Animal Crossing: New Horizonscame out at the perfect time, providing quality entertainment to those who found themselves at home during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The game fueled a surge in Nintendo Switch console sales and smashing game software sales in the process. Nintendo kept fans engaged withAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsby releasing free updates over the first year of its release, though that support has slowed in 2021. Fans could be forgiven for thinking that Nintendo was done releasingAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsand was moving on to something else, but it seems as though that isn’t the case.
A newAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsupdate is arriving in the game on July 29. Upon downloading the update,Animal Crossing: New Horizonsplayers will be able to enjoy new weekly fireworks shows and will be able to add some new seasonal items to their collection. Specifics on what those newAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsseasonal itemsare unavailable at this time, but fans only have to wait a couple of days to find out more.
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Nintendo followed up its announcement of the July 29Animal Crossing: New Horizonsupdatewith confirmation that more free content for the game is in active development for release later in 2021. The scope and scale of this free content wasn’t revealed, but fans will find out “in the future.” Nintendo didn’t provide any kind of release window or timeline for this new content, so fans of the game will just have to sit tight and wait for more details.
With the futureAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsupdates also being free, it seems unlikely that they will add any substantial new content to the game. The most likely scenario is thatAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsplayershave more items and things of that nature to look forward to, as opposed to the new gameplay mechanics and characters that previous updates added to the game. Of course, it’s possible that Nintendo is cooking something up as significant as whenAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsadded swimming or theDream Islands, but that remains to be seen.
Nintendo has released numerous free content updates forAnimal Crossing: New Horizonssince the game’s launch, but it’s kind of surprising that it hasn’t released any paid DLC as well. Over 30 million people have purchasedAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, so it seems like Nintendo is leaving money on the table by not releasing a bigger, paid expansion. And with many diehard players starving for new updates, it seems safe to say that they would be willing to shell out some extra crash if it meant getting a proper expansion that adds significant value to theirAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsexperience.
Whether or notAnimal Crossing: New Horizonspaid DLCever materializes is up in the air, but for now, fans at least have more free updates to look forward to this year.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
