Nintendo announced at its September 23 Direct that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will get an update in November and an Animal Crossing Direct in October.
While Nintendo is holding out more details until next month, fans of the franchise probably noticed a very big clue about what’s to come: fan-favorite NPC Brewster.
Brewster first joined the series in Animal Crossing: Wild World where he had a café called The Roost in the basement of the museum where K.K. Slider would play his songs. the very brief look we got showed an entry to The Roost in the existing New Horizons museum. A final image also showed an illustration of Brewster followed by the words “and more!”
Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March 2020 amid the first wave of worldwide lockdowns due to covid-19. In the year since, the game has gotten a steady stream of updates, mainly tied to seasonal events and holiday celebrations. Nintendo said it’s working on new content for the game over the summer, which got fans excited for more than just regurgitated holiday patches.
And New Horizons has been a massive success for Nintendo, handily outselling other franchise entries and ranking among the best-selling Switch titles overall.
But things haven’t been all sunny among the Animal Crossing fandom as of late. At launch, many players were simultaneously excited for the new features like terraforming and outdoor item placement, while being disappointed that core elements like holidays and certain characters were nowhere to be found.
A year on, lots is still missing, especially for anyone familiar with previous Animal Crossing games. Brewster and his café have been absent until now, Resetti has been relegated to rescue duty, Gyroids are missing, and Kapp’n and his island-dwelling family haven’t shown up once despite New Horizons taking place among various islands. The main Nook’s Cranny shop only has one early-game upgrade despite each of the older games featuring multiple changes with increasing requirements to unlock. People are also still hoping for a number of quality-of-life improvements like bulk crafting or pulling supplies directly from storage.
Players were able to snag some new villagers and items with the Sanrio amiibo pack, but that required an extra purchase, and many packs quickly sold out. Animal Crossing certainly isn’t short of fans, but it seems that the honeymoon period is decidedly over. One hopes that today’s Nintendo Direct news might signal a renewed interest in keeping the game going and fans happy.