Next New Animal Crossing Game “Hasn’t Been Decided Yet”

The E3 preview of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and announcement of Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival were met with some…mixed reactions. While the games themselves aren’t bad on their own (even if the latter essentially requires purchase of a bunch of plastic toys to enjoy), many fans, including myself, were hoping for a full Animal Crossing installment for the Wii U. Unfortunately, it looks like fans will have to wait awhile before a new adventure with their favorite village animals.

In an interview with VentureBeat, Animal Crossing director Aya Kyogoku said a lot of interesting and positive things about Animal Crossing and amiibo compatibility. It seemed like the conversation might be leading into a discussion about using amiibos in a full Animal Crossing title sometime soon. But the conversation took a different turn:

"GamesBeat: What will be next for the series? Another spin-off, or a full-blown Animal Crossing?Kyogoku: Obviously, as you said, we’re in full development for Happy Home Designer and Amiibo Festival. We’ve been focusing on that. When we think about Animal Crossing, including the main Animal Crossing series, as a development team we’re always thinking about what to do for the next installment. Whether that’ll be a cutout and an expansion of a certain feature or a full-blown Animal Crossing game, that hasn’t been decided yet, but as a team we’re constantly thinking about what we can do for the series in the future."

Well, there it is. “Hasn’t been decided yet.” Which means there probably isn’t one in the works currently at all. As logical as it would be to release a full Animal Crossing game on the Wii U–the best console they’ve had so far for online connectivity and sharing with friends and family, and after the success of New Leaf…no true Animal Crossing game.

Unless they get the development team rolling sometime soon, it’s not likely we’ll see a new console Animal Crossing until the NX, if even then. Perhaps they’ll be sticking to handheld from now on, which would be a shame, because City Folk was great for its time.

For now, we’ll just have to make due with amiibos, Mario Party rip-offs, and rearranging furniture.

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