Animal Crossing: New Horizons had a huge 2020, but thus far 2021 has left players wanting. While Nintendo delivered a year’s worth of unique events and updates, once New Horizons celebrated its first birthday, they mostly started recycling content – the same events, mostly the same seasonal items. Today Nintendo announced a summer update is on the way that will add weekly fireworks displays, just like last year.
A free update for #AnimalCrossing: New Horizons arrives on July 29. Please ensure you have updated to the latest version to enjoy the upcoming weekly Fireworks shows and new seasonal items. pic.twitter.com/NiIb0M5wAv
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 27, 2021
Perhaps sensing there would be some disappointment over this, they also announced all-new content would also be coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons later this year.
In addition to these updates, more free content for #AnimalCrossing: New Horizons is currently in development for later this year. More information will be shared in the future, so please stay tuned. Thank you for your support and patience.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 27, 2021
The massive success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons obviously caught Nintendo by surprise, but it’s hard to understand why they didn’t immediately shift resources to creating new content when it was clear the game was a mega hit (most of the first-year content was probably planned pre-launch). There are also a lot of features from past AC games that are bafflingly still missing from New Horizons – where’s the café? Where are the minigames? Where are the dang gyroids? Oh, and I won’t even ask about the classic NES games. Here’s hoping we finally get some of this stuff later this year, but frankly, I’m keeping my expectations in check.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch. As mentioned above, the game’s next update drops on July 29.
