With No Upcoming Animal Crossing Game, I’m Considering The Toughest New Horizons Choice Again -

Nintendo hasn’t released any information on what’s next for the Animal Crossing series, and that lack of information has forced me to make a drastic decision: whether or not to completely restart my island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I’ve been playing Animal Crossing for most of my life, and in that time, I’ve never restarted a game. Now, after five years and with nothing new on the horizon, I’m considering wiping the slate clean since there’s nothing left to do.

There’s been nothing new from Nintendo about Animal Crossing in years, not even an announcement that another entry is in the works. It does seem incredibly likely that another game will happen for the Switch 2 at some point, especially since New Horizons was one of the best-selling games of all time. But, given this lack of information, there might be a significant amount of time before the next game comes out, which means this could be the best time to reset everything and experience a fresh island getaway all over again.

Restarting My New Horizons Island Is Tempting

Erasing Years Of Progress Might Actually Be Freeing

It’s been five years since Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March 2020, and, in that time, I have never once restarted my island. Sure, there have been a couple of full island razings for total makeovers, but those changes have always been for aesthetic modifications or seasonal updates. Completely restarting and losing everything, including my massive catalog of DIY recipes, everything in the museum, all my Villager pictures, and all the bells made from the Stalk Market seems daunting and quite a bit harder to justify.

Marshal looking grumpy with some stressful animal crossing elements

10 Most Stressful Things To Do In ACNH That Make It An Uncozy Game

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a relaxing, cozy game, but some game elements are very uncozy and can make playing the game downright stressful.

On the other hand, I haven’t played New Horizons for a long time and, with no sequel even close to being announced, restarting everything fresh would give me something to do in the meantime and potentially reawaken my love for the franchise. Filling out the museum, building friendships again with my favorite Villagers, and slowly decorating an island from the ground up sounds refreshing.

The Next Animal Crossing Could Be Years Away

Radio Silence From Nintendo Isn’t A Good Sign

Rover and a player next to a campfire in animal crossing new horizons

Nintendo hasn’t mentioned anything to do with Animal Crossing since the final update for New Horizons came out in November 2022. With how long game development takes now – consider the eight-year gap between New Leaf in 2012 and New Horizons in 2020 – it’s not too surprising that the next Animal Crossing game isn’t even close to being released. In fact, I wouldn’t count on the next Animal Crossing for another few years, especially considering how many franchises Nintendo is juggling.

With the rumors surrounding the next game, which include a potential city and a much larger market, another game having a substantial development period is understandable. Any sequel will need to one-up New Horizons, and while aspects like Villagers’ dialogue and relationships should be easy to outdo, more technical challenges like multiplayer for visiting towns and communal spaces will take a while.

I Wish We Knew More About The Next Animal Crossing

No Real News Has Made Me Indecisive

In recent years, Nintendo has tended to keep its projects and their eventual release dates close to the chest. Rather than hype fans up years in advance, like how Besthesda announced the still-unreleased Elder Scrolls game back in 2018 (when E3 still existed), Nintendo prefers to announce when a project is set to release only a few months before its launch.

Animal Crossing characters with the Switch 2

The Next Animal Crossing Game Will Be Even Bigger Than ACNH Thanks To This Game-Changing Feature

ACNH was a fantastic game, but it was missing a few things. Mostly, those things were from a lack of Nintendo hardware. The Switch 2 aims to fix that.

This strategy didn’t work quite as well with the Switch 2, as Nintendo had to issue disclaimers that there were no announcements to quell fan expectations before the eventual reveal, but it will likely continue for most game releases. Given this approach, there’s no way to know when another Animal Crossing sequel will drop out of nowhere. Even knowing a vague timeline of when the next Animal Crossing game will come out would be helpful in deciding whether or not to restart.

If the game is only partially through development and set to release sometime halfway through the Switch 2’s lifecycle, then restarting now is a no-brainer. However, if the game has been expedited due to Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ runaway success and Nintendo is going to surprise us all early next year, then there would be no point in starting from scratch. Given that a long wait seems more likely, it might be time to pull the trigger and re-enter a state of debt to Tom Nook.