2020 was such a weird year and we’re getting out of it soon. But to look back at this year, we’re all going to remember the coronavirus health pandemic outbreak. It’s like something out of the movies, where in a very short period, all of our lives changed. We’re doing things drastically different today than what we were doing before 2020. With this health pandemic outbreak, there was one industry that proved to be a popular go-to for an escape.
Video games have been an escape for people from the start. It’s a great medium for storytelling and entertainment. That was something a lot of people needed during 2020 and for a lot of consumers out there, video games in 2020 might have been their first real step into the entertainment medium. We’ve seen quite a few issues with consoles, accessories, and hardware being out of stock. For Nintendo, a good part of that came from a massive video game launch.
Animal Crossing is a big franchise and the latest installment, Animal Crossing New Horizons, launched earlier this year. As a result, players were having a tough time getting their hands not only on a copy from certain retailers but even the console itself. It’s proven to be a fantastic little game that players can log into daily and enjoy which this particular installment had already surpassed Nintendo’s expectations.
“Well beyond expectations” is, I think, the simplest way to put it in. I don’t know that we expected it to be truly the cultural touchpoint that it became across the globe. And what we were pleased to see is how it redefined how people thought about video games and how they incorporated it into their lives.”
Doug Bowser
Recently, Polygon had the chance to speak with Nintendo of America president, Doug Bower. During the conversation, Animal Crossing New Horizons came up and it was revealed by Doug Bowser that Animal Crossing New Horizons‘ success was well beyond expectations. Doug continued to reflect on the amount of user-generated content that came out from this game and the fact that so many people were able to connect online from it.
One thing is for sure, it does look like content and updates will continue for Animal Crossing New Horizons for the foreseeable future. We’re not sure just when the next installment for this franchise will land, but it doesn’t seem that Nintendo is having any trouble keeping players logging into New Horizons regularly right now.