Earlier this morning, Nintendo dropped a surprise announcement. Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be receiving both a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition as well as a brand new update for all players of the game on Switch and Switch 2. It looks like there will be a new hotel feature with rooms for players to decorate for guests, new items earned through the hotel in addition to a new currency, new collab items, such as some brand new Lego items and also, new amiibo content even, with Zelda and Splatoon items and villagers.
The Nintendo Switch 2 version and the brand new update for both versions of the game, are scheduled to launch on January 15th, 2026. And yes, an upgrade pack will be available for original Switch players to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition. Feel free to check out the brand new trailer below.
Personal Thoughts: I just wanna ramble a bit about my own thoughts here for a minute. I love Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I’m actually not a longtime huge fan of Animal Crossing as a whole. I tried out New Leaf long after it got a bunch of hype and put a decent chunk of time into it. But I never felt the urge to play for more than about a half hour per sitting. New Horizons on the other hand, I’ve clocked in over 700 hours and have loved this game since it came out. I was quite happy with the game as is. It did have some features missing from New Leaf that I would’ve liked to see, like many other fans. Nonetheless, I was satisfied with it being a completed game I could go back to every now and then to make some new vacation homes, or decorate for the holidays. I expect a full price paid game to end eventually and not be updated for all eternity. The constant harassing by fans for Nintendo to keep updating the game, I thought was a bit ridiculous.
That said, I’m still excited to see even more new content years later, especially the ability to decorate new dream islands online. I’ve been getting the urge to start over since I want a new island to decorate, but I still only own my regular old OG Switch and didn’t like the idea of wiping out my existing island. The game came out on my birthday back in 2020 and I’m proud of my humble little island I started when the game came out. So the ability to mess around with a dream island and try out the landscaping to my heart’s content, is pretty cool. Especially because I can get online with a friend and have them help me out and come up with their own decorating ideas as well.
One thing I do have to complain about, is the requirement of having Switch Online for the retro consoles to function. I mean, in past Animal Crossing games those were just complete items as is, that didn’t require the internet to function. It’s a little sad that when servers end someday, those items won’t work properly anymore.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts about the news so far. Let us know down in the comments what your thoughts are. Are you excited for this new update? Is there anything still missing you would like to see in the future? What are you most looking forward to when the update is out?
