For millions of players, Animal Crossing is a daily ritual. Since its 2020 release, the cozy life-sim has grown into a cultural phenomenon, with players designing villages, celebrating virtual holidays, and even keeping handwritten logs of their digital routines.
Featured VideoFor some, these islands aren’t some heartless pixels. They’re deeply personal, carefully built communities that feel like a second home.
That’s why rumors about Nintendo potentially “bricking” older Switch consoles with the arrival of the upcoming Switch 2 have some fans worried, especially those who’ve spent years on their islands.
TikToker begs Nintendo not to “brick” older Switches
TikTok user LidzMcCoy (@lidzmccoy) posted a video on Aug. 19, 2025, making a heartfelt plea to Nintendo after seeing speculation online about older Switch systems becoming unusable.
Advertisement“Hey Nintendo, I’m seeing some squirrely little rumors about the newer updates bricking older Switches,” she said.
Looking directly at the camera, she warned that if anything happened to her grandmother’s console, it would be devastating. Her video has racked up over 15,000 likes in three days.
Her 82-year-old grandmother, she explained, plays Animal Crossing every single day. “Her Animal Crossing island is her whole life,” she continued.
“She gets up every morning and goes all around her island and says hi to every villager and has their birthdays written down. She has a whole notebook for it. This is her life.”
AdvertisementThen came her warning to Nintendo: “If you break her Switch, I’m gonna come find you in Japan. There will be consequences for your actions, okay?”
What does “bricking” a console mean?
In tech terms, “bricking” refers to when a device becomes completely unusable—basically turning into a brick.
With the Switch 2 expected to arrive in 2025 or 2026, fans on gaming forums have expressed concern that Nintendo could disable or restrict older Switches through software updates.
AdvertisementWhile there’s no evidence yet that Nintendo plans to deliberately shut down older systems, the fear stems from the company’s history of sunsetting online services.
@lidzmccoy #nintendoswitch #nintendo #acnh ♬ original sound – LidzMcCoy
In the comments under the video, people rallied around both LidzMcCoy and her grandmother.
Advertisement“If my Switch gets bricked I will never buy anything Nintendo ever again,” one user wrote.
Another added, “I will never support a company that unalives the older devices. I paid for it, I get to use it forever.”
Others echoed the same sentiment: “If they brick my Switch I’m not buying a Switch 2. I’ll never buy a Nintendo console again.”
And one person summed it up simply: “LEAVE NANA’S ISLAND ALONE NINTENDO!!!”
AdvertisementThe Daily Dot has reached out to LidzMcCoy for more information.
“la mia forma di autismo è cercare la spilla di Kuromi nell’ufficio di Zelenskyy ogni volta che lo mostrano parlare”