Poll: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Is Getting A Huge Update In Early 2026, What Are You Most Excited For?

For me, it's the multiple slumber islands. Sometimes, my younger sister plays ACNH on my Switch docked to the TV with my supervision, and with some Joy-Cons that belong to the family's Switch (a different one than mine). If I let her use and play around with one of the slumber islands, she won't need my supervision as much since she won't be able to make changes to my actual island that way 🤣.

15th January 2025, like a stealth update dropped 10 months ago?

I'm not really excited for it at all. It just reinforces the view that this series is no longer for the older fanbase.

@fR0z3nS0u1 This is only like the 5th or 6th article they've written about this update today, gotta hit double digits before they get the date right. 🤣 And I'm still waiting for them to mention the $25 dlc which shockingly isn't included in the $65 version of the 5 year old game.🤑

slumber islands are a definite highlight. people have spent years planning and building up their islands, so having a blank slate option to do that all over again is very exciting

for better or for worse NH have picked their lane to prioritize the decorating sandbox aspect of the game. still, having 12 person multiplayer with kappn back but still no minigames returning is baffling

i love a lot about about NH but i think theyve done enough polishing on the decorating aspect, and id love the new game to bring back more life sim aspects again. more involved NPCs and buildings, minigames, varied villager dialogue, having the "cozy" atmosphere of starting off in a small town than taking an island vacation

I'll probably pass. $5 isn't much but the last time they did a DLC update it reinvigorated interest in the game for me for like a week and a half before I went back to not playing it so I think I'm kind of just better off going, "Yeah, I checked in for a year straight when the game came out, that's enough," and staying away.

I really like the idea of the resort hotel. The reveal has not made it clear yet, but it seems like hotel guests can leave and roam around the island like a resident which I like. It adds to the idea that the island is a lively place that many can go in and out of instead of just a bird cage.

Resort Hotel looked interesting.

I never purchased New Horizons because I didn’t like how only 1 villager per island had access to forming land. I just don’t think it feels right that one player has so much more say over the town, when the fun of Animal Crossing with a shared town for me was that shared responsibility. Slumber Island seems like a great solution to that. Its definitely putting New Horizons back on my radar.

I curious to know about Slumber Island.
Is that the option to have another island with completely different villagers and being controlled by another user?

All features look cool.. but you guys forgot the BULK CRAFTING!

No new AC game in the foreseeable future... Could be good news for Splatoon if it's still the same team developing those games?
Other than that, not too excited.

@VoidofLight I feel the same. I was kinda hopeful, that the next entry will return to its roots, but with this update, Nintendo makes it really clear, which direction Animal Crossing is going now. I hope I'm wrong.

If this had dropped a couple of years ago I'd have been up for it but now I just want a new entry. I can't say I'm impressed by Zelda items etc being seemingly locked behind Amiibo and the retro games requiring an NSO subscription

I AM MOST EXCITED FOR THE BIG MAN CHAIR

Megaphone! Finally I can really feel that I have friends when I can actually call out for them in real life and also yell at Nook!

It has persuaded me to try it! Had the GC version and enjoyed that, but not played an AC game since. I will be getting a used SW1 version and upgrade! It is clear a new one is not on the Horizon, so now seems a good a time as any.

@neo9eo
I personally really want next Animal Crossing goes The Sims style gameplay with more designing, no stupid restrictions by must play the game everyday or I will lost my villagers.
ACNH gameplay is the feature I really want and like.

It’s more fluff but not more core Animal Crossing. I’ve moved on and this is unlikely to be bringing me back.

Waiting for the next one, I reckon!

Hopefully the sequel will run at 60fps, while also expanding on the features and long-tail of the game.

Visually, while some nicer graphics/effects would be welcome, I actually think the art direction and visuals style of New Horizons doesn't need much added, it's very beautiful. Framerate is more of a concern for me on this series. With an OLED display, the amount of lateral movement really makes it feel quite judder-y

@Anti-Matter Any Animal Crossing should stay far away from Sims style gameplay. It's not meant to be a Life Sim. It would break so much of the good that is Animal Crossing. For Sims like gameplay there are other options.

@ShadLink
But I prefer The Sims style for new Animal. Crossing game, the reason I get hyped with ACNH.

Happy tha tI can finally start a new island while leaving my old island on my switch 1.... and happy with with the shown bur not mentioned QoL improvement: crafting more things at once!

still the hotel is kinda lame since it is decorating again... i want to work in the hotelbar!

It’s obvious what I’m excited for the most right now. Cece and Viche are both coming to my new island, along with the Big Man bench. The only thing I might not like about it is that their personalities won’t actually match the Fire & Ice girls. Shiver would be snooty and Frye would be peppy, but it seems like Cece and Viche are still peppy and normal. Shiver and Frye cosplayers acting out of character despite looking perfect sounds funny, but it might bug me just a little.

This almost inspired me to want to start a Splatoon-themed island, but I’ll at least reconsider my idea for making my house try a Splatoon Now or Never Seven theme with each of its seven rooms. I guess I could try it on a Slumber Island instead.

I'm so excited for all of it. I have been playing a lot of animal crossing lately so perfect timing!

Oh man, this is hard because there are so many great additions coming. The only features I'm not so hot on are expanded friend limit because I don't play multiplayer and the Resort Hotel because I feel it's just HHP 2: Electric Boogaloo. All the other additions are super cool.

I'll be interested to see what the Hotel is like, but I must be honest, I thought the most obvious thing to do would have been to add a Museum Shop where you can do something else with all your spare fossils (eg. get dinosaur models).

I love all the new/returning Nintendo items. The mouse controls will be a big plus too when I’m making my football kit replicas!

Why Slumber island? Why not just another island? Take a boat or plane. You could set it up like you did with the original. Invite new villager's? Could be a new story line where Tom got some new property. I am not really into decorating homes or rooms. I like the core island of building a island, finding Villager's, crafting. Was not mentioned so I doubt it is coming but why not any new fish or bugs.. Decorating a hotel and stuff really not my thing. Was not a huge fan of the expansion either even though some of it was cool. I was really hoping for a new Animal crossings but I would guess now that is off in the distance. I was hoping New Leaf would be remade or remastered or at least be added to Nintendo online. I never got to play it and always wanted to try it.

More AC amiibo please!

I wanted to get back into the game, this will be a great reason to start a new island on Switch 2 !

3 or 4 new furniture sets isn't nearly enough to get me back. All the extra features in the world aren't worth anything if I'm restricted to using all the same decorations I've grown bored with over the last several years. They have SO MUCH from the mobile game that has yet to carry over. The shop still can't be upgraded, a massive downgrade from every AC before it. The 30fps on S2 was the nail in the coffin. Once again they hold themselves back from doing anything actually exciting because they'd rather make a quick penny on minimum effort, and this only serves to delay the next game by who knows how long. I can't count how many times by now I've started a Nintendo trailer with optimism and ended it with crushed hope.

I'm finding it difficult to get excited for.. pretty much anything in this update. It's free, and it's neat, but... it feels like more of the same and too little too late.

If I’m still unable to change my villagers name, then I’ll be keeping my $5. ☹️

I would like a full Zelda/Animal Crossing crossover game. Full of cool Hyrule locations, goron, zora, and rito villagers and stuff.

Ah I bowed out of Animal Crossing long ago, round about the time they introduced swimming. After trying much slicker, better-designed games like Stardew and Rune Factory I don't know if I can go back to something so fundamentally limited and sedate.

I'm looking forward to hopping on and making an island with friends, even if the details of which remain to be seen (do we only have access to the host's furniture, or can we bring our own?).

Time for a LEGO island!

Bulk crafting. At long last. 🥳

😄 I was just gonna say the ability to finally craft multiple items at once was my favourite reveal but anubisvel beat me to it. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but should have gotten more screen time as it's a highly requested QoL fix.

After five years? Isn't it time for a new game, instead?

Nothing. I don't play Animal Crossing games.

This says to me, they've JUST started working on a new Animal Crossing. So I would be surprised if they announce a new one that comes out before 2027.

@mjhopkins81 this is a hold over until the next one, Mario Kart 8 DLC was a hold over until Mario Kart World and the switch 2 was released.

I expect probably 2027 for a new game

@InfamousOrange they are probably well into development of the new game but needs probably another year or two. I’m guessing 2027

Probably the Slumber Island update, and the fact this update seems to imply the game could still recieve content, even if they're developing the next entry in the series (which would be something quite different)

Oh and yeah, the increased resolution helps bringing the slick visuals to life even better than before, even if it could've done a little bit more, it's 4K apparently.

I voted for "something else" because I want new items and crafting recipes. I guess the crafting board on the dock is interesting, but they didn't show new recipes, just old ones we've already seen. And they didn't really show many of the new items that you can get through the hotel, but that's what I want most. I couldn't give a crap about the actual gameplay surrounding the hotel and I wish the new items were not tied to it. Happy Home Designer (literally the same update!) was already kind of meh after a while.

@DominionGamma Yeah, 2027 is what I said.
My best guess, they likely started development with a small team for the switch 2 edition plus the new content and in tandem another team started the next animal crossing game. Once the small team is finished with the January release, they'll join the other team on the new AC.

I don't play ACNH, i just like feeling included in polls

@VoidofLight ‘Not for older fans’ … How so?

@kalosn It really does look remarkably cleaner and more comfortable To the eyes

@Antraxx777 It's just tripling down on the decorative aspects and ignoring the part of the fanbase who don't enjoy decorating- which is what the entirety of this game has been since launch. It's a dollhouse sim, and this update makes it apparent that the series is stuck as that.

@neo9eo I honestly hope we're wrong and the next game dials things back, or at least focuses more on the life-sim elements..but at this point I just can't see them doing that. At least not with the new staff handling the game and the old staff being close to retiring age.

I'm equally excited about the Resort Hotel with the return of the turtle family, the Slumber islands, and the collabs.

Switch 2 updates and the collabs!

I'm excited for the collaborations a lot, but being able to craft multiple items at once is probably the biggest QoL improvement I could've hoped for. That is going to make things SO MUCH easier

I'm super disappointed to see Nintendo continuing to invest in this game that no one is playing anymore. These features would have been awesome a few years ago. Just give us a new game please! We're ready to move on. And please give us a complete game with everything already in it instead of giving us half the features we want multiple years in when there's no community to enjoy them with anymore.