Animal Crossing: New Horizons Gives You A Nice Gift Alongside Its Day-One Update

The much-anticipated Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrives on Switch in only a couple of days, but Nintendo will be releasing an update for the game before it's even out. The company announced on the official Animal Crossing Twitter account that New Horizons' 1.1.0 update will go live at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET on March 18. [Update: New Horizons' 1.1.0 patch is now live, and it gifts you a virtual Nintendo Switch.]

Nintendo hasn't shared any further details on what the 1.1.0 does, but those who've purchased New Horizons digitally from the Eshop will be able to download the patch starting at the aforementioned time. Those who pick up a physical copy, meanwhile, will need to install the update after the game launches on March 20.

Unlike previous Animal Crossing games, New Horizons begins by shipping you off to a deserted island, which you'll be able to build into your own village from the ground up. The game introduces a variety of new features, including a photo mode and the ability to terraform your island. Nintendo has also made a swathe of quality-of-life improvements; this time around, you can choose where your animal neighbors live and unlock a tool wheel to let you swap between tools more quickly.

"New Horizons certainly has a slower pace than other Animal Crossing games, partially because you have to work to get things up and running on the island at the start," Kallie Plagge wrote in GameSpot's Animal Crossing: New Horizons review-in-progress. "And while I'm impatient to discover what upgrades might be coming my way (and I need to mess around with Island Designer more), I still feel as though I've done a lot on my island. I've crafted tons of furniture, upgraded my house seven times, picked thousands of weeds, and done far too many drastic outfit changes. I'm as excited to see what random events await me each morning as I am to decorate my island and make it my own, and that's sure to keep me coming back for the foreseeable future."

There's still time to pre-order Animal Crossing: New Horizons ahead of its launch. You can read more about where to get the game and what pre-order bonuses are available in our New Horizons pre-order guide. You can also snag some New Horizons items in the series' mobile game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, thanks to the ongoing crossover event.