Animal Crossing: New Horizons Will Continue To Get Free Updates

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will continue to receive new updates throughout 2021, according to a new interview.

New Horizons, the latest mainline entry of the Animal Crossing franchise, released for the Nintendo Switch in March 2020 as numerous countries around the world headed into lockdown. Despite the restrictions, the game managed to top the charts around the world and become one of the best-selling games of 2020.

Since its launch, the game’s developers have been releasing seasonal updates adding holidays, new game mechanics like diving and art, and new NPCs from past games such as Redd and Leif, and these updates will continue throughout 2021, according to Nintendo of America President Doug Browser.

In a new interview with Polygon discussing the Nintendo Switch and New Horizon‘s success this year, Bowser stated that the team at Nintendo were “pleased” to see how people incorporated the title into their lives.

“We saw people celebrating graduations; having birthday parties; weddings, even – virtually, through the game itself,” he said. “And we were pleased to see that we were able to provide a bit of a respite in what was pretty chaotic times and challenging times for folks.”

When asked about Nintendo’s long-term plans for supporting the title and whether they will continue releasing content updates, Bowser said: “Yeah, I see two potential avenues here, one you already mentioned, which has been our update schedule that comes from the developers. And that can be around seasons, it can be around events, it can be around enhanced gameplay features. And that will continue as we go forward.”

Asked again to clarify whether updates will continue throughout 2021, Bowser said: “We definitely see that continuing.”

The most recent update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched November 19th and added events Turkey Day and Toy Day, both inspired by real-life holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas. The update also included new clothing, shop themes, crafting recipes, reactions, and hairstyles, as well as updated storage restrictions and launched save data transfers.

Another update is scheduled for January which will likely include the Festivalé event with NPC Pavé and potentially some additional content. Previous datamines have suggested that a cooking mechanic alongside new vegetables may be added into the game along with the return of café owner Brewster, Nook shop upgrades, and more. Unfortunately, none of that has been confirmed and it seems we’ll have to wait until next year to find out what else is being implemented into the game.