When Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched in 2020, it became a cultural phenomenon. Released at a moment when the world was grappling with isolation and uncertainty, the game offered players a gentle, customizable haven to escape into. Yet, one of Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ most surprising features didn’t come from the developers at all. It came from the players themselves. Out of necessity and passion, fans built an online economy to trade villagers, furniture, and rare items, most notably through sites like Nookazon. This phenomenon illustrated not just the demand for customization, but the glaring absence of a formal in-game trading system.
Four years later, Animal Crossing still lacks a built-in solution to one of its most player-driven features. Nookazon is too popular a concept for Nintendo to pass up. If Nintendo wants to take the next installment of the series to the next level, it’s time to look to an unlikely place for inspiration: LittleBigPlanet. This quirky PlayStation franchise could provide a roadmap for integrating community interaction into Animal Crossing in a way that feels natural and empowering, rather than risky or externally dependent.
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The Rise of Animal Crossing's Unofficial Market
The moment New Horizons gave players more control than ever before over their island layouts, fashion, and even villager rosters, it created a demand for specific items and characters. Many players wanted Raymond, a smug cat with glasses and heterochromia, because he was new and rare. Others desperately sought particular furniture to match their aesthetic: maybe the perfect kotatsu for a Zen-themed area, or a crescent moon chair for their witchy garden. This demand led to the rise of fan-run trading platforms.
Nookazon, a community-driven website, essentially became a virtual Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for Animal Crossing. Players posted listings for furniture, materials, villagers, and even services like weeding or landscaping. And while it was wildly successful, it also came with the frustrations of third-party logistics: time zone coordination, accidental ghosting, or worse, scams that soured the Animal Crossing experience. Nintendo’s lack of an official solution left a lot of potential untapped, not just in convenience, but in creating a new layer of community storytelling and play. LittleBigPlanet offers a fantastic blueprint for how that could work.
What LittleBigPlanet Got Right
Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet wasn’t just about platforming; it was about making, sharing, and remixing -- and most importantly, it gave creators the spotlight they deserved. The in-game interface allowed players to create detailed user profiles, follow one another, and favorite levels. The best content rose to the top of the front page, treating the game's fan creators like artists and influencers, and all of it happened within the game itself: no extra forums or spreadsheets needed. (Which only adds to why the 2024 shutdown of LittleBigPlanet3 servers was so tragic.)
In Animal Crossing, a similar approach could work beautifully. The key takeaway is to make the social experience an integral part of the game’s design, rather than something that exists outside of it. Players already have creative identities tied to their perfect Animal Crossing island design, home decor, fashion, and even catchphrases, so it's time to serve that demand with an official framework.
An In-Game Nookazon That Feels Familiar
Let’s say the next Animal Crossing introduces a trading post or market in the next installment of the franchise. This wouldn’t be a boring shop menu or a sterile interface. Instead, it would function like an interactive plaza or app on the NookPhone. Players could open a stall in their town or create an online profile tied to their character, or perhaps, they could travel to a place like Harv’s Island. This hypothetical stall/app/location could have an interface that shows:
- Top traded items
- Wishlists
- Recent trades
- Villagers currently in boxes
- Player rating (based on reliability)
- Aesthetic tags (e.g., cottagecore, coquette, spooky)
It could feel like Etsy meets Instagram, where players curate their little brand. Perhaps players could follow others to receive alerts when someone lists a rare item or is trading a dreamie. There could even be algorithmic innovations, leading to the player receiving item recommendations based on their search or transaction history.
By building a system like this in-game, Nintendo would do more than just streamline trades; it would also enhance the overall gaming experience. Nintendo would encourage players to build creative reputations, just like LittleBigPlanet’s best creators did. Suddenly, being a great trader becomes as exciting as having a five-star island. In the absence of a new LittleBigPlanet, Animal Crossing could truly take home gold.
Safety and Structure Would Make a Huge Difference
One reason Nintendo might have been wary of enabling open trading is the potential for negative interactions. However, it has already taken steps in other games, such as Splatoon and Mario Maker, before its shutdown to limit messaging while still allowing collaboration.
A LittleBigPlanet-inspired model wouldn’t require text-based messaging or free-form chat. Instead, it could use structured forms: pre-set trade offers, “want to visit” buttons for when it’s time to seal the deal by traveling to another Animal Crossing island, and a built-in approval system. Nintendo could also implement temporary blacklists or player blocking to maintain safety, all without breaking the gentle, cozy tone Animal Crossing is known for. This system would also curb scams, hoarding, and gatekeeping, problems that run rampant in the current external market, by keeping trades transparent and traceable.
It’s a Natural Next Step for Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing is, at its core, a game about connection, and in New Horizons, that connection extended across global communities in entirely new ways. There’s a reason New Horizons is still achieving sales goals almost five years after its launch. The demand for online economies and item sharing was not a fringe request; it was at the center of many players’ experiences. That’s why an official, in-game system that supports trading, sharing, and reputation-building makes so much sense.
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Looking Ahead to the Next Generation of Animal Crossing
As rumors swirl about the next Animal Crossing title and what the successor on the Nintendo Switch 2 might bring, there's no better time to rethink the social infrastructure of the game. Instead of a reliance on chatrooms and Discord servers, imagine a world where every trade, interaction, and bit of self-expression could happen natively within the game. Whether a player is a seasoned turnip trader or just someone trying to get that elusive antique wardrobe, the dream is the same: Animal Crossing should evolve to support the communities it has already inspired.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- March 20, 2020
- ESRB
- Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
- Expansions
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
