Animal Crossing fans are a passionate bunch, and thus it should come as no surprise that they have started a petition about a missing feature in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is set to hit Nintendo Switch next year. What's causing all the stink? Well, Animal Crossing: New Horizons won't be compatible with cloud backup saves. Why? Because Nintendo doesn't want players using them to manipulate time and cheat the system. It's a pretty odd reason, and it's a reason that isn't sitting well with some fans.

In direct response to this missing feature, fans have started a petition that pleads with Nintendo to add cloud saves to the game. The petition is actually a couple months old, but it's starting to make the rounds again, and currently has over 8,000 signatures.

The petition argues that there's a lot of risks that come with no cloud saves, and that this is worsened by the fact that many players dump hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours into each new installment. And this is true. As mentioned above, Animal Crossing fans are legit. Some of these risks include losing a portable console, the console breaking, and save date being lost, and with no cloud saves, all of these will result in a potentially major loss to progress.

"All in all, we believe that, when considering the amount of time many players devote to games in this franchise, the fact that Animal Crossing is a real-time game (e.g. losing a year’s worth of game progression would need another whole year to regain it) and under the prospect of new issues appearing regarding the Switch’s data storage, there should be at least some way to ensure that players will be able to recover their save data in case of any mishaps," concludes the petition."

Personally, I think this an odd call by Nintendo. Not only is Animal Crossing not a competitive game (so who cares if someone cheats), but why would it let the actions of few negatively impact the rest who follow the "rules?"

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is set to release next year on March 20. It will be available via the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch only. For more news, media, and information on the upcoming exclusive, be sure to check out all of our previous coverage of it by clicking right here.