Animal Crossing New Horizons: Nintendo Plans to Crack Down on Black Market Trading

Published 06/17/2020, 12:27 AM EDT

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons released in March and millions flocked to the life simulation game. Players invest an incredible amount of time and effort to design and decorate their island paradises to their pleasing. Perhaps one of the most engaging aspects of the game is the numerous villagers that one can recruit for their island.

Audie, Dom, Judy, Marshall, Ozzie, and Raymond are some of the most popular and sought after villagers. It takes quite the time, as well as dedication, to populate their islands with such rare characters. Subsequently, some players within the New Horizons community have resorted to trading popular villagers for in-game currency and real money. Some of the villagers are cheap, while others come at a hefty cost.

As the demand for fan-favorite villagers kept growing, several websites dedicated to exchanging in-game items and villagers emerged. These websites have become a prominent part of the New Horizons trading culture. Some websites only use Bells or Nook Miles tickets for exchanges. Others use both, in-game as well as real currency. It is a typical black market of sorts, dedicated to Animal Crossing.

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However, Nintendo is very much aware of this and will start tackling the issue with gravity.

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Nintendo to penalize individuals for trading villagers in Animal Crossing New Horizons

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A Japanese news outlet, J-Cast, recently reported popular characters like Dom, Judy, Marshal, etc. being sold for real money. Apparently, those villagers were on sale for 5000 Yen ($47 approx). Consequently, J-Cast reached out to Nintendo for an interview about the real money trading going on for certain villagers.

A spokesperson told the news outlet that Nintendo is conscious of the villager exchange market activity. Nintendo asserted that it violates the gaming company’s Terms of Service. Moreover, individuals, or websites, who continue to indulge in this black-market trade shall be penalized.

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Nintendo aims to crack down on entities participating in such trading. Those who exchange in-game content for Bells or Nook Miles tickets might not face consequences, yet. There are no mentions of practices involving in-game currency in the report.

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For now, these actions against real money trading remain confined to Japan. Whether or not Nintendo takes similar strict measures beyond Japan is unknown at the moment. It is something that only time can tell.

Animal Crossing New Horizons has earned immense popularity and acclaim worldwide. However, popularity comes at a cost. In this case, it is unfair practices and illegal trade within the game’s community.

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Written by:

Souhardya Biswas

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Souhardya Biswas is an eSports writer for EssentiallySports. He joined the organisation in 2020, wanting to explore the sphere of professional eSports journalism. His passion for gaming started with titles like GTA San Andreas, Far Cry 2, Modern Warfare 2, FIFA 09, eventually developing an interest in Battle Royale games like PUBG and Apex Legends.
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