Given that events and other content changes to Animal Crossing: New Horizons are provided via online updates from Nintendo, the game will largely depend on continual support from the company to stay playable. How long could this support last, though, and what will happen to New Horizons if it's eventually discontinued?
New Horizons was criticized following its launch for being relatively lacking in terms of features, at least compared to previous games in the Animal Crossing series. For example, returning characters and structures, such as the Observatory and Brewster's Roost, have been missing from the game since its 2020 release. In addition, content updates since then have oftentimes been viewed as less than substantial, particularly among longtime Animal Crossing fans.
Summer 2021's update, the most recent to New Horizons as of early August, was especially disappointing considering the recent lack of major changes as well as the standard set by last summer's two waves of updates, both of which added new features as well as returning characters to the game. However, perhaps partially in response to the backlash, Nintendo promised additional New Horizons content in the near future. For the moment, no specific timeline has been provided for when that could be, though it seems likely that it will occur sometime this fall or perhaps during the 2021 holiday season.
It's unclear what exactly new content updates will entail, and whether Nintendo plans to add more new features or simply bring back returning elements from prior Animal Crossing games. New Horizons has already deviated significantly from the rest of the franchise in quite a few ways. For example, terraforming, DIY crafting, and true farming are all firsts for the series. Another possibility is that of island expansions, as potentially previewed in a recent New Horizons leak. However, additional changes could be relatively small-scale as well. Holidays and other special events in New Horizons rotate in and out with each new update; the Fireworks Show came back in late July 2021, and this holiday season will likely see the return of the Halloween update in some form. Aside from minor deviations, these events are often the same as they were in previous years.
Either way, support for New Horizons will seemingly be continued for quite some time to come. The game was a major success for Nintendo, and thus far there's been no discussion of upcoming sequels or other continuations to the Animal Crossing series. The fact that minor updates are already being provided in place of major changes seems to indicate that it would be entirely feasible for support to continue for several years, and Nintendo even confirmed in early 2020 that there are no plans to discontinue New Horizons as of yet. Although this doesn't provide much of a specific timeline, it at least promises that there's still plenty of time to enjoy both new and returning features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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