Can more characters help Nintendo revive Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Villagers are one of the primary attractions in any Animal Crossing title. There's no point denying their importance, as they make the game a lot more interesting and interactive. These anthropomorphic characters are what build the community on any Animal Crossing player's island. They create conversation with the player, and can also be very useful for DIY recipes, tips and also give many gifts to the player. All in all, the title would not not be the same without its villagers.

The Animal Crossing franchise currently has over 400 villagers across the series. Out of them, 394 have appeared in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Image via Inverse)

Lately, New Horizons has not been doing too well, and the community is beginning to lose faith in the game. According to players, the game is getting very repetitive and therefore boring for them. This brings forward a very interesting question: can newer characters help Nintendo revive New Horizons?

Why is Animal Crossing: New Horizons dying?

The Animal Crossing community strongly believes that the game is dying a slow death at this point. This can be attributed to multiple factors. First, the lack of updates and fresh content in the game is getting very tiring for veteran players of the game. While the return of older events can count as being inclusive for newer players of the game, it gets very boring for older players, giving them no reason to stick around.

Second, players had a lot of hopes regarding a big update announcement from Nintendo during E3 2021. However, the developer's silence regarding their million dollar franchise was baffling and disheartening to many players. It even led to speculation that Nintendo has moved on from New Horizons and might be working on a new title altogether.

Animal Crossing has a rather vast roster of villagers, each with their own unique characteristics. Clearly, Nintendo has a lot of obvious problems to work on before they introduce newer characters, since a lack of characters in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is quite obviously not the main problem here.

Nintendo should aim to release newer events and seasonal items that can attract more players to the community, old and new alike.

Disclaimer: This article contains the opinions of the author.