A few weeks ago, Nintendo aired an Animal Crossing: New Horizons-focused Direct where they detailed the new content for the game’s final update and the DLC expansion titled Happy Island Designer. Alongside a fairly disliked announcement of Switch Online Pricing (which is currently not worth it), the publisher dated the DLC as November 5, some time away from the airing of the Direct.
Instead, they simply and stealthily released it last night on November 3, two days ahead of schedule. Also, for some reason, this update did not follow the usual rules of waiting until the next new session to fully apply. Players can play the new content right now and have been since last night.
The new content is in two parts: a free update for everyone who owns the game that features Brewster’s Café, cooking, a major augmentation to Harv’s island, and a number of new items, and the DLC expansion which unlocks on the actual date but can be downloaded now, which allows players to go to a new resort that they can decide how to decorate every aspect to make visitors happy. That part is included for subscribers to the higher tier of Switch Online.
As mentioned, this is the final major update for the game, which has sold over 30 million copies since its March 2020 release. Nintendo appears to be moving on to other titles that might need the Animal Crossing team’s attention in the future, likely the upcoming Splatoon 3 next year.
