Animal Crossing Almost Had A Better Title In The West But Nintendo Rejected It

""I was in a meeting with Mr. Iwata and some other heads of the development group, and 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 he just burst out in laughter," Swan said. "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.""

"The entire localization job took between six months and a year to complete, former Nintendo of America localization manager Leslie Swan said to Time Extension, and one of the proposed titles was Animal Acres, a name that was inspired by the grids of the town. This was ultimately rejected by Nintendo, with the title of Animal Crossing being approved instead."

Localization of the Japanese social-sim Dōbutsu no Mori for Western release required extensive cultural adaptation and renaming. The localization process took between six months and a year to complete under Leslie Swan. A proposed English title, Animal Acres, was inspired by the town's grid layout but was rejected in favor of Animal Crossing. Satoru Iwata reacted with disbelief at the complexity, and Takashi Tezuka warned of the challenges. The team had to translate thousands of lines, rename characters, create new catchphrases, and adapt Japan-specific themes for Western audiences. New Horizons released in 2020, later received a Switch 2 update, and Animal Crossing Crocs are now available to order.

Read at GameSpot