It’s an exciting time to be anAnimal Crossingfan. With the upcoming release ofAnimal Crossing:New Horizonsand anew Switch coming outthemed after the game, what’s not to look forward to? Well, losing your save for starters. Nintendo has already made it painfully clear thatthe newestAnimal Crossinggame will be given the same treatment asSplatoon 2- no cloud saves. But this time around there’s a catch.
If you pay for Nintendo Switch Online, Nintendo is going to have a feature planned so you can back up your saves inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons. What it is, we don’t know. In fact, Nintendo may not even know yet. Thestatement they gaveon their Japanese site is vague and seems like it was made in response to players asking about save backups. Here’s Nintendo’s statement, translated from the site:
There’s a lot to glean from that statement. First off, it’s clear that the folks at Nintendo aren’t exactly sure how they’re going to pull this off. What’s being promised here is, in essence, cloud save storage. But what’s raising the most questions from me is that last sentence. It doesn’t seem like Nintendo knows when this feature is even going to be available, meaning it’s a brand new concept, not something they’ve been working on forAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsfrom the start. It also means that we might not even see save backups when the game launches. No set date is given, and there’s no mention of the game’s launch date. We’ll get this feature when it’s “finalized,” meaning as soon as Nintendo deems it ready for launch: that could mean anywhere from launch day to months or years down the line.
Multiple Switch titles currentlydon’t support cloud saves, including a large number ofNintendo’s own titles. That includes the previously mentionedSplatoon 2,Pokemon Sword & ShieldandPokemon Let’s Go Eevee! & Pikachu!. Nintendo’s reasoning for restricting cloud saves from these titles is the ability for them to be exploited by cheaters.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonslaunches March 20, andyou can pre-order the upcoming title here on Amazon.
