The Internet has been going gaga over Animal Crossing since a special edition Animal Crossing: New Horizons-themed Nintendo Switch was unveiled Thursday. However, interested buyers may want to consider purchasing the new hardware as a supplemental device to their current Switch rather than a replacement, as only one island will be able to exist in each device regardless of how many users are registered or how many different copies of the game are used.
This fact was dug up from the Australian Nintendo webpage for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and publicized by Animal Crossing fan community ACPocketNews on Twitter. The page talks about eight players being able to work together on one island as a selling feature, but points to a footnote describing the one-island-per-device policy.
This policy is very different than other Switch games like the incredibly selling Pokemon Sword and Shield, in which individual account holders on one device can experience their own journey through the Galar Region. In a way the idea served as a backdoor 'multiple save file' system for a long-running series that has historically lacked the option, but the similar 'one file only' Animal Crossing will not have the same luxury.
Alongside this one-island policy, the Australian Nintendo page also describes the multiplayer system in Animal Crossing: New Horizons at large, namely the fact that multiple Switch devices are required to support eight players at once. Anyone looking to skip work and get together with seven of their closest friends to terraform an island for adorable animal companions may want to keep these constraints in mind.
Though it's somewhat deflating that the new Animal Crossing will not allow for the same level of consequence-free replayability or sibling pass-and-play as something like Pokemon Sword and Shield, it makes sense considering how many intricate working parts will be involved just keeping one island alive at all hours on each given device. Those looking to run multiple islands at least have the option to find Animal Crossing: New Horizons pre-order deals related to the game at different retailers.
The design decision certainly has not seemed to affect the Animal Crossing hype train going into March. Even celebrities like Brie Larson have expressed their interest in the game's newest bundle on social media, and that fervor will likely not stop anytime soon.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons releases on March 20, 2020, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: Nintendo Australia