In June 2019, Nintendo announced that it was pushing the release date for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, an eagerly-awaited game for its Switch console, to March 20, 2020. The company asked fans to be patient. It had no way of knowing that when the game showed up—amid a worldwide pandemic that left millions of people worldwide stuck at home and more than a little stressed out—its timing could hardly have felt more perfect.
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, every character is a cheery little animal except players, who are represented as cheery little humans. They inhabit cozy islands and live leisurely, low-key lives that play out in real time, rather than at the breakneck pace of most video games. There is no explicit goal, and the game never ends. Crucially, support for Nintendo’s online service allows players to visit friends who are also playing the game and hang out—a social activity that, during lockdown, made the game’s fantasy islands feel more normal in some ways…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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