The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct Will Air On 15th October

Sweet! I’m off work that day! Will be able to chill and see what is coming down the pipe.

This is my first real Animal Crossing (I own others but never got far) so I am excited to see what is on the way.

Color me mildly excited, I'm hoping they'll deliver plenty of new content to revitalize interest in the game.

My mother is a diehard fan, and despite playing daily since launch even she's tired of the lack of new content. Don't let me down, Nintendo...

Woohoo! High hopes for some fun and substantial additions!
I will be tuned in for sure.

Check out Nintendo with the October combo hits!
First Smash final fighter, then Metroid Dread/OLED Switch launch, now the AC direct on the 15th and N64/Megadrive games coming to Switch Online (hoping that's in the next week or so)

i just cant get into new horizons. a shame, since i was super into new leaf. horizons is so boring to me, idk why

Huh a whole direct to new content. That's good. I needed an excuse after finishing my critterdex to make my town not look like trash.

Now that we know Sora is the final Smash fighter, it clearly wasn't in the Direct because that would've overshadowed the other announcements. Perhaps the Animal Crossing update is big enough that it would've done the same if it was in the Direct?

It better be a pretty bloody substantial upgrade to warrant a 20 minute presentation.

I’m hoping for more amiibo implementation, akin to New Leaf, and I also expect that they will announce Series 5, which I suspect will be comprised of the Welcome Amiibo set (which Nintendo are oddly silent about), but this time with standardised artwork (as opposed to the idiosyncratic caravan art) plus the handful of new villagers (Raymond, Audie etc.) and maybe the newly introduced special visitors to round out the set.

And should they dare propose paid DLC, Animal Crossing will be dead to me. I’m happy(ish) to collect the amiibo, but that’s as far as I’ll go. The game has already flown off shelves in the tens of millions and is (still) missing a lot of content from past games. No excuses.

I was also hoping that they would include Amiibo Festival as a bonus alternate mode (because it certainly isn’t worth very much in isolation) to give the currently useless figurines a workout.

I'm really curious why they decided to do a whole Direct for this update. I imagine it might have to do with the new series of Amiibo cards.

I was excited for this until I remembered that I haven’t played New Horizons in about 6 months.

That run time suggests it will be a huge update.

I really hope they are restoring a lot of missing content. Its pretty unacceptable that the game was more expensive than the 3DS game, but with half the content

Hopefully it brings some exciting content. The game could definitely use it.

They took way too long to bring a good update to this game. Or even small, but necessary QOL updates. Which they're totally going to make a big deal of in this direct, mark my words.

They better bring real substantial stuff with this update if they want me to jump back into this snorefest. It was a great game for a while but once you get to a certain point... it's just not fun anymore. I hope they change that.

I'm just glad Brewster is back in, his omission was baffling to me. I'm really excited for having a 20min long dedicated direct, it looks like it will be a major update.

I hope the shops can be finally expanded, I want to see gyroids and new activities overall.

October 15th is Brewster's birthday. °.°

@Grumblevolcano Well it is 20 minutes, but I wouldn't expect Sora in Smash plus 10 KH games in the cloud on Switch levels of epicness. Hopefully they don't spend half that time on Pocket Camp, if it's all ACNH then it could be at least hippie van camp big.

That's my wedding anniversary so I may be out to breakfast and miss it live. I am going to see Cabaret in a theater that night so maybe they'll open a theater on photography island. Haven't been to that place since the wedding June 2020.

this really needs to be a big "Welcome Amiibo" style update, or else what's the point of having a Direct?

but recent history dictates it'll just be new in-game holiday events 😞

20 minutes is half the length of a typical full-featured Direct, so hopefully whatever Nintendo is going to show will be far more substantial than just Brewster and the Roost. Maybe we'll finally get gardening and other new activities, but those would likely require some changes including larger islands since many of us used up all our real estate long ago.

I any case, we'll know in 9 days.

Yay...! 😀
It will be at 9 pm here in Indonesia.
I will prepare my snack before watching the Direct.

@Silly_G wow! I also hope it’ll be a substantial update, but I’m hoping for virtually none of the features you mentioned. Don’t have any ac amiibo, would be fine with paid dlc if it’s really high value. (Also not opposed to buying the amiibo cards if they restock them, but they were so hard to find last time that I gave up on them as a concept for AC).

I want more buildings, more dialog, more islands to visit, quality of life improvements like less tedious customization, crafting, and organization. Even just getting rid of the ridiculous amount of duplicate crafting recipes. How hard would it be to have a resident say, “oh, you already have that one? Well, I was working on this one the other day and maybe you’ll like that”

But I digress. Anything that makes my island feel like less of a ghost town is good with me. 20 minutes is kind of a worrying amount of time for me honestly, because it would be very easy to add a small handful of features (or god forbid ONLY the roost) and just stretch it out by getting way too specific about the details. If it were longer I’d be more hopeful for a seriously great amount of new content, but it is coming sooner in October than I suspected, so I guess that’s nice? ¯\(ツ)/¯

@PickledKong I honestly would not be surprised if this was the case.

Yay 🙂 Can't wait.

@PickledKong,

The vast majority of the games owners would have no played any other game in the series, so they will not be aware of what's missing, can't wait for the direct though.

Here's hoping for something amazing???!!!!! Still love the game though

this game needs more than Brewster it feels completely lifeless

@NikHogan probably because the lack of content or things to work for.

I’m not really excited for this direct. I’m going to watch it, but I have my expectations set extremely low for it. Even if this update is big, I can’t really see myself being excited, as it’s all content that should’ve been in the game at launch anyways. Nintendo isn’t really deserving praise for this, no matter the circumstances.

@PickledKong This is definitely the case, and people are eating it up and praising Nintendo for releasing a game that was completely unfinished upon launch.

The thing I want the most is more, much more social interaction with other players.

@karatekid1612,

Still playing a little bit every day, but a nice update will still be very welcome.

Swimming and the Mario items have been my favorite updates. More like that, please.

@VoidofLight,

It's not a case of people praising Nintendo for releasing an incomplete game, it's just some do not have the issues or feel there is nothing to do like yourself, it's called a difference of opinion.

And not all of these people are new to the series, I know quite a few people who loved New Leaf, but prefer New Horizons, me included.

@PickledKong So much this. The entire game feels designed not as a game, but as a vehicle for social marketing. ACNH is like Facebook itself. You're the product being sold.

If it was a mario kart direct I'd be interested

id love for them to announce more NPCs coming back, theres no way a direct would only be about brewster. but man this is a mix of excitement and "this shouldnt have taken over a year and a half to bring back"

I really hope this is a big meaty update. Perhaps even a full meat DLC expansion. I want a big reason to get back into this game. Because I have essentially done everything worth doing otherwise and I have more bells than I could ever reasonably use.

@SuperCharlie78 Is it really? That's a nice touch!

Yeah, I am hopeful that there is a reason for a 20 minute direct….

I do not see anything so far that would entice me with booting up animal crossing again anytime soon. I doubt this will change that. Not enough tasks from villagers, not enough items that interest me. Only Halloween event was even fun. The winter stuff was a full on let down. Eh.

Sounds like a decently-sized update.

20min? That’s definitely not a minor update!

#hype

@Heavyarms55 If it's a big DLC expansion, it better be a big free DLC expansion, and not anything that costs money, given the price of admission is 60 dollars already, and a 3Ds game that's now 20 dollars outclasses it in terms of content and longevity.

I hope they add Digby

I'll be interested to see what is coming into the game. I'm still feeling a bit burned out after playing this too much during lockdowns though - not been to my island for an entire year now!

@NikHogan I used to hate on it for having so much missing content. But really I think why it’s so boring to me is there’s only one store upgrade, no Public Works Projects, only a few buildings and not as many house upgrades.

About time. Smash Brothers sales figures are well below Animal Crossing but they’ve had heaps of regular new content whereas what Nintendo has given the larger Animal Crossing install base in comparison has been pathetic

@johnvboy ‘it's called a difference of opinion‘
It’s funny you say that as in almost every nintendo life acnh articles you’re whining about people who are unhappy with the game. Are they not allowed their opinion that the game is more empty than previous entries? Maybe practice what you preach bud.

I don't care what the haters say. I would eat up a paid expansion in a heartbeat if offered. I'm so excited to discover what Nintendo reveals in the Direct!

I've restarted my island recently, and it's been so much fun beginning again and taking a slower, more methodical pace. I love Blathers' research tent. Making a mad dash to upgrade everything as soon as possible took all the fun out of the game the first time around. I'm not even in a rush to decorate. I'm just letting most of the weeds grow for texture, and replacing every natural tree I chop down with a new one in the same place. Planting a few flowers here, some shrubs there.

The point of New Horizons is to relax for a set period of time, not to grind out arbitrary game-y goals like a live-service or a singleplayer campaign. Hardcore gamers honestly are ill-suited for this game, unless they approach it with the right mindset.

Content notwithstanding, New Horizons has quite literally the highest quality UX ever implemented in a game. Every single button press is palpable and kinetic, or in other words, extremely satisfying and engaging.

That's honestly the genius of New Horizons. Even with less content than its predecessors, its minute-to-minute gameplay is both relaxing and addicting, more than practically any other game on the market.

I do agree however that the biggest thing on my wishlist is more ways for players to engage with each other, more than just visiting an island, trading resources and exchanging pleasantries.

I think it would be so fun if they added a cooking mini game for players to do together! It would tie in brilliantly with all of the cookware merchandising.

@Megz3 I ended up blocking the dude since he can't handle the fact that people are unhappy with the game, all because he's happy with it.

@mario-from-mario-64 Not in Japan 😝

@Ulysses I feel as if claiming people who are unhappy with the game "haters" is missing the mark. Most of the people I've spoken to about the game that are unhappy with New Horizons don't exactly hate it, and want to see it improved. They felt ripped off, but they don't despise the game outright. This is why they're vocal about the game's issues, since they actually want to enjoy the game, but note how they can't because of what's missing from it.

A paid DLC would be a rip-off for people who spent full price on the game itself, and a spit in the face to fans of the series. It'd be like Nintendo holding the middle finger up to their fanbase and telling them "Hey, you want 60 dollars worth of content? Too bad, pay us more for content which should've already been in the game at launch!".

The relaxing gameplay really doesn't save this entry, given that it's lacking considerably from previous entries in the series. Most of the actual life-sim gameplay people knew and loved from past entries aren't even in this entry. It's effectively just a dumbed down mainline entry that plays more like happy home designer than it does a mainline Animal Crossing game.

@DiamondJim
To be fair, all of the Smash Bros character DLC is paid. You'll be spending $/€115 for the game and it's two DLC fighter packs (even more so if you buy all of the paid DLC Mii costumes) if you want all of it's contents.

@westman98 - you have a fair point.

@VoidofLight You are right to point out my use of the word haters. I settled on a generalization since something like Negative Nancies seemed a bit too wordy.

However, your assertion that Nintendo would be spitting in the face of their fans for offering a theoretical paid DLC is far too harsh.

The needle has moved substantially over the years; things like polish, production value and brand value all factor into the price of a product. Like it or not, games like Pokemon Sword/Shield produce even worse levels of content and get away with it virtually on brand value alone, and they still had the "audacity" to sell proper post-game content as a paid expansion.

AAA brand IP is rearing its ugly head as times change. If you want value for pure content, then there are many A or AA farm sims out there with oodles of content, albeit with less polish and production value. Not to mention that they are also lacking the AAA brand value.

In these current times, ACNH offers good value even at full price for the high quality of polish and production value it contains combined with its valuable brand IP.

Hardcore gamers still remember the days when AAA games offered everything in one package. And there are still a few exceptions that offer both polish and pure content, like BOTW. And even then, naysayers still complain about BOTW's lack of game mechanics that they prefer, like certain dungeon formulas.

All this is to say, I fully disagree that Nintendo would be spitting in the face of their fans. What constitutes an unfinished product has changed so much over the years that comparing ACNH to New Leaf is like comparing apples to apple pie.

Excited for the Direct and the content

@Ulysses I mean, comparing the two isn't really.. too much to expect, given that a 60 dollar switch game should have more content than a 20 dollar 3Ds title.

@Megz3,

Not sure what you mean, I have never stated they are not entitled to their own personal view on the game, and their opinions are not valid on a personal basis.

We need to move away from the whole attack defend situation and those labels, as it obvious if people do not like or like the game are not going to see it from either point of view.

My only issue is when people come onto every related article and moan about the same things, and suggest it's loads of people, which firstly there is no evidence for, because these sites are niche at best, and there is no way of gauging the experience of 36 million players, as to if they are happy or not.

They also use terms like "sheep" to describe people not as up in arms as themselves, then get all upset when they are labeled internet posting minorities, you can't make it up.

But in reality these people are core minorities, who spend a lot of their spare time playing video games, and are notoriously hard to please.

By the way, I am not whining but simply offering a different take on the game, could I suggest you and others are whining about the game too.

@VoidofLight,

$20 3DS title?, when I bought New Leaf it cost me £40, and New Horizons also costed £40.

Think you are telling porky pies here.

@PickledKong.

They are not blind to it. they simply do not care, as most people buy a game or a product, for what it does include, not what it excludes. The game has the polish of more modern title, and has more modern features, with the ability to patch missing content later.

Speaking from my own personal experiences with the new game and new leaf, I liked new leaf and spent around 500 hours and then stopped, I have so far put 1400 hours into new horizons and still play a little every day, I am not massively aware of the general day to day play being any different in each game, yes there are features missing but hardly game breaking, I just thing the whole island design mechanic is a revelation for the series, and add this to the obvious graphical polish of the new title, and it's a big bonus for me.

@VoidofLight,

Well done, best to ignore people that do not simply agree with you, always the best way.

@Ulysses thank you for your words! You express what I feel also. This is a different "game" or, as someone else said, less a game, more an experience. Taking ACNH at face value, it is a beautiful, creative, relaxing experience.

@VoidofLight Stop. Just stop. You don't seem to understand how prices and human labor and inflation works.

I am so sick of the 3DS comparisons. They are so bloody inaccurate.

People should be grateful that most games still cost 60 dollars in the first place. When everything else has risen in cost, shipping, manufacturing, labor, marketing. And most other products have also risen, things like food and fuel.

@VoidofLight Perhaps out of context it seems fair to compare it strictly to past installments. But in practice, a more important comparison is always made.

Metroid Dread is the perfect example. By all reviews, it is lauded as an excellent game with stellar boss fights, impressive production value and tight, polished action gameplay.

And yet, gamers across the internet are not comparing it to past Metroid titles. They are comparing Metroid Dread to current market standards, and harping on the "small" detail that it contains only 10-15~ hours length, that is, if you go straight from beginning to end.

In the wake of 2D Metroid's long absence, Indies have picked up the Metroidvania mantle. Over the years, games like Ori and Hollow Knight have redefined what a Metroidvania title should contain in the eyes of modern gamers.

Obviously, Indies leverage good content and niche interests to make up for their low market value, and of course their nonexistent brand value. Only a few exceptions to the rule have developed a recognizable brand, like Shovel Knight or Ori.

But in the process, the Metroidvania genre slowly became closely associated with Indie standards.

Is it a fair comparison to say Metroid Dread is simply getting away with its $60 price on brand value alone? Are things like excellent game design, impressive production value and polished gameplay not enough?

Ultimately, Metroid's immense brand value, or in other words, its overall market value, will be the key to its AAA price tag. And in the eyes of consumers, which is to say, if Metroid Dread turns out to be a multi-million success like projections allude it to be, then content alone really is not the most important factor for the game industry's current standards. Despite the protestations of hardcore gamers on the internet.

Plus, @Heavyarms55 describes it best, how a myriad of exterior factors have muddied the ability to compare current games to past titles.

@johnvboy yep absolutely, as there is so much they could do with this game. I would really like to see a big social island, where players could all go to meet, chat, trade and play mini games against other players online.

@karatekid1612,

A shopping or vacation island would be nice too.

@PickledKong,

Could be a great game for many people, and it's only a small minority upset, I guess we just do not know, but like you said awesome for the people that love the game.

By the way nice to see you back after your short ban, never feel they should ban people right away, a few warnings would be a fairer way, but as I said nice to see you back.

@Heavyarms55 You know how much I hate it when people just tell me to be grateful the game is out? Or that we have the game in the first place? Games aren’t a gift or charity. It’s apart of business. There’s a certain expectation people have when games become more expensive. They expect the game to have more content than the game that’s cheaper, not less. It’s fair that people feel ripped off with New Horizons, or games like Kirby Star Allies, even if the dev costs were higher, because those games are empty content-wise, and the experiences themselves are empty. Paid DLC for this game would effectively be like Nintendo putting out paid dlc for an unfinished game at this point. New Horizons, in sales alone, probably made back most of it’s development costs.

@Ulysses Thing is, comparing this to metroid is mossing the mark completely. There’s little to nothing in Animal Crossing’s lane of games, while there’s tons of metroidvanias. In terms of Animal Crossing’s stuff, the only thing you really have to compare it to are previous entries in the series. That’s about it. You’ll probably say “farming sims exist”… but animal crossing isn’t a farming sim, and farming sims don’t go by a real life clock. You’ll then probably say “but you have the sims!”, yet that’s another poor comparison, mainly due to how the sims 4 is effectively a rip-off on it’s own, and how the gameplay itself is entirely different from Animal Crossing as well.

The point Heavy makes just boils down to “BE GREATFUL THIS GANE EXISTED FOR 60 DOLLARS!”, when games aren’t a charity. Wouldn’t surprise me if they defend and accept games being 70 dollars, or games eventually becoming 100 dollars a pop.

@Ulysses I don’t think you’re wrong and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the DLC strategy implemented here. Personally, I would find it disappointing, but would still probably buy it considering it would be likely $20 and hopefully have a lot of the so-called “missing” content - which I also think should have been there from the jump, but considering there were so many novel features for AC when the game came out, I saw it as more of a trade-off rather than an omission. You get better customization options for your character, you lose the interesting NPC that gave those customizations in prior games. And so on. Bringing some of that back would be nice, but I feel like this game is so different from previous entries that I’m not sure how they could bring it all back in ways that make sense. I miss having a “downtown,” and while I could make my own, it wouldn’t feel the same and wouldn’t be interacted with in the same way.

One thing I did want to mention, though, is your A vs AA vs AAA “quality” and features arguments, while I agree that the UX and IP are top-notch, a lot of the actual game content doesn’t match that standard to me. Even something as simple as placing a walkway is tedious in a way that runs counter to the otherwise high quality characters and graphics in ACNH, and so parts of the experience don’t feel as “AAA” as they should for such a renowned game, especially considering these changes should have been made after it became one of the best-selling switch games, far more so than previous AC entries

@armfish Your thoughts on New Horizons' tedium alludes to, in my eyes, a fundamental weakness of modern gaming.

Live-service games, mobile games in general, as well as various RPG's and MMO's, all have contributed to the gaming industry's aversion to tedium. And for good reason. The arbitrary grind and conceited mechanics added into many modern games serve no purpose other than to artificially chain a gamer to the game.

Naturally, these practices have caused gamers to grow averse to perceived inconvenience in almost any game. These days, gamers refer to the removal of inconvenience as QOL improvements.

However, with the continued removal of any and all inconvenience, an integral principle has been lost in modern game design.

Monster Hunter Rise launched with both critical and financial success. It is genuinely an excellent game, and I couldn't be more excited for its Sunbreak expansion.

But a growing number of people criticize the game in hindsight. You hear things like, "It's too easy," "It feels superficial," "It isn't as satisfying as other installments," etc.

At the same time, you hear a different chorus of Monster Hunter fans, both old and new, praising Rise's (and MHWorld's) streamlined mechanics, with things said like, "I don't mind being powerful, I want to feel like a god," "Managing your items in past games was tedious," "Finding the monster at the start of every quest was tedious," "Traveling across the whole map to chase the monster was tedious," "Dealing with the Blademaster/Gunner armor split was tedious," etc.

What do all of these sentiments have in common? And why does a game with more streamlined mechanics feel less satisfying?

In fact, why is gardening with our bare hands healthy, both for our minds and our bodies? Digging multiple holes in the ground, planting one by one, watering, cleaning, organizing, it's all so tedious! So why is it so good for us?

It's because the natural inconveniences and limitations found in life are fundamentally satisfying to overcome.

With the right touch, engineered inconvenience is the key to immersion and satisfaction within a game, as well as wise implementation of limitation.

Older games contained a myriad of archaic and frustrating mechanics, yes. But many of them also contained a subtle but crucial ingredient to game design that improved a player's immersion and sense of reward.

Animal Crossing New Horizons takes this principle, the inherent satisfaction hidden underneath mundane actions, and executes it brilliantly.

In our modern day lives, many people approach New Horizons with a sense of urgency, distracted by an impatience to finish the island they imagine in their minds, as quickly as possible.

But the point of quality game design isn't to get the player from Point A to Point B as smoothly as possible. The point of quality game design is to successfully trick the player into feeling totally immersed in a fake world of polygons and pixels.

The best breakthroughs in technology imitate nature. And in the same way, there is no better way to immerse a player than to imitate the limitations of real life, in just the right ways.

@johnvboy agreed, there is a few ideas we have come up with and we don't even design games!! Well, I don't know about you, but I don't. I would even go as far as saying, I might be prepared to pay a small amount for some really decent DLC like we have come up with. But I think the reality is a drip feed of what perhaps should have been in there in the beginning?? However, I do give ACNH an hour of my time each day and it was a lock down life saver!!!

@karatekid1612,

I still play it everyday, and as you say a real help during the first lockdown, in fact there is no way my Island was going to be as developed without that extra time to devote.

I've seen people voice concerns here and elsewhere that they'll talk about Pocket Camp in this Direct or there will be paid DLC. But Nintendo said in the September Nintendo Direct that this would be an Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct for the FREE November update, so it will cover New Horizons and the update will be free. Now, that doesn't rule out a paid DLC expansion coming later, but the November update will be free.

Also, the description in Japanese for the official NicoNico Douga link (NicoNico Douga is a Japanese video-sharing site like YouTube) for the Direct says the AC: NH Direct will cover the upcoming (free) update scheduled for release in November. So, presumably, at least the majority of what will be shown will be in the November update. 20 minutes for one update is quite a lot.

Please don't let me down... there are so many things that can be improved apart from adding more content. Look!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLqka2zD0P4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auTi3stuL5M