like club penguin, imvu, second life or playstation home.

@EriXz Fair enough. Tough to read sarcasm and humor in a comment section. And I wasn't necessarily getting bent out of shape about it. But the criticism is plenty (especially here on this site) towards Nintendo about this very thing, even if it's common sense as to why a company would speak in vague language. The crazy part is that if Nintendo were to be a bit more forthcoming or vocal about things, then you end up with a situation where things are said and announced, but then things happen, plans change and now the criticism is that Nintendo jumped the gun and should have waited.

Not necessarily defending Nintendo as some poor company who can't please anyone. But I just find that in the gaming community, expectations seems to shift according to where the wind blows at the moment, with no real consistency

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Edit: This confirms they’re effectively going to release unfinished games and update them to add content that should’ve been at launch. I wish New Horizons flopped, since now all of Nintendo’s games are going to suffer this terrible fate.

@COVIDberry the problem I have is that if u play Animal Crossing on 3ds, u pretty much have a complete game. I think games are going to have constant updates now. My guess is that games will be more like ACNH and Mario Kart Tour.

The good thing is that it keeps things fresh. The bad is that if u put ur system away for a long time and try to replay games, what will it look like? Will Nintendo allow for updates?

Honestly, I don’t mind the game getting released “unfinished” as long as the keep the updates coming, which I’m sure they will. My only critique is that they should have something like Turnip Exchange built into the game. But maybe they’re saving that sort of thing for introducing Tortimer’s Island (I’m sooooo hoping for a multiplayer island with a mall, an arcade and specialty shops)

if u play Animal Crossing on 3ds, u pretty much have a complete game. I think games are going to have constant updates now. ...
if u put ur system away for a long time and try to replay games, what will it look like? Will Nintendo allow for updates?

@rockodoodle Yes, I quite agree with you. This is precisely why I won't be buying several games I'm quite interested in for a while, possibly for years, as I wait for the Complete Edition (Disgaea 6 and Shin Megami Tensei V for certain, and those franchises are far from the worst... I assume the new Rune Factory will be far from complete on release, too).

@Yorumi,

When you say we all feared, just wondering how you define all people.

@VoidofLight,

Just because the game does not have features from previous games does not mean it's unfinished, it has different features to past games, and just because certain individuals do not like this does not make it a bad game, merely a different experience to previous entries.

@rockodoodle,

I don't really think at their core the Animal crossing games are designed to be played for much more than 15-20 mins max a day, you just tend to to do the day to day routine stuff and speaking to your villagers.

This latest one has made most play far more because there is massive appeal decorating your Island and house.

So, Nintendo wants to make....a modern video game..

@UmbreonsPapa you're right, I know what you're saying and I agree with you. Sorry my humor didn't translate as expected. Have a nice day mate

To be fair it's ongoing content updates have just been to put things back into the game from previous entries. I like the game but it still feels a bit barebones at times

@carlos82 and even then, we're a year into the game, and still haven't gotten substantial content other than furniture and holidays. The only update where they actually gave us something substantial were the art gallery update and the diving one, which just added back content that should've been in at launch..

They're not gonna make every game online, relax already -.-

@Abweegee
that sounds like a good in concept bad in execution type of thing

nintendo will not change anything

@Justaguest,

There is far more variation in dialogue than previous games, of course there is the usual repetition from previous games as well, but if you speak to the villagers more they surprise you with new dialogue, even after I have played around 1100 hours, they still say new things.

Return of MiiVerse? That was one of the coolest things on the 3DS. I was sad to see it shutdown.

Meanwhile, Roblox (which offers a relatively safe environment for young gamers to play together), is raking in hundreds of millions a year and the company is currently worth more than UbiSoft and EA.

Nintendo is in a perfect position to take advantage of this younger demographic that wants to play online together, but they keep dropping the ball 🤦‍♂️

@Abweegee While that might be cool, i don't think botw works online, maybe local co-op, but i think the franchise should stay single player, but that's just my opinion, who knows if it would work

@Yorumi,

So you mean a collective out of a small number of people who feel this way about the game.

By the way not suggesting your or others concerns are not valid on a personal level, but this statement from Nintendo is very vague, and could mean anything going forward, looks like a typical PR statement to me.

@TohruDX I don’t see a problem with being able to ***** around with friends like in gta and red-dead its an open-world game after all

@Abweegee When you put it like that it does sound kinda fun, i imagined it differently

@C-Olimar SO TRUE, THANK YOU FOR THESE WORDS.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Agreed. Like, answering by straying away from the answer.