The 3.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch, which includes a new hotel, batch crafting, and more.
This month’s gaming release schedule is pretty quiet overall but for Animal Crossing fans, there’s a big reason to be excited.
A Switch 2 edition of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is set to launch on Thursday, January 15, which adds mouse controls, improved visuals, and GameChat support. Not only that, but it comes with a free 3.0 update for all existing owners across Switch and Switch 2.
This update was originally slated to come out at the same time on January 15 in the UK, but Nintendo has pushed the button early.
If you’re not prompted to download the 3.0 update automatically when you boot up Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you may have to manually apply it by pressing the ‘+’ button on the game’s menu icon and selecting ‘Software Update’.
It’s unclear why the update has been released early, but it could be to synchronise its launch around the world. As people began reporting the update was available, the time in New Zealand had just crossed 1am on January 15, the same time it was expected to launch in other territories.
Nintendo hasn’t released any patch notes at the time of writing, but we already know the basics of what’s included. The big draw is the Resort Hotel on the pier, managed by Kapp’n and his family, where you have to decorate guest rooms to specific themes.
Other features include increased home storage, Resetti’s Reset Service which allows you to clean out flowers and furniture in bulk, Nintendo-themed items, and the option to create and customise three new Slumber islands via Luna’s Dream World. Based on the trailer, batch crafting also looks like a new quality-of-life feature.
The Switch 2 Edition for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is released tomorrow (January 15). If you already own the game on Switch, you can upgrade for £4.19, and access improved visuals, mouse controls, GameChat functionality, and 4K support.
The existence of this Switch 2 Edition suggests the next mainline Animal Crossing title might be a while off, but New Horizons is nearly six years old at this point. Nintendo traditionally holds a Nintendo Direct presentation in either February or March, so we’ll have to wait and see if something crops up then.
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