My Thoughts on The Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 Update Trailer

So Nintendo randomly dropped a new trailer in relation to Animal Crossing: New Horizons announcing a Switch 2 version and a new free update that includes a lot of new content which will be releasing in January of 2026. There was a lot of new things shown in the trailer so I wanted to document my thoughts on the new content we’re expecting to get for the free update.

Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

So I don’t currently own a Nintendo Switch 2 so I most likely won’t be getting this version upon release but I have kinda mixed feelings when it comes to the exclusive content for the Switch 2 version. The content announced for the Switch 2 version was:

• High quality graphics, they look a lot less pixelated
  
• Mouse controls using the Switch 2 joycons, you can use this feature to decorate inside of your home, for custom designs and for drawing on the bulletin board
  
• Megaphone using the Switch 2 microphone to locate villagers around your island, a quality of life feature brought back from AC:NL
  
• Online play with up to 12 players online on a single island
  
• Game chat feature comptabile with the Nintendo Switch 2 camera to see your friends’ face above their Animal Crossing avatars

I feel like this edition wouldn’t really appeal to me personally apart from the better graphics and megaphone. As I’ve mentioned, I currently don’t own a Switch 2 so I wouldn’t personally go out of my way to upgrade my Switch right now to buy the Switch 2 edition of this game as the other features apart from the ones I like don’t really appeal to me but I feel like these additions are great for those who are defintely interested in them.

The megaphone being brought back from AC:NL was such a nostalgic feeling as someone who still regularly plays New Leaf to this day. When I do eventually decide to purchase a Switch 2, this is probably the feature I’ll be using regularly around my island. Islands are pretty big so I’m very happy to see Nintendo bring back this quality of life feature so you don’t have to run laps around your island to locate a villager.

If you already own Animal Crossing: New Horizons on your Nintendo Switch 2 and are interested in upgrading your game to the Switch 2 edition, you don’t need to buy the entire game again. You’ll just be required to buy an upgrade pack which is a game add on.

The Switch 2 edition will be launching on the 15th January 2026 and is available physically and digitally.

Free Update 3.0

There was SO much new content announced for the new free 3.0 update! Here’s a quick list on everything that got announced

• A brand new resort hotel located on your island on your pier next to Kapp’n’s boat. This resort hotel is ran by Kapp’n’s family, you’ll be tasked to decorate the guest rooms inside based on a specific room theme and will be paid using a new currency called Hotel Tickets that you can use to purchase exclusive hotel themed items and exclusive furniture in the souvenir shop ran by Grams! Amiibos can be used to invite villagers or special NPCS to guest rooms. There is also 2 mannequins located in the hotel lobby that make the tourists staying in your hotel resort dress up to match the aesthetic of your island. In addition to this, any of your friends using online play visiting your island can use this to dress up too!
  
• Bulk crafting is finally now a thing! You can craft multiple of something now, so no more hours wasted crafting hundreds of fish bait, etc!
  
• Outside of the hotel resort is a special DIY crafting box, similar to the drop box outside Nookling Junction, if you craft specific DIY furniture you’ll be rewarded in hotel tickets to use at the souvenir shop!
  
• Home storage has now increased from 5k to 9k! You’ll have to ask Tom Nook to upgrade your storage 2 more times to reach this.
  
• You can now store flowers, bushes, bamboo and trees inside of your home storage!
  
• Resetti is now offering a new service for your island! You can request for him to “reset” (clean up) areas of your island, this being a specific area, your beach or the ENTIRE island! In addition to this, you can request for him to dispose of any flowers or put them into your home storage for you.
  
• For Nintendo Online: Luna has a new slumber world called Slumber Island. This basically acts like a 2nd island but you can have up to 3!! You can decorate it however you want with previously obtained items, place trees in a specific growth stage, terraform, set up bridges and inclines, chosing select weather and time of day, bringing your island residents to your slumber island, change the slumber island’s size (varying from small, medium and large!).
  
• In addition to the Luna slumber world, you can meet up with your friends and build together to create a shared island!
  
• By helping at the hotel resort and increasing your island recongisation you can unlock rare crossover furniture like Nintendo related products like the Gameboy, SNES system, etc which allows you to play games on them if you have a Nintendo Online active membership.
  
• Nook Shopping at residental services will now sell some exclusive collabration furniture such as Lego.
  
• The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon have exclusive furniture and villagers tied to amiibos if you scan them in!

Phew, that was a lot! So my thoughts on everything…

I feel kinda meh in relation to the whole hotel resort thing, when I first saw it I got extremely excited thinking that the minigames island thing from AC:NL had returned but the hotel resort is just another Happy Home Paradise styled game which in all honestly, I don’t really like. Whilst I do enjoy decorating homes and interoirs in Animal Crossing, the whole Happy Home spin-offs have never really appealed to me personally. I mainly purchased the DLC for extra content that it added like the polish feature, pillars, etc. I do think that the new hotel resort room decoration thing is a nice taster for those who are kinda curious about the DLC but aren’t sure if it’s worth buying it or not as this feature could be potentially like an example of what that DLC is like, if you understand what I’m trying to say.. xP

I do, however, like the idea of the souvenir shop. It gave me a nostalgic reminder of the ACNL island’s exclusive souvenir shop that would sell rare furniture like the mermaid furniture set, cabana set, hibiscus bushes, silver furniture and wetsuits, etc. I think that this a good addition to getting back into a motivation thing to get back into decorating or crafting using the drop off DIY crafting box to get those hotel tickets to buy things. We saw a sneak peak of the Kiddie set returning so I’m hoping some of my favourite furniture sets will be returning via the souvenir shop. 🙂

The mannequins in the hotel resort lobby is pretty cool, I assume tourists will be exploring our island, like outside of the hotel resort from one of the clips we saw in the trailer? It’s great that we can make them dress up to match our island’s theme and aesthetic. I assume that the hotel resort will act kinda like a secondary campsite but with the whole HHP theme added to it.

I’m so RELIEVED that bulk crafting is FINALLY a thing now after 5 years of release. Having to individually craft stuff like fish bait was so annoying so I’m really glad that Nintendo finally decided to add this in as it was defintely well needed.

I’m so happy to see Resetti return! I think his feature is extremely useful and refreshing for those who want to get back into AC:NH but don’t want to spend hours tearing apart their islands. I hope that this feature will allow those who want to get back into Animal Crossing some motivation to play and experiment again. In addition to this, the home upgrades from 5k to 9k makes sense on why Nintendo thought to add this as players probably would need the extended storage if people wanted a refresh of their islands. I love how we can now put flowers, bushes and trees inside our storage now because it was kinda annoying having to randomly find space to plant them all and having to relocate everything when doing some construction in that area, again another quality of life update that was deeply needed for ACNH.

I love the idea of having multiple islands now via Luna’s slumber world and that your friends can work it on via online play! I feel like this feature will help people prevent resetting their islands for a fresh start but I’m kinda curious on how it’s all going to work. Like for example, these islands are a part of Luna’s slumber world so will dream addresses for that exist, etc? I’m curious on how the gameplay of that will all workout upon release.

The new Legend of Zelda furniture is making me so excited to build! I love the silent princess flower furniture that we saw, I’m really happy that they brought back the concept of Zelda x Animal Crossing and Splatoon x Animal Crossing but it’s a shame that the already existing characters from ACNL aren’t retuning unless they secretly are and will be upon release? I’ve seen rumours online that there’s apparently 12 new villagers coming to the 3.0 update, I’m not sure on how true or not that is but it’ll be awesome if those collab villagers came with this free update. 🙂