Animal Crossing: New Horizons free and paid DLC add a ton of new content next month
As promised, today Nintendo debuted a new Direct centered entirely around Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In it, Nintendo revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting a boatload of new content through both an upcoming free update and paid DLC. It seems like a lot is coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons next month, but unfortunately, today's Direct had some rather disappointing news as well in that this upcoming content update – Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 – will be the last major free one for the game.
While it's sad to hear that Animal Crossing: New Horizons won't be getting any more major free content updates, we're going out with a bang here. On November 5th, this update will go live, and with it, Brewster will be showing up on our islands. After completing a request from Blathers, Brewster will set up his cafe – The Roost – in the museum, where players will be able to kick back and have a cup of coffee with friends and residents alike.
The free content update will also add boat tours with Kapp'n to the game. Kapp'n will take players to mysterious remote islands that may have different flora from what we see on our home islands. The islands players visit may also have different seasons or different times of day, so they could be a good way to get seasonal or time-sensitive stuff outside of their usual windows of availability.
This update will also add new features like Gyroids, cooking, an open market on Harv's Island that players can help develop, and expanded home storage. It adds quite a bit, but this free update only comprises one part of the inbound content for New Horizons. On the same day this update goes live, Nintendo will also launch paid DLC for New Horizons called Happy Home Paradise.
In this DLC, players will visit an island archipelago and design vacation homes for Animal Crossing characters. Each character will have specific items they want placed in their vacation homes, but beyond those, it sounds like players will be able to take the reins on interior design. Players will even be able to remodel homes by adding new structures to rooms, such as pillars, counters, ambient lighting, and even partition walls, and they'll be able to take the techniques they learn back to the mainland and apply them to the houses on their main islands.
The currency players earn from their interior (and exterior) design jobs in the archipelago can be used to purchase rare items that may not be available back at home. It sounds like an expansive DLC, and you can get all of the details about Happy Home Paradise (and the version 2.0 update) in the videos we've embedded above.
The free content update and Happy Home Paradise will be going live for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on November 5th. Happy Home Paradise will run $24.99, which is fairly steep for a DLC. However, it will also be available as part of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which costs $49.99 per year for an individual subscription or $79.99 per year for a family subscription.