Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update 2.0.7 Patch Notes - Switch & Switch 2 Multiplayer Compatibility "Improved"

I wonder how improved this game will be on Switch 2, hopefully it gets another free upgrade as well

Finally, the update for Switch 2 compatibility.
Hopefully the Switch 2 version will boost to 60 fps like City Folk.

Have they confirmed whether it will Game Chat?

I suspect that we will eventually see a paid Switch 2 update with some form of extensive additional content. As to when is a mattter of when that makes sense in of marketing and what else Nintendo has in the pipeline

I hope load times in general are better on Switch 2 editions and/or just playing any game on switch 2. Guess we will see in a few days

@YunoboCo It probably won't get an upgrade because the next Animal Crossing game is in the pipeline.

@VoidofLight I disagree, I do not foresee them putting out another animal crossing game (read: by and large the same experience on the “same” platform) during this generation. It is more of an evergreen title for the Switch/Switch 2 platform. They will do better to have minimal development costs, shift new units of the software to new players, and get another $20 out of existing players. If even 1% of existing players bought a $20 upgrade package, this would for nearly $10m in revenue. They will push out a “space colony expansion” with 4K/30fps graphics upgrade for the entire game and call it a day.

I’d love to see a 60 FPS patch for New Horizons on Switch 2. The other day, I was briefly playing New Horizons at the same time as Let's Go to the City and the framerate difference was pretty jarring.

(plus those loading times really need to be shortened)

@MrRom92 Oh boy, you must be incredibly new to the series then. They put a new Animal Crossing game on the 3DS even though it could play Wild World, which is a DS game. The Switch 2 is just the 3DS to the Switch's DS. We're 100% getting a new Animal Crossing game, and it's bound to come within the new few years given the dev cycle for the series.

@VoidofLight Even with newer games in the pipeline (or released already) they do update older games in the same series. See Pokémon, see Legend of Zelda, etc. A Switch 2 update could easily happen for ACNH.

@VoidofLight To be fair, Wild World's online services ended less than a year after New Leaf came out worldwide - they pretty much had to make a new one

Good lord Nintendo, just release an update for every game.

@VoidofLight also the fact New Horizons sold MILLIONS is gonna help them make a new one 🤣

@sanderev Unless the wait for the next Animal Crossing game is super long, I don't see a case where they update New Horizons. Especially if the new game is taking New Horizon's base and expanding upon it. Reusing assets and graphics that they already had made for New Horizons in the first place.

@Mz3player While that is true, I don't think that changes anything. Nintendo stopped adding content with the 2.0 update- making it clear that they're done with New Horizons in of content. Given how New Horizons functions as a game progression-wise, adding more content on top of what's already there would mess up the flow. Especially when the content that the updates added up to 2.0 was content that was supposed to be in the game at launch but was left out due them releasing the game unfinished. I also think given that the team made Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3 on the same console, there's definitely room to argue that a new Animal Crossing is going to be made for Switch 2.

@Oldstalk Exactly. New Horizons selling well ensured that there's going to be a new game on the next system. Even if that new game won't sell as well as New Horizons did, they're definitely going to make use of the series' popularity.

@VoidofLight I don't think a Switch 2 version of Animal Crossing should use New Horizons as a base. And even then they are updating Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and there is a very real Pokémon game coming this year. That alone disproves your claim.

@sanderev Pokemon games are entirely different games with similar gameplay elements. Scarlet and Violet were games that needed performance patches because of the state which they released within. Animal Crossing is primarily the same experience, hence why we never got a remake of a prior Animal Crossing game before. Animal Crossing New Horizons released unfinished content-wise, but was polished.

Plus, Animal Crossing 6 is probably coming out either sometime at the end of this year- or sometime next given how New Horizon's dev cycle was only 7 years due to the transition into HD and the Wii U's issues.

I never played the game and I guess I might just try it out this week to kill sometime before Switch 2 launch.

Winding things down now after 4 years or so on my covid escape island. Nintendo switch 2 is nearly here and with that, brings new games and hopefully a new AC soon.

I’m wondering how complicated it would be for devs to implement a “dock mode” for playing handheld switch 1 games on the switch 2. The idea being switch 1 games can play at the increased resolution and fps that some dock mode games already offers.

@rvcolem1 They showed off the improved loading times in a bunch of Switch 1 software, one in particular was the Yoshi game which runs on Unreal Engine got a massive boost to loading times even though that game is not getting any Switch 2 patch at all so far. The storage inside the Switch 2 is closer to that in the PS5 or an NVMe Hard drive, where the Switch 1 storage speed is below that of a PS4 or laptops 2.5inch mechanical HDD, it's a leap in storage speed of 2 generations (or a bit more). Results should be very good for most software.

@VoidofLight I am not incredibly new to the series, I had the original US GameCube release pre-ordered. Regardless of my personal credentials, DS to 3DS was much less of an iterative jump between handheld generations, the increased processing power/memory of the console (and 3D screen) made for a sequel that was as fundamentally different as playing a game on the SNES would be compared to the PS1. It’s not strictly about “can new machine play old game”
The Switch 2 hardware simply isn’t going to permit them to develop something fundamentally different enough for them to market another title in the series. The same is true for Smash. They still have to sell the game at the end of the day.

I'm hoping performance will be improved just by virtue of it being on more powerful hardware. Because man does it ever chug on my decked out island.

@rvcolem1 Yeah I expect we'll see a pretty significant increase for Animal Crossing since the storage (both internal and SD card) is so much faster than Switch 1, even if they didn't release a "Switch 2 Update" with better frame rates or whatever, it should benefit from just running on hardware with faster disk I/O speeds.

It's WILD that New Horizons sold 58 million copies, making it the second best selling game on the Switch, and it hasn't got an update for Switch 2.

@MrRom92 There will definitely be another brand new AC game for the Switch 2. It's one of Nintendo's most successful franchises. I'm so confident I'm willing to bet anything there will be a dedicated Switch 2 AC in the future.

@Oldstalk Be patient.

@DanElectrode yep it will

@MrRom92 Okay, and we're still getting a new Mario Kart despite 8 being the best selling in the series. We still got Splatoon 3 when Splatoon 2 was on the same console. We'll get a new Animal Crossing even with New Horizons being playable.

@VoidofLight still missing the point, but we shall wait and see. Only time will tell

@MrRom92 Not really missing the point here. Discounting a new Animal Crossing because "the old one sold well, and Nintendo will want to maximize profits by upgrading it and adding new content to it" is like saying "Splatoon 2 is going to get content updates through out the entirety of the system's life, and there won't be a Splatoon 3," or "Mario Kart 8 will just get more DLC because it's an evergreen title instead of them making a brand new Mario Kart!"

@VoidofLight You also couldn't buy DS games digitally, so they definitely wanted a new one for 3DS sooner rather than later that could be sold that way.

As much as I'd love a performance boost for ACNH, I'd rather have a new game. New Horizons just felt like a boneless New Leaf, and I have a feeling it wouldn't have done great if not for the extremely specific time it launched.

@DangoTown Yeah at this point, it's a glaring issue that the same team switches between Animal Crossing and Splatoon IIRC. They definitely need to build up the studio to have dedicated teams for both games at this same time.

For anyone hoping for a 60 FPS patch for Animal Crossing, have you ever considered simply using the frame interpolation mode on your TV for this? Animal Crossing is not a competitive online game that requires zero input latency so there's no reason you should be subjecting yourselves to 30 fps when you can easily view it interpolated as 60 fps using TruMotion (LG TVs) or Auto Motion Plus (Samsung) for example. I played it for years this way and it looked beautiful. Or... just wait for a potential 60 FPS patch, you choose.

@VoidofLight Yeah I don't think there's any chance they're going to do DLC for a Switch game after the Switch 2 is out. This "multiplayer improvements" update will probably be the last update ACNH ever gets barring maybe a random security/stability type minor patch.

@DarkAngelus31
I mean 60 fps look better than 30 fps.
Animal Crossing for once having 60 fps from City Folk so having another 60 fps for ACNH is a bliss.

I enjoy the island simulation where the puzzle is to collect enough currency to furnish your own animal house

@Anti-Matter I just meant if playing on a TV that has the option to interpolate the frames, might as well use it. It looks gorgeous. I played BotW and Tears of the Kingdom this way and enjoyed it moreso because of it.

Though I do see the point of having actual 60 FPS for handheld purposes since your TV can't help you there.

@DarkAngelus31
My TV SHARP AQUOS 32 inch can display 60 Hz or 60 fps.

@Anti-Matter in your case, I believe the feature on your TV would be called Active Motion or AQUOS Smooth Motion. Try it out!