Over a year since its initial launch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still missing some features from previous games. One of the most requested is Brewster – the Owl who ran his own coffee shop from Wild World to New Leaf. A datamine from a couple of months ago proved that there was at least a plan to bring him into the game at some point, and now we know Nintendo is quietly working on it.
A new datamine of the latest New Horizons update has added even more code to the game that suggests Brewster is on the way. As spotted by Animal Crossing World, code referencing "MuseumCafe" has been altered and updated in version 1.11 of the game, suggesting Brewster is actively in development, rather than cut content.
Related: Animal Crossing: New Horizons – How To Convince Campsite Visitors To Move In & Win The Card Games
The "MuseumLevel" code added in the previous update has now been expanded, adding a flag titled "cNpcMemory:TalkProgressMuseumBuiltCafe". Going by the name, this could be a flag for islanders to start making references to the Cafe, which would be set to active once it has been built. This system is used to make sure your neighbours are only discussing features the island actually has, such as mentioning Guliver when he's washed up on the beach.
Adding to the speculation, the new update also has code referencing camera parameter changes to "IdrMuseumCafe", indicating that the developers are ironing out the look of the cafe. With two changes made to the code since the May update, it does indeed look like Nintendo hasn't given up on Brewster just yet.
This latest development fits in with recent news from Nintendo, who stated that more New Horizons content "is currently in development for later this year." Larger updates have been scarce for a few months now, perhaps a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (Japan has just entered a third state of emergency), so an update of this size would understandably take longer to pull off.
Next: New Pokemon Snap's Tiny Neo-One Is Just The Island Of Giant Pokemon
