One Island Per Switch – Animal Crossing Info Bomb

Remember back when the only thing that held a save was the cartridge of the game you were playing? When if the desire was for you and your siblings to all play Pokemon Yellow, that you had to have multiple copies, even if you shared one GameBoy? Technology and the introduction of “accounts” on systems have made that system obsolete, but apparently Nintendo wants to bring that back with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

You heard that right; if you want to have multiple islands (accounts) on one Nintendo Switch, well, you are out of luck. You could have half a dozen profiles – and for my family, we do have multiple accounts on one Switch. But that doesn’t matter. One Island per Switch. That is it.

On the Australia New Horizons page, ACPocketNews uncovered a small tidbit, which says:

“Please note: only one island can exist per Nintendo Switch console, irrespective of the number of users registered to or copies of the game used on one console,” the page states. “One Nintendo Switch and one copy of the game is required for each unique island.”

This tidbit could potentially drive the sales of physical copies higher than what would normally be. We currently have 4 Nintendo Switch units in my house – one per member – and will likely get a physical copy of New Horizons so we can each use the cartridge – albeit not at the same time – and have our own islands, one per Switch.

But not everyone is fortunate enough to have multiple Nintendo Switch units, and for a company that strives to make their games as accessible as possible, this seems like an odd turn.

Listen, the hype for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is insane. Everyone and their brother want a copy, and for good reason: the franchise has a great reputation. While this isn’t likely to sour that reputation, it is an unfortunate news drop just ahead of launch.