Nintendo Reportedly Removing Hacked Dream Islands In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Earlier this week, Nintendo launched the second Summer Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which allows players to upload their own personal “Dream Islands” for other players to visit.

Recently, many players have reported that Nintendo has been issuing takedowns on islands that contain obviously hacked content or otherwise “violate the Nintendo Account User Agreement”. The affected players receive notifications from Nintendo explaining that their island has been taken down, but there otherwise do not seem to be any further consequences.

Presumably, these takedowns are a consequence of the “report island” feature Nintendo included with the update, which lists “cheating and hacking” as an option. Hacks that have been speculated as causes for a takedown includes the popular star fragment tree hack, and other hacks which make similar odd changes to the game.

Although Nintendo’s intent is obviously to discourage hacking the game in general, some have argued that hacked dream islands are ultimately harmless, as players cannot take items back with them or interact with the island in any meaningful way beyond just looking around. Whether or not Nintendo will consider relaxing their policies on Dream Islands or perhaps include an appeal system remains to be seen.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.