The only thing that could rile up Animal Crossing fans more than a lack of news about New Horizons is bad news about cloud saves. Fans are getting ready to invest a ridiculous number of hours into the series’ upcoming Switch debut, meaning each town will be a precious labour of love.
Which is why, understandably, people are frustrated and terrified of losing their future islands in New Horizons with news spreading that the game won’t support Nintendo Switch Online’s cloud save backup feature. The panic is so much among the Animal Crossing community that a Change.org petition has been started in the hopes that Nintendo would change their decision.
Nintendo have since released a statement today clarifying the issue, which has been roughly translated by a user on Resetera. The statement as translated reads that “This software does not support the ‘cloud save backup’ feature in Nintendo Switch Online. We are planning to have a save backup function for this software, available to Nintendo Switch Online users. Schedule of this feature is unconfirmed. We will keep you updated”.
Some other translations state that Nintendo is only “considering adding this function”, so hopefully they will go ahead with it. The statement goes on to say that you will only be able to use this feature if your system is damaged and you will also not be able to transfer your save file via either the ‘migrate user’ or ‘save data migration’ functions. This means that, unless something changes, your island will be forever trapped on one system.
With the complexities of life and a portable system, this is not ideal or even OK. Hopefully the nature of this proxy backup will make things clearer in the near future, but for now consider carefully where you start your save file.
Animal Crossing New Horizons releases exclusively on Nintendo Switch on March 20.
When Eleanore isn’t trying to figure out how the Earth works she’s trying to pay off her loan in Animal Crossing, complete her Pokedex or finishing one more RPG or platformer. She is a lover of great characters, cute or creative art styles and awesome game soundtracks.
