A new “adult” themed island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons was recently deleted by Nintendo, and it had been there (undetected) for over five years. It is thought that Nintendo may be concerned about removing content that could potentially expose their younger audience to content that is not intended for them (ie., potential for sexual innuendo).
According to the creator of the Adult Island (churip_ccc), the Adult Island’s dream address was deleted without warning, thereby limiting users’ ability to find/access the Adult Island. Although the island did not have interactive locations, they visually represented many aspects of the adult world including love hotels, brothels, smoking areas and red-light districts; these visual representations are believed to have prompted Nintendo to take action as Animal Crossing has an ESRB “E” rating which indicates that the game is suitable for children.
Many perceive Animal Crossing to be a casual, social, family friendly experience where players create and share their experiences through the use of the game’s creative tools to represent many different types of environments such as; political, satirical and/or controversy-based environments. The fact that the island’s non-interactive visual content caused a violation of platform rules based on the game’s intended audience also presents a significant problem for developers.
It should be noted that this event is unique because although Nintendo has taken actions to prevent other forms of non-compliance (i.e. political/policy violating content) this is the first time they have taken action to remove content that was not interactive and was present on the platform for over five years.
The deletion of the Adult Island clearly demonstrates the challenges that game developers face when trying to balance creative freedom with the responsibilities associated with being a platform. While purely decorative content is unlikely to cause problems, it can still pose risks if it exposes younger audiences to themes that are outside of what the developers intended for the audience.
