Animal Crossing Fan Asks For Adorable Villager Feature, Gets Official Reply From Nintendo

gamerant.com:

A fan of Animal Crossing: New Horizons who asked for players to be able to hug villagers has received a response from Nintendo. The popular life simulator features a variety of interactions between players and its many in-game characters.

Much like its series predecessors, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gives people the opportunity to live in a community populated by anthropomorphic animals known as villagers. Players of the 2020 Switch exclusive created by Nintendo EPD, the Japanese gaming giant's in-house development studio, can talk to residents, offer gifts, and fulfill specific requests, among other things. However, some Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans feel the title should have even more types of villager interactions.

In a recent post on Reddit, a user named SharkyAnimate revealed that they received a letter from Nintendo of America after they requested for Animal Crossing: New Horizons players to be given the ability to hug villagers. Nintendo did not outright reject the idea, which players have been asking for since the game came out, stating instead that SharkyAnimate's suggestion would be documented and considered. However, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is not expected to receive any new content in 2024 and beyond. Nintendo stopped releasing major updates for the title in 2021, and the game build has been at 2.0.6 since 2022.

All hope is not lost, however, as new interactions like hugs could be introduced in the next Animal Crossing game. While no details regarding the series' next entry have been revealed, there is a possibility that it could be a sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which laid down solid foundations and became the best-selling game in the entire franchise.

Even if it stopped receiving updates, the Animal Crossing series' latest game still features a lot of adorable villager interactions. Animal Crossing: New Horizons' villagers can do all sorts of unique things in front of the player, such as sing, fight, and exercise. Villagers will