Dropping on July 30, The update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons brings a much-requested feature with cloud saves — in addition to weekly fireworks shows and the ability to visit other players’ islands in your dreams.
Players will need to opt-in to the game’s cloud save system, which will exist separately from the Nintendo Switch’s native cloud back up service. As such, the feature will be more limited, requiring players to contact Nintendo customer service directly, with cloud saves designed exclusively for those that have had to replace or repair their Switch.
Nintendo didn’t give specifics on how frequently the game will back up your island. It sounds like backups will be irregular, however, as the company makes no promises that the island you redownload will be identical to the one you were playing on the moment your Switch dies. You will also need to be a Switch Online subscriber.
Still, it’s much better than having absolutely no way to back up your island to anything other than the console itself, and a more convenient system, one that allows the user to transfer cloud saves willingly, will be coming later in the year.
The team behind the game had promised at a Nintendo Direct before launch that this inconvenient cloud save system would come eventually, and they are finally making good on their word. Nintendo’s argument for not including cloud saves from the jump was that it didn’t want a way for players to cheat. That didn’t stop a huge chunk of the audience from “time traveling,” where they would set the system clock days or even weeks ahead to unlock certain events.
If players lie down in a bed, they can now choose to sleep, which will result in them teleporting to a dream world where they will meet the aardvark, Luna. In this dream world, you can travel to other people’s islands, but nothing is permanent, allowing players to explore without the fear of messing up another island resident’s home. This new feature seems to be utilizing the game’s new cloud system to make this happen and is extremely similar to the Dream Suite in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
In addition, every Sunday in August at 7 p.m. local time, the island will have a fireworks show, during which players can buy raffle tickets and win prizes.
This will likely be the last new content for the summer, with Nintendo teasing a fall update next with a jack-o’-lantern image. Meaning now is the perfect time to get started: Jump into the deep end with our Animal Crossing beginners guide. Good luck!
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