In addition to its final free Nintendo Switch update, the title, release date, price, and content of Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Happy Home Paradise DLC expansion has been revealed by Nintendo. An Animal Crossing Direct was announced during September’s Nintendo Direct, causing expectations and speculation surrounding Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ long-awaited update to soar.

Customization is a key part of the Animal Crossing franchise, and New Horizons is no slouch in that department with its wide assortment of furniture and clothing and near-endless custom design potential. However, the Nintendo Switch entry was still criticized after launch for a perceived lack of depth and missing features from past mainline and spinoff entries, with a common player and critic complaint being they felt they ran out of things to do and see at one point or another. It appears Nintendo EPD has been listening, as that will soon be changing.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise is a $25 DLC expansion releasing on November 5, and it’s also included as part of the new Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription tier. The expansive additional content will essentially allow players to design their own town for villagers to live in, Happy Home Paradise will allow players to enlist with Lottie’s Paradise Planning to design vacation homes in a similar fashion to Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. The DLC will take full advantage of the November Animal Crossing: New Horizons update’s new customization features, such as accent walls, ceiling lighting fixtures, and more, and allow resort facilities, like a restaurant, school, and hospital, to be decorated, as well.

The paid DLC expansion also coincides with the release of new Animal Crossing amiibo cards, as Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise allows players to use amiibo and amiibo cards to design homes for villagers and NPCs of their choice, with the trailer showing Isabelle and the Nooklings as examples. Because Happy Home Paradise is available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, Nintendo also revealed the new subscription tier releases October 25, as well specific pricing and upgrade path details.

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Potentially a response to Animal Crossing: New Horizons active players counts and Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions lapsing, the Happy Home Paradise DLC expansion and its inclusion in the NSO + Expansion Pack could be Nintendo’s ace in the hole for getting customers back aboard the game and the console’s premium online service. Based on the amount of content in Happy Home Paradise and the free Animal Crossing: New Horizons update, the changes and additions to the cozy life sim could be convincing enough for Switch owners.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise will be available for Nintendo Switch on November 5, 2021.

Source: Nintendo (1, 2)

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Phillip Tinner
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Phillip Tinner is a Game News Editor at Screen Rant, and he has written about all things gaming, film, and TV for the site since 2018. Phillip has a B.A. in History from Texas A&M University and is fascinated by the many areas where the virtual and real worlds meet. He can normally be found rewatching an old TV show, taking a hike, or complaining about new video games.

He hopes readers enjoy his content as much as he does researching and producing it, and he can be reached anytime on Twitter @PhilKimTin or LinkedIn.

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