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Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the biggest Nintendo Switch release of the first half, is almost here!
The next installment of the social simulation franchise will be arriving this Friday to give players the opportunity to maintain and run your own private island. Players can do daily activities, invite friends over to your island or even visit theirs.
In a time such as this, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is just what fans of the franchise - and those looking to sink hours into a game - will need. Here's when and how you can download the new game.
WHAT TIME CAN YOU DOWNLOAD ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is set to release Friday, March 20, but It's never easy to predict when titles appear on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
According to the official Nintendo Support page, here's when players can expect to download games from the virtual store.
"Certain games are available for pre-purchase on Nintendo eShop prior to their release date. When you pre-purchase a game, a non-playable version of the game will be pre-loaded to your system at the time of your order. You'll be able to start playing it after downloading a small update, beginning at 12:00 a.m. EST on the game's release date. (Please note that some third-party titles are not available until 12:00 p.m. PST on the game's release date.)"
If the above is correct, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be ready to download at 12 a.m. EDT on Friday.
However, some users have claimed in the past that they were able to play certain titles as early as 11 p.m. the day before when the title was pre-loaded. Whatever the case may be, gamers will need to wait until late Thursday or overnight Friday to download the game.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS
To download Animal Crossing: New Horizons digitally prospective players must enter the Nintendo eShop with a strong internet connection. Usually new titles are featured on the front page, but buyers can manually search for the title as well.
Once the game has been selected, you can purchase the title and begin the download by selecting the "download" button. Nintendo Switch owners only need 6.2 GB of memory to download Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available March 20 for Nintendo Switch.
Are you excited for the new Animal Crossing game? Will this be your first experience with the franchise? Let us know in the comments section.
About the writer
Phillip Martinez is a game and culture reporter for Newsweek. Prior to joining Newsweek in 2018, he was a reporter ... Read more