Animal Crossing: New Horizons villagers, it's time to dust off that Nintendo Switch and head back to the island. This week, Nintendo dropped its long-awaited 3.0 free content update.
The update includes a new resort hotel, run by the family of Kapp'n, the sea turtle who takes players on boat tours. You can decorate guest rooms at the hotel, purchase new furniture and clothing and dress mannequins.
You can tidy up your island with the character Resetti's Reset Service as well as upgrade your home storage to stash up to 9,000 items, which also includes the ability to keep plants and flowers in your storage. Some new items are also available, including some classic Nintendo game consoles. Those come with an extra perk for Nintendo Switch Online members, who can actually play select classic Nintendo games online when you interact with those consoles. Other new additions include Lego items along with characters and items from The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon games.
If you've got a Nintendo Switch Online membership, you can try out a new addition to the game called Slumber Island, where you design and save up to three new islands and play online with friends. You can build and design the islands collaboratively with your friends and invite residents from your home island to visit your new creations.
To install the update, turn on your Nintendo Switch and follow the prompts, and the new update will be installed fairly automatically. Just a warning that if, like me, you haven't played in a while, your character will need to shake the sleep out of their hair, stomp all the cockroaches that have infiltrated their home and deal with your villagers pointedly asking where the heck you've been for a year.
The addition of a boutique hotel with rooms that the player can decorate is probably the biggest change. Head down to the pier to check out the new hotel, and Tom Nook, island boss, will explain how that works.
The company announced the update back in October, but it was not scheduled to arrive until Jan. 15, though it dropped one day early. It's an extra treat because, back in 2021, the company announced that the version 2.0 update, released in November of that year, would be the final major free content update.
Thankfully, Nintendo rethought that decision, though some of us are still eagerly awaiting eventual news of an entirely new Animal Crossing game. (With the Nintendo Switch 2 now out, there's no way Nintendo is getting off the AC gravy train, right?) A representative for Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.