Nintendo unveiled the free Winter Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Available on November 19, the update will add Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities to the year’s most popular game.
The latest seasonal update arrives just in time for American Thanksgiving next week. On November 26, turkey chef Franklin will hold a feast in the town square and require players to provide ingredients. The trailer shows a player character providing him with pumpkins from the Halloween event, but it’s unclear what other items may be requested.
Christmas season begins on December 1. Towns will begin to gradually appear more and more festive as the month goes on, including decorated trees which can be shaken for seasonal DIY components. Toys and holiday attire will be available from stores, ahead of the arrival of “Jingle, the black-nosed reindeer” on December 24. Players can help him deliver presents to villagers to earn rewards.
Six new hairstyles, including dreads and afros, will be redeemable with Nook Miles, expanding Animal Crossing‘s representation options. Also, a new collection of nine Reactions will allow players to sit down (as villagers have been able to do since launch), do yoga, snap pictures with their phone, and get excited, among other things. The hairstyle pack is worth 1800 miles, and the Reactions 2700.
Players who have already paid off their final home loan can apply to expand their home storage by an additional 800 slots, up to a maximum of 2400 items. The Dream feature will allow players to visit random islands for creative inspiration, instead of only requiring a code.
One of the biggest additions, however, is the long-awaited save transfer service. Two services will be available: Entire Island Transfers, which moves “the island, all progress and customizations, your animal neighbors, the island resident representative, and any other residents” to a new Switch system, or a Single Player Transfer, moving one “resident, the resident’s home, and most items held by the resident and kept in storage” to another Switch. The Island Representative cannot be moved this way.
Be careful in arranging your move: both types of transfer will require you to have access to both the old and new systems simultaneously.
The holiday season culminates with a New Year’s countdown on December 31. Nintendo teased the next update will arrive in “late January” alongside a picture of Pavé, the peacock NPC associated with the Festivale spring event in previous Animal Crossing games.
As with everything else in 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ new update will give us another way to escape reality and live vicariously — though personally, it just won’t be the same without being able to warm up with a hot beverage from Brewster’s cafe.
