Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC Hinted at by ESRB Rating

Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC could be in the game’s future. While the official teaser site for the game’s ESRB raing only mentions “Comic Mischief” and “Users Interact” as two advisories, the Nintendo.com product page adds another notice. There, the ESRB rating adds another notice: “In-Game Purchases.”

The ESRB’s “In-Game Purchases” label was added back in February 2018. The goal of this new advisory level is a means of alerting shoppers and perhaps parents of games that would have additional purchases like microtransactions and DLC.

While Nintendo has not announced any Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC, the series has had paid and free purchases before. Past Animal Crossing installments, like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, allowed people to go through WiFi or SpotPass to get free items like furniture or clothing. People could also purchase amiibo card to use with the game. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp allows people to use real cash to buy Leaf Tickets, which can then be put toward items.

Animal Crossing: New Horizon will come to the Nintendo Switch on March 20, 2020. Its special Nintendo Switch model will be released on March 13, 2020, with people in Japan able to buy its dock and Joy-Cons separately. In addition, Nintendo recently confirmed a save backup option will be available after initially saying one wouldn’t be supported.