Animal Crossing: New Horizons Doesn't Support Cloud Saves, Here's Why
The upcoming Animal Crossing game does not support Switch Online's cloud save function to prevent players from multiplying their money and items.
Back at E3 2019, Nintendo revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be one of the few Switch games not to support Nintendo Switch Online's cloud save function. According to the company, the reason for this is to prevent players from cheating, and now director Aya Kyogoku has elaborated further on the impact it would have had on the game.
Speaking to IGN, Kyogoku explained that New Horizons does not support cloud saves because players could exploit that feature to multiply their bells or items. "It messes with the economy of Animal Crossing by getting the items or bells as much as they want," Kyogoku explained.
While New Horizons does not support cloud saves, Nintendo will give players some way to recover their data in certain instances. Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will be able to recover their save data from the server should their Nintendo Switch become lost or damaged. During last month's Animal Crossing-focused Direct, a disclaimer said data could only be recovered one time, but that caveat has since been removed from the video, so it's unclear if there will be a limit.
New Horizons also does not allow players to transfer their save data to another Switch console. According to producer Hisashi Nogami, this restriction isn't to prevent players from cheating, but rather a consequence of the Switch's hardware. However, a method to transfer your save data is in the works.
"In terms of data transfer and moving, this has nothing to do with cheating," Nogami said. "Switch hardware and Switch's systems have restrictions when transferring special data like Animal Crossing data because it's a little bit complex. In order to address those concerns, we are trying to create a transfer system that's special to Animal Crossing."
Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches at 12 AM ET on March 20, and the game has gotten an update before it even releases. You can read our thoughts on the life sim in our Animal Crossing: New Horizons review-in-progress. You can also see what pre-order bonuses are available in our New Horizons pre-order guide.
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