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Ewan is Deputy Editor for ScreenRant's gaming section. He still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase, and knows more about The Legend of Zelda and Doctor Who than is probably healthy.
Ewan oversees the content operation of ScreenRant's gaming output, working with a talented team of writers and editors to cover everything from the latest GTA 6 news to the indie games you need on your radar.
Former Editor of GAMINGbible, Ewan also has words at Kotaku, Den of Geek, NME, and UNILAD. He's appeared on various podcasts, including VGC's and BBC's Let's Talk About Tech.
It's been almost six years since Animal Crossing: New Horizons first released and took the world by storm, offering players around the world an escape just as we were locking ourselves down to prevent the spread of COVID. What a wild, terrible time that was. Now, the game that may genuinely give some of you unsettling lockdown flashbacks is set to return with two major updates.
The first update is the massive, feature-packed 3.0 update. We'll also be getting a Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade that comes with its own unique features specific to Nintendo's latest console. Both of these updates are set to release tomorrow, January 15, but what time? Let's take a look.
What Time Does Animal Crossings: New Horizon's 3.0 Update Launch?
Nothing has been confirmed just yet
While release times have yet to be officially confirmed, previous updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons have followed a specific pattern. As pointed out by Polygon, updates for the game tend to drop at 10am JST on the day of release. That means we're looking at the following times in each timezone, assuming the pattern holds.
- 5 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (west coast of North America)
- 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (east coast of North America)
- 10 p.m. BRT on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (Brazil)
- 1 a.m. GMT on Thursday, Jan. 15 (United Kingdom)
- 2 a.m. CET on Thursday, Jan. 15 (Western Europe)
- 12 p.m. AEDT on Thursday, Jan. 15 for (Australia)
As you can see above, time zone trickery means some of you might actually get to play the game a day early depending on where you live, technically speaking.
We May All Be Able To Play Early
Watch this space
However, it's also worth noting that Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is getting a physical release on January 15, which will likely come with Switch 2-specific update already installed. There'll also be a digital upgrade pack released via the Nintendo eShop and, as Animal Crossing World points out, it would be odd if players could access the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game without the 3.0 update features. Odd, but certainly not impossible.
If we assume Nintendo wants to sidestep this, it could well be that we all get to play the update earlier than expected. If Nintendo chooses to drop the updates as soon as the upgrade pack is released in New Zealand, we'd be looking at the following times:
- 3 a.m. PST on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (west coast of North America)
- 6 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (east coast of North America)
- 8 a.m. BRT on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (Brazil)
- 11 a.m. GMT on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (United Kingdom)
- 12 p.m. CET on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (Western Europe)
- 8 p.m. JST on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (Japan)
- 10 p.m. AEDT on Wednesday, Jan. 14 (Australia)
We're about half an hour away from 11am GMT on January 14 here in the UK at the time of writing, so I'll be sure to update you if Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 does indeed go live early. Watch this space.
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