The prices have been revealed for Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and its upgrade pack, and they are slightly lower than you might have expected.
As listed on the Switch eShop, the full Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is now available to pre-order for £54.99 / $64.99, while the upgrade pack is a measly £4.19 / $4.99. Just in case the headline wasn’t enough of a giveaway, that’s the cheapest Switch 2 Edition we’ve seen from Nintendo.
For reference, Pokémon Legends: Z-A set you back £58.99 / $69.99 for the Switch 2 Edition or £7.99 / $9.99 for the upgrade path. Both Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Super Mario Party Jamboree were £66.99 / $79.99 or £16.99 / $19.99 on new hardware, and while Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom‘s upgrades were available for free to NSO subscribers, those who weren’t signed up had to pay £66.99 / $79.99 or £16.99 / $19.99 for the full next gen experience.
In short, Animal Crossing is a fair bit cheaper than we would have initially expected. But then, when we think about it, perhaps we should have expected exactly this. ACNH makes for a nice Switch 2 package, with Mouse Mode integration, improved resolutions and GameChat features to boot, but the whole thing feels a little slight compared to other S2 upgrades, no?
The frame rate, for example, remains at 30fps — the first Switch 2 Edition to not contain a boost in this department. There’s a fresh Megaphone item, but almost all of the new content is tied to the ver. 3.0 update, which is coming to Switch 1 and 2. Compare that to Kirby or Mario Party, where the upgrades contained new modes and levels, and the reduced price makes a little more sense.
So, are we pleased that New Horizons isn’t quite as expensive as the NS2 Editions that have come before it? Yes we are. But can we see why? Hmmm, probably.
