Digital Animal Crossing: New Horizons pre-purchase begins February 8th with pre-loading

5 years ago Justin 1 Comment

We’ve had plenty of pre-orders opportunities come up for physical copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in practically every region of the world, but what if you’re more into having a digital download version?

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has had a page listing up on the European Nintendo eShop as far back as late December, yet pre-orders still haven’t been available on the eShop despite that. And in North America and Europe, there hasn’t been any eShop pages at all for the game!

Thankfully, we’ve finally got an official date for when digital pre-purchases will begin on the Nintendo eShop for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or at least in Japan.

According to Nintendo’s Japanese post alongside the special edition system announced today, both digital pre-purchases and physical pre-orders in Japan will start on February 8th!

And not only will pre-purchases begin on February 8th, but pre-loading for New Horizons will start too. This means you can download the full game on your Nintendo Switch in advance so when the game launches on March 20th, your console will only have to download a small unlock key to begin playing!

The start date of digital download orders also came with a stern warning about the limitations of only having one single island per Nintendo Switch system, regardless of the number of copies you buy. For more information on this restriction, read our article on the topic here.

Finally, we must note that the announced date is technically only for Japan at this time, but we fully expect that pre-purchases will go live on the same date elsewhere in the world as time is running out anyway. That said, a small overseas delay is always possible.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches worldwide in less than two months from now on March 20th! Check out our release date countdown here, or pre-order the game here. Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for more news as we approach the release!

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