We’re (Finally) Getting an Animal Crossing Direct

Since Nintendo’s E3 2019 presentation, we’ve seen incredibly little information on Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now, at long last, Nintendo has announced an Animal Crossing Nintendo Direct is on the way.

The Direct is due to take place this Thursday, February 20, 2020. It’s set to reveal an “in-depth look” at the game, which is just shy of four weeks away from release. The broadcast will show approximately 25 minutes of new information, streamed across Nintendo’s YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages. You can watch the Direct at 6 am PT/9 am ET / 2 pm GMT.

It’s been an incredibly painful wait for Animal Crossing fans everywhere. Players have spent months picking apart various screenshots and commercials. Nintendo has dropped small nuggets of information here and there, but there’s been no major update in over nine months.

Nintendo originally announced Animal Crossing in 2018 with an original release date of 2019. However, during Nintendo’s E3 2019 Direct, they revealed that the release date would be pushed back to March 20, 2020, in order to give developers a better work/life balance. A decently long Nintendo Treehouse episode accompanied the presentation. We saw roughly 24 minutes of gameplay through Treehouse back in June, but since then, there’s been little information.

Recent Animal Crossing: New Horizons announcements haven’t been particularly well-received. Nintendo recently announced that Animal Crossing: New Horizons would not support cloud saving. They also confirmed that there would only be one island per Switch, a huge blow to many fans. Nintendo somewhat backtracked on their first statement, saying that “the ability to recover Animal Crossing: New Horizons save data from the server in the event of console failure, loss or theft will be available to Nintendo Switch Online members sometime in the future.”

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will arrive on Nintendo Switch on March 20, 2020. A gorgeous Animal Crossing-themed switch is also available for pre-order, releasing March 13, 2020.

Are you excited about the Animal Crossing Direct? Let us know in the comments below!