New Horizons 2.0 update is Animal Crossing’s final ‘major, free’ update

The good news? A new Animal Crossing: New Horizons update is coming on Nov. 5, alongside new premium DLC — Happy Home Paradise. The bad news? It’s Nintendo’s last “major free” update for New Horizons, and Happy Home Paradise is the only DLC Nintendo plans to release for the game.

Nintendo originally said during its Animal Crossing Direct in October that fans could expect these to be the game’s the last big content updates. But the company also clarified that for press in the days after the event: New Horizons won’t get any more major updates, paid or free, after Nov. 5.

“The free update launching on Nov. 5 will be the last major free content update,” a Nintendo spokesperson told Polygon. “We hope that players will continue enjoying their island life in real time and throughout the changing seasons.”

The spokesperson continued: “Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Happy Home Paradise introduces a new gameplay experience in which the player joins the Paradise Planning team and helps make their client’s dream resort home become a reality. It is a major update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and offers a distinguishing and different gameplay experience. Therefore, it made sense to include it as the first and only paid DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”

The Happy Home Paradise update and the free 2.0 content will surely keep players interested for a good while, but after this, it’s likely they’ll get just the smaller seasonal refreshes seen throughout the year.

New Horizons is one of Nintendo’s best-selling Nintendo Switch games setting records within months of its release in March 2020. The new update may not reinvigorate the same excitement over more than a year since its launch, but it should bring players back to the game.