Four years ago Nintendo announced the final update for Animal Crossing New Horizons, despite it being the second best selling game on the Nintendo Switch after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Animal Crossing fans were a bit disheartened by the community persisted. But on October 30th, Nintendo dropped a 15 minute trailer for Animal Crossing New Horizons Switch 2 Edition and the version 3.0 content update. So with a surprise update incoming on January 15th, let’s breakdown what’s included.
Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack
As with all the Switch 2 upgrade DLCs it is paid, thankfully it’s $4.99 / £4.19 making it the cheapest Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of any of the games. There are both quality updates and some extra content exclusive to the Switch 2, but no huge content extras are being locked to the new console. Switch 2 players who buy the Upgrade Pack will get improved graphics and mouse controls to make decorating, custom designs and writing on the bulletin board smoother. I think on the original Switch and the OLED version, Animal Crossing New Horizons looked so good. Playing Animal Crossing on the Switch 2 has made the jagged edges really obvious, it’s not game disrupting by any means but I’m noticing it more than I did on my Switch OLED. The inclusion of the mouse controls for custom designs, the bulletin board and decorating is great and really will just be a smaller quality of life option for long periods of decorating for example if you’re playing the Happy Home Paradise DLC and you’re decorating for hours. Not everyone will use it but I appreciate Nintendo remembering that they could include that.
Also in the Upgrade Pack for the Switch 2, you will be able to invite 12 players to your island, but only if they all have Switch 2s. There was no mention in this either of the multiplayer system being streamlined as many people in the Animal Crossing community have had issues with everyone’s game being stopped as someone is joining the island, as well as the visual slowdown if there are lots of people moving around on your screen when playing with friends. As usual Nintendo’s multiplayer online is not perfect but I think they’re improving and hopefully part of this multiplayer inclusion is some quality improvements they aren’t talking about yet. GameChat features included in Switch 2 will also be integrated with Animal Crossing New Horizons so you can voice chat without using another device, again this is only accessible when everyone is playing on a Switch 2. If you have the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Switch 2 Camera, you can stream your face above your character’s head when playing with friends.
Finally, if you played Animal Crossing New Leaf on the 3DS you will recognise the new tool for Switch 2 players. The Megaphone is back people. The megaphone allows you to call for your villagers, they’ll respond and you can follow the sound of their voice to find them if they’re roaming about the island. It’s more useful than you think when running errands for other villagers and delivering presents to your favourites.
Lots of these are Switch 2 upgrades to work with the hardware, only the megaphone is an item you can’t get without the Switch 2 and the Upgrade Pack. I think it’s great that Nintendo is updating their best selling games to work with the new hardware, if you want to learn more about the Nintendo Switch 2 Upgrade Pack for Animal Crossing New Horizons, you can check it out on Nintendo’s website here.
Free Update for Everyone! – New Horizons Ver3.0
Animal Crossing fans thought Nintendo was done with New Horizons, left behind with millions of people playing and wanting new updates. Nintendo zigged when we thought they were zagging, and they are bringing a new update to New Horizons on January 15th 2026. Honestly, this half of the trailer was PACKED with new content, collaborations and quality of life changes.
Kapp’n’s family have joined the island. Again long time Animal Crossing players will recognise them from the summer island in New Leaf where they ran the mini-game tours and resort. This time Kapp’n’s family are back for getaway goodness and have added a hotel to your pier. This looks to be inspired by the paid DLC of Happy Home Paradise. But this free hotel update has you decorating themed rooms where villager characters will come to stay and visit your island. For each room you decorate in the hotel you earn Hotel Tickets, that can be spent on exclusive furniture sold by Grams in the Hotel lobby. There are also mannequins in the lobby which you can dress up for the villagers that come as Tourists are dressed to match your island. The final feature we are shown of the Hotel is where there are crafted item requests to help Tom Nook advertise your island. Multi-crafting was shadow-dropped or soft launched in this part of the trailer, a long long desired quality of life feature that fans thought they’d never get. Here we are.
Next, the mole that gave me nightmares in my Animal Crossing Wild World DS days – Resetti is back. Resetti is here to support your redecorating efforts. When you call on Resetti you can show him to part of your island and ask that he clears up everything in that area and put it in your storage. He can also do this to the whole island. This is a genius new use for Resetti, with auto-saving we’re not worrying about resetting the game and loosing hours of playtime and progress. Nintendo have seen the community, redecorate and rebuild so many islands that they’ve made an easier way to clean up your island when it’s time for a remodel. This is such a great quality of life feature.
Luna has more dream worlds ready for you, but this time you are active in the dream. Luna, the NPC who guides you through dream visits, now has three island spots that you can decorate and terraform to your heart’s content. Or collaborate with friends and dream together to build on the dream island, invite your villagers and build a second island that can be visited without disrupting your home island. The clips of 12 people creating rivers and decorating makes me nervous of how this is going to run, it’s so exciting for decorators who love creating challenge islands or want to collaborate on decorating beautiful islands.
Finally, Nintendo are gracing us with even more furniture and clothing through new collaborations. The only collaboration in the originla game was the Mario Bros items, which are great but after so many different collaborations in previous games, it felt a little bit underwhelming. In the version 3.0 update for Animal Crossing New Horizons there is many more cross over items waiting for players. We are shown the Nintendo toys and consoles from through the ages will be available, and if you have a NSO membership, you’ll be able to access a selection of the old games for those consoles and play them within Animal Crossing. This is such a lovely little extra feature that people who played Animal Crossing on the GameCube have been asking for. Next up, we’re getting LEGO collaboration furniture, it’s so colorful and hopefully it’ll be recolorable at Reese and Cyrus’s stall on Harv’s Island so we can all have matching sets in the colors we want.
The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon are getting crossover items too! But the items and the new villagers are locked behind specific Amiibo access. I can see there being a lot of trading involved if you don’t have the Amiibo but want the items. The furntiure collections for both look great, the Splatoon one is especially inspired, Big Man the Splatoon 3 NPC has been turned into a bench.
The new villagers are Tulin and Mineru from The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and Cece and Viche who are squirrels that look like Shiver and Frye from Splatoon 3. It’s a shame these are behind Amiibo exclusively but does make sense as Nintendo works to revive their Amiibo figures as we move into the Switch 2 era.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw the announcement of a new Animal Crossing update. It’s very exciting to see it getting some (late) support. The Upgrade Pack and Version 3.0 free update are both releasing on January 15th 2026.
