“Upset Gamer’s Daughter Can’t Play Animal Crossing Anymore” – A Parent’s Perspective

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When Nintendo closes its servers

If you follow video game news, you may know that Nintendo recently caused controversy by making a radical decision. Indeed, since April 8 (just a few weeks), Big N has decided to simply close the online servers of its Wii U and Nintendo 3DS consoles. Consequently, it is no longer possible to benefit from any Internet-dependent functionality on these two consoles from the Japanese firm. While most players have switched to the Nintendo Switch for a while, this is still not the case for everyone, and a few people have therefore found themselves in a lot of trouble.

As if to honor the service one last time, for example, some players took out their Wii U a little before the servers closed to play a few games of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The opportunity to make some memories with the last resistance fighters before that is no longer possible, all in an end-of-the-world atmosphere. Other players, for their part, took this opportunity as a challenge: that of completing all the levels of Super Mario Maker before the game loses all its interest. A challenge which was finally met and which even pushed one of the creators of Mario to speak up to congratulate them. But if there is one game whose server shutdown is likely to make people unhappy, it is Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

The dramatic consequences of this decision

Before the Animal Crossing license came back in force with New Horizons on Nintendo Switch a few years ago, the reference episode was none other than New Leaf. Released on Nintendo 3DS in June 2013 (more than 10 years ago), this title continued to make happy all those who had not yet upgraded to the most recent version and who preferred the comfort of their good old two-screen portable console. Among the most avid fans, we found for example the young daughter of American player and journalist Jeff Gerstmann. Recently, the latter told how her daughter suddenly learned that she would no longer be able to use a feature that was dear to her in Animal Crossing: New Leaf:

She reads better than she thinks, but she doesn't know how to read everything yet. So sometimes she comes to me for help. She asked me “What is that?” and I look at the console, and the top screen shows the dream building that she is lying in to go into a dream. And on the bottom screen there is an error message that says “This service is no longer available, thank you.” Shit… Right?

I had to explain to her that she wasn't going to be able to use dreams anymore, and she burst into tears. And I was like, “Holy shit, fucking Nintendo, you bastards.”

As a reminder, the dreams Animal Crossing games allow players to visit other players' worlds. A particularly appreciated feature which adds spice to the game and which allows you to discover new things and draw inspiration for your own world. At any rate, it was in any case an element of Animal Crossing: New Leaf that Jeff Gerstmann's 3-year-old daughter seemed to really appreciate, and which she will have to do without forever. A few weeks ago, Animal Crossing: New Leaf players who had thought about it organized themselves to pass everything necessary between them in order to be able to continue playing solo in optimal conditions. We hope that Jeff Gerstmann's daughter recovers from her loss as quickly as possible and that she manages to find another way to have at least as much fun as with New Leaf's dreams.