PS5 Surprise New Release Is Perfect For Animal Crossing Fans

Someone is probs about to get in trouble, because the port of Animal Crossing-esque game just leaked for the PlayStation 5.

I’ve probably said it a hundred times at this point, but it’s almost kind of weird how there are so few direct competitors to the Animal Crossing games.

Some have made valiant efforts or included a sort of pared-down version of the life-sim genre alongside the main draw of the game, but nobody has quite come close yet.

Well, that’s not entirely true. After all, there is MySims.

If you’ve never heard of the franchise before, I can assure you that the games function exactly how you’re probably envisioning. They’re essentially a slightly less complex version of the Animal Crossing games (an already not particularly complex franchise), paired with the social sim aspects you’d find in mainline The Sims titles.

Official MySims gameplay image from Steam store, EA

As it turns out, the latest version of MySims, a re-release from 2024 featuring both MySims and MySims Kingdom, titled MySims Cozy Bundle, has been performing extremely well for Electronic Arts.

In fact, the Nintendo Switch version of the game was one of the best-selling Switch titles of the year, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson stating that it "performed well ahead of our expectations" (thank you, Eurogamer).

That sort of just makes it all the weirder that MySims Cozy Bundle is exclusive to both Steam and Nintendo Switch, because there’s clearly a desire for an Animal Crossing rival on other platforms.

That is set to change very soon, however, according to an article on Dealabs by prominent leaker billbil-kun.

They state that following their extensive research, they've concluded that both a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/Xbox Series X port of the game will be landing next month on November 18. In fact, they seem to believe that it might end up being a PlayStation Plus title.

In case you’re unfamiliar with either billbil-kun or Dealabs, I cannot overstate how good both of their records are when it comes to leaks. These days, if they leak something, I essentially consider it to be fact.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how much MySims Cozy Bundle is going to set you back, it’ll be €39.99 in Europe and $39.99 in the US, with physical releases set to drop not long after its digital release.

Hopefully, getting a little bit more pressure in the way of some competition will force Nintendo to start work on a new Animal Crossing title sooner rather than later…