Animal Crossing: New Horizons May Get Paid Content [Update]

Update: It appears the ESRB rating for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo's website has been changed. As spotted by Nintendo Life, the rating no longer mentions "in-game purchases," so it remains unclear whether or not the title will receive some kind of paid content as originally suggested. The original story follows.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be getting some kind of paid add-on content. According to the ESRB rating on New Horizons' Eshop page (as spotted by VGC), the title contains "in-game purchases," although it's unclear whether this could take the form of microtransactions similar to those found in the series' mobile spin-off, Pocket Camp, or some larger kind of DLC.

While Nintendo has not yet made any announcements regarding DLC plans for New Horizons, it's worth noting that the ESRB ratings for other Switch games, such as Luigi's Mansion 3 and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, similarly mention "in-game purchases," and both those titles received paid expansions. The former is getting two packs of additional multiplayer content this year; the latter, meanwhile, is receiving the fourth part of its expansion pass--the Cindered Shadows DLC--later this week.

We've been gradually learning more details about New Horizons in the lead up to its launch next month. It was recently confirmed the game will only allow one island per Nintendo Switch console. New Horizons also won't support Nintendo Switch Online's cloud save backup feature, but Nintendo will give Switch Online subscribers some way to recover their save data should something happen to their Switch. This feature, however, will be available sometime after launch.

New Horizons launches around the world on March 20. The game is available to pre-purchase digitally on the Switch Eshop. You can earn up to 300 My Nintendo Gold points for purchasing the digital version, and it is also eligible for the Switch Voucher offer if you still have any remaining vouchers. You can read more in our Animal Crossing: New Horizons pre-order guide.

Ahead of New Horizons, Nintendo will release a special Animal Crossing-themed Switch on March 13. This console comes with pastel green and blue Joy-Cons and a white dock featuring Tom Nook and his nephews. If you're hoping to pick one up, however, you may be out of luck, as the system is currently sold out at all major retailers.