In November 2021, Nintendo confirmed that update 2.0 would be the last for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The yearly events would still surface, but there would be no more new additions to one of its best-selling games of all time. That was until late last year, when version 3.0 was revealed, alongside a Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game.
Given that Nintendo had vowed to end support four years prior, it came as a huge surprise, and the assumption was that would truly be it, with Nintendo laying New Horizons to rest.
In time for the series' 25th anniversary, however, Nintendo has released one more update, which consists mostly of bug fixes, but includes one brand-new item to celebrate the latest milestone.
Animal Crossing was originally a N64 title in Japan, known as Dōbutsu no Mori, released on April 14, 2001. It came to the West a year later, with the Nintendo GameCube version of Animal Crossing.
In its official patch notes for today's update, Nintendo reveals that, a quarter of a century since the release of Dōbutsu no Mori, "A commemorative item for the 25th anniversary of the Animal Crossing series has been added."...
