Nintendo has announced a new free game update and a Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It's probably been quite some time since we've all seen our villagers since the game's launch back in 2020 when the world was shutting down due to the pandemic, and now I know how they feel when we randomly come back after so many years.
There are two components to the update, one which is a free update for all players, and another with enhancements for Nintendo Switch 2 consoles which will be a paid upgrade.
Updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons will arrive January 15, 2026.
New Horizons Ver 3.0
Let's start by looking at the free game updates.
- A new facility is available on the pier - a resort hotel run by Kapp'n's family.
- They work to bring in guests to the island.
- You can decorate the guest rooms based on themes provided to you.
- Furniture for each theme is provided to you, but you can use your own furniture too.
- Decorating rooms gets you Hotel Tickets to purchase hotel-themed items and other exclusive items.
- Guests can borrow clothing from the hotel.
- Amiibos and Amiibo Cards can be scanned to invite guests to the hotel.
- Home Updates
- Previously you could store 5000 items, now you can do 7000 and 9000.
- Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers can all be stored now as well.
- Resetti has introduced a clean-up service to pick-up items on your island and put them into storage so you have fresh room to decorate.
- You can go into a Deep Slumber and visit Luna to visit your Dream World, Slumber Island.
- This island can be decorated however you want.
- Choose the time of day and weather whenever you want.
- You can have up to three slumber islands.
- Slumber islands can be small, medium, or large sized.
- You can invite your friends to your slumber island to play together - build the island up together.
- New collaboration items are coming.
- The hotel will include Nintendo-specific products. If you have an online membership, you can play some old classic games too.
- LEGO has special items arriving as well - sofa, table, wallpaper, t-shirt, and more.
- Zelda cross-over items are available when you tap Zelda Amiibo.
- Tulin and Mineru can also visit your island and can live on your island as well.
- Splatoon Amiibos get Cece and Viche to visit your island.
- Splatoon items will also be available.
New Horizons Switch 2 Edition
If you have a Switch 2, and you buy this optional upgrade, you've got some solid, exclusive enhancements coming. The upgrade will be available as an upgrade pack or as a standalone purchase if you don't have the original game.
- Enhanced Resolution for Improved Graphics
- It appears that we've got anti-aliasing finally so things look much more crisp.
- Joy-Con 2 Mouse Controls
- Decorate your house with your mouse, which looks very easy.
- Create custom designs with the controls
- Draw on the bulletin board
- Megaphone
- Use the microphone on the Switch 2 to call out to your villagers to find where they are by using their name
- Up to 12 players can now play online together if everyone has a Switch 2 and the edition.
- Switch 2 camera support to show up on top of your characters while online.
That's a lot of cool functionality being added to the game on Switch 2. Although I'm not entirely certain when I'll be getting 12 people on my island at a time, and I'd debate the usefulness of needing to find your villagers via the megaphone when we consider how small the island actually is, they are welcome additions.
The higher game resolution clearly shows that things are going to look so much better though. That alone seems worth revisiting the island for a bit.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming Ver 3.0 update for New Horizons? Are you going to get the Switch 2 upgrade? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments
The one thing I wonder is if this means we're going to have to wait a long time for a new Animal Crossing game. I think some of these additions are cool and add value to the game, but I also think the island concept is a bit much at this point.
What I'd like to see out of a new game? A return to a chunk of land with borders; I would love to be connected to a friend or friends by a land barrier so if we're both online we can freely visit each other and our animals could even cross over between the towns. Speaking of villagers, we need them to return to, at a minimum, New Leaf levels of interesting. The villagers were so blegh, for lack of a better term, in New Horizons. The technology is here, Nintendo, you have the power, make them all more engaging and find more fun things to do with them.
A Switch 2 Animal Crossing game definitely would sell consoles. Just as a Switch 2 only Zelda or Metroid would. I know we're not too far off every game releasing only being for Switch 2, anything that has dual released at this point is just games that were being worked on when Switch 2 was still far away. It's a shame that Legends ZA is a dual-release because you know they could have gone a bit more wild with it if they didn't need the two games to work together. I hope the next mainline Pokemon game is fully focused on the full power of the Switch 2 - though it's Pokemon so it probably won't be lmao.
And now we've derailed into Pokemon so that's enough for this comment.