Are Updates Required to Keep Interest in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The summer update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons came at just the right time for myself. To date, without time traveling of course, I had collected all the fish, found all the bugs, and purchased a new piece of artwork from Redd every time he was at my island. I had played, replayed, and then played again the fishing and bug tournaments, all in hopes of getting 300 points and that gold trophy. I had breeded and obtained every flower in the game (outside that elusive Blue Rose), and I had a five star island. What’s a man to do?

Heading into the July update, my time with New Horizons had dipped considerably. While I was still logging in every day, I was spending less and less time. If I didn’t get all 4 fossils, I didn’t really care – I had them all anyways. If I didn’t find the money rock or the money tree, I didn’t really care – I have 30 million bells in the bank. Everything I could do in Animal Crossing to pass the time was appealing to me anymore. Sharks were no longer that exciting, and outside watering to get gold roses and (hopefully) a blue rose, I didn’t have much to do. 10 minutes and I was done.

And may be that’s how the majority of my days in Animal Crossing will play out over the next few months, with longer periods of play spattered in whenever an update roles out. It took me all of two days to obtain every sea creature currently available in the Summer update, and while I played significantly on the 3rd and 4th of July, I’m back into my regular routine. Log on quick, water a few things, and log off.

So I ask again – are updates required? Right now, as I work towards tat blue rose, I’ll say they aren’t necessary on a consistent basis, although I fully expect another major update to roll out around September (knowing we have more in store for us this month). Nintendo knows that New Horizons has legs, and now they need to do a good job of timing these updates accordingly – hopefully, not on top of other Nintendo releases like the upcoming Paper Mario: The Origami King.

Do you think the game needs updates consistently, or a few each year?