Unless you’ve lived under a wonderful convenient Bell Rock for the past year or so, you’re probably aware that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a hit. The latest entry in the sympathetic sim series of Nintendo’s life has already sold over 31 million units, challenging Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the honor of being the best-selling Switch title.
So how will the success of the game affect the future development of the Nintendo game? In an interview with Nikkei, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa explained that accepting the game’s lifespan – due to its content and continuous updates – will have a “significant” impact on Nintendo’s future work.
Here are his full comments on Animal Crossing, which helps people stay home with the Nintendo Everything translation:
“It is true that our recent growth has resulted from the need for people to stay at home [Japan’s] the state of emergency is over, people spend more time at home than before.
As games with a long life, such as Animal Crossing, become more accepted, we believe that this will have a significant impact on future development. We want to offer games that allow communication between friends and family. “
Of course, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has helped friends and families stay in touch in new and unique ways throughout the pandemic. The fact that Nintendo hopes to offer more games that can interact with us is probably a good thing, especially considering that we already know that the company intends to work on both the basic series and new ideas.
Maybe games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 could end up getting an optional online co-op as a result? Or maybe Nintendo will create completely new ways to stay in touch with a new IP? Only time will tell …