Animal Crossing: New Horizon's shocking neglect is one of the biggest missed opportunities ever

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was on an unprecedented track to stardom. After just a year of activity beginning in March of 2020, the game skyrocketed to the top of all kinds of lists.

New Horizons was the second-best selling Switch game of all-time, behind Mario Kart 8D, which came out almost a full three years earlier. As it stands now, it has sold over 32 million copies in such a short amount of time. It is mind-boggling that the game has died, or at the very least severely stagnated, after such an unprecedented run to the top.

Nintendo has shockingly ignored its most successful game for an inexplicable reason. E3, the biggest gaming presentation in the industry, saw no mention of the game. Instead, Nintendo spent the entire 40 minute showcase showing off Metroid, Mario Party, The Legend of Zelda and a bunch of indie games. Animal Crossing's no-show was arguably the biggest story of the entire event.

animal crossing is dead nintendo killed her #NintendoDirect

— han ~ (@hanlreynolds) June 15, 2021

Nintendo's shocking mismanagement of Animal Crossing

Nintendo completely ignored their biggest money-making game, and it is arguably going to be their biggest failure yet. The game has completely fallen off, and Nintendo is responsible. Without any semblance of an update, the player base has grown quite restless. While seasonal and monthly updates come around, they are always scheduled and don't really give any players anything to look forward to.

Animal Crossing. Image via Nintendo Life

Players have been clamoring for a big update for a long time, hoping for several different things. Players theorized about a Legend of Zelda crossover, much like the Super Mario crossover earlier this year. For Zelda's 35th anniversary, it made perfect sense. They also theorized about the potential addition of Brewster, a fan favorite villager who has been notably absent for the first time in New Horizons. New items, new gameplay and other things were all requested and essentially denied thus far.

Animal Crossing x Super Mario. Image via Daily Express

Nintendo assured fans shortly after E3 that the future is planned. Animal Crossing games have long shelf lives, with New Leaf coming 7 years prior to New Horizons. Still, talk is cheap, and there's no indication of what that future is or when it's coming. What was once their biggest game with the most promising future has now become a glaring missed opportunity and a shocking failure. Nintendo may not be hurt that much by it, but the players certainly are.

Animal crossing player who just wants a update or announcement.....just anything at this point.

— A v a 🦋 (@avasgardens) July 17, 2021

Is this the biggest failure in gaming history?