Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been rated by the Australian Classification Board Video Game Rating System.
Like most countries, Australia has its own system for rating the content of video games. Occasionally, these Australian Classification Board Video Game Rating System pages will reveal something new or interesting about a game, although that isn't always the case.
When it comes to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, most of the details on the Australian Classification page are about what you would expect. There are six categories considered: Themes, Violence, Language, Drug Use, Nudity, and Sex. Themes has a "G" rating — the lowest rating denoting a "very mild impact", and the other five categories don't even blip on the radar. So if you were hoping for wild beach with sex and drugs, you're probably out of luck on that one.
As we already know, the newest Animal Crossing game is going to have multiplayer functionality. That got the typical "online interactivity" label of consumer advice, meaning that the content of the game can potentially change when other people are playing online.
Most of this is right about what we expected, but there is one tidbit buried in there that's a little more intriguing.
Will We See Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Other Platforms?
Out of all of the information on the Australian Classification Board Video Game Rating System page, one particular point stands out: the "Media type". In this case, it's listed as "Multi-Platform" rather than just Nintendo Switch.
This could be interpreted as the newest Animal Crossing game coming to multiple systems, but it's a little more complex than that. As best as I can tell, Australia's equivalent of the ESRB is a bit of a mess. To wit: it says that The Last of Us Remastered is exclusive to the PlayStation 3 when it's, in fact, exclusive to the PlayStation 4. Before you think this might mean that New Horizons and the mobile game Pocket Camp may be getting "Multi-Platform" compatibility that idea has already been shot down. New Horizons Director Aya Kyogoku spoke with IGN in an interview back in June about them being separate titles.
We want to make sure to separate the gameplay because we feel they’re two different types of games
But hey, we could be wrong. Maybe we will see New Horizons come out on other consoles. One way or another, it's almost certainly coming to the Nintendo Switch first on March 20, 2020.
Do you think Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be a multiplatform title? How do you think this game will stack up against previous entries in the franchise? Let us know in the comments below!