Sign up to FREE email alerts from Daily Star - Gaming Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

After fans were left waiting years for a new dose of Tom Nook and friends, Nintendo finally revealed Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Switch during their E3 Nintendo Direct.

With a bright aesthetic, island-based gameplay and the addition of an in-depth crafting system, the game initially looked like a dream come true. There was even a big local co-op announcement !

Unfortunately, subsequent information has revealed that a huge feature will not be present in the game. Cloud Saves will be missing from New Horizons, casting a dampener on what otherwise looks like an excellent experience.

In an interview with French news site Gamekult Aya Kyogoku (New Horizon’s director) and Higashi Nogami (producer) revealed:

‘New Horizons will not be compatible with cloud backups to avoid manipulating time, which remains one of the founding concepts of the series.’



Animal Crossing works on a play daily basis, where gamers slowly build up their town by dedicating huge amounts of time to the game. Because Animal Crossing is a life simulation game there is no true conclusion, and therefore fans can pour hundreds of hours into their personalised town.

Nintendo has announced that they have not included Cloud Saves because they want to eliminate the temptation for players to manipulate time, cheating to collect more materials for example in order to speed up their progress.

But many players aren’t satisfied with this reasoning when the negatives of dropping Cloud Saves massively outweigh the positives.

Cloud Saves being present means that, if you were to lose your Switch, break your console or experience corrupted data, then you can still resume your game progress from an online back-up without any setbacks.



With no Cloud Save compatibility in Animal Crossing New Horizons, hundreds of hours of gameplay could be at risk. Imagine pouring your heart into building your prefect town only to have it all lost because Nintendo didn’t allow Cloud Saves like they have done with many of their other titles.

Fans desperate for this not to happen have gone as far as starting a petition that currently has over 13,000 signatures in an attempt to get Nintendo to reverse their decision. The petition explains that:

‘Animal Crossing is a franchise known and beloved by its fans for its wholesome gameplay and long-term playability.’ The original poster goes on to say, ‘Many players spend hundreds - often up to thousands of hours - on one of these games.’

For a game like Animal Crossing, it makes sense to have a secure backup available. Since the game is a relaxing life-sim there should be little concern from Nintendo about needing to stamp out cheating. It’s not like there’s an Animal Crossing competitive eSports scene to worry about!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will release on the 20th March 2020. Therefore, it would seem like there is still time for Nintendo to change their minds, or at least bring in Cloud Saves as an early DLC update.

Who knows, perhaps the petition will be successful!

For everything on Animal Crossing: New Horizons as it’s revealed, stay tuned to Daily Star Gaming.