Animal Crossing almost launched in the West as Animal Acres, but Nintendo said no

Localizing a video game is never easy, and back in 2002, bringing the uniquely Japanese social sim Dōbutsu no Mori to Western audiences was nothing short of a Herculean challenge. One of the biggest hurdles? Finding the right name.

According to former Nintendo of America localization manager Leslie Swan, the entire process took six months to a year. Speaking with Time Extension, Swan revealed that one proposed title was Animal Acres—a nod to the grid-based layout of the in-game towns. Ultimately, however, Nintendo rejected it in favor of the now-iconic Animal Crossing.

Swan recalled that even within Nintendo, the project raised eyebrows. The late Satoru Iwata, then head of corporate planning, laughed upon hearing the localization team was tackling Dōbutsu no Mori. Producer Takashi Tezuka also warned Swan’s group about the monumental task ahead: translating thousands of lines of dialogue, renaming characters, inventing new catchphrases, and reshaping heavily Japanese cultural references for Western players.

"I was in a meeting with Mr. Iwata and some other heads of the development group," Swan said. "We were just kind of going around saying, 'Here's what we're going to be working on,' and I just said, 'Well, Mr. Tezuka is asking us to work on Animal Forest.' And [Iwata] just burst out in laughter. He just laughed and said, 'I don't know how you're going to do this.' And it's true, just everything in that game was so specific to Japan."

Fast-forward to today, and the series is one of Nintendo’s crown jewels. Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched in 2020 and became a cultural phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic, recently receiving an update for the upcoming Switch 2. The franchise’s future remains uncertain, but for now, fans can even show their love by picking up officially licensed Animal Crossing Crocs—because why not bring your favorite villagers along wherever you go?