Four Reasons Why Disney’s Ambitious Project Spells Danger for Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons

When it comes to online simulation titles, Nintendo seems to be having a good hold on the majority of the players with its top hit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, it seems like it won’t be the case moving forward. Because there’s a solid competitor, in the works, coming soon to take its thrown.

Disney recently unveiled its upcoming, ambitious life-sim title Dreamlight Valley, based on the iconic characters of its catalog along with Pixar. And going by the footage for the game so far, it looks set to pose a massive challenge to Nintendo’s ACNH.

Dreamlight Valley’s unique ways of dominating Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons

For those who missed its reveal, somehow, Dreamlight Valley is an upcoming life-sim adventure game from Disney. comprising of rich quests, it will offer exploration and different engaging activities to the players. Both old and new Disney and Pixar characters will feature in this project.

Based on the initial impressions, at least for now, this IP is set to take on Nintendo in the online simulation genre. As is already known, the popularity of ACNH is unmatched in this category at the moment. But with Dreamlight Valley as a future option, many players may think twice about sticking with Nintendo’s game.

The first reason for this change could be the way the makers of Disney’s title are handling it. Going by the footage so far, it’s clear that Gameloft, the developer, is going to offer a much better gameplay design than Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Especially when it comes to the overall mechanics and presentation.

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Then there is the aspect of creation itself which Dreamlight Valley has understood very well. The game will provide tons of infinite options to the players in stylizing their own areas, or in other words the biomes. Whereas, in Animal Crossing, there’s just the island that you can stay on and customize.

In Disney’s game, there will be a scope of having different biomes. It will be depending on different characters such as Moana, Lightyear, or Mickey Mouse. What you design will directly affect what you get, unlike ACNH.

The third reason why Disney could beat Nintendo with its game is the aspect of NPCs. Yes, they are quite important in a simulation game. Moreover, Dreamlight Valley will make it crucial for players to have more interaction with them in order to have interesting outcomes. This is not the case with ACNH at the moment as it offers only limited conversations with the NPCs.

Lastly, there’s the aspect of replayability and repeatability where Nintendo could lose out to Disney. Granted that it has made ACNH great but after a time it might become boring for some players. And that’s where Dreamlight Valley’s flexibility and fun-centric gameplay design might edge out its Nintendo counterpart.

The newly announced simulation game from Disney will start offering Early Access this summer. It will be available for PC and Xbox Game Pass for the time being. Upon its official release, it will also arrive on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.

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What are your thoughts on the next ACNH competitor? Also, what are your own expectations about it as player who likes to enjoy simulation-based titles? Let us know in the comments.