Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be unplayable in 38 years, just in case you planned to be playing for that long

Brewster has returned in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will stop players from accessing their islands in 2061, 38 years from now. 

As discovered by a fan and shared in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons subreddit, Nintendo has set a limit on the number of years Nintendo Switch users can play Animal Crossing: New Horizons

After assumingly setting the date of the console to 38 years in the future, the player below attempted to boot up the island getaway game only to see a message which read: "Please close the game from the home menu and restart after setting a date between 1/1/2000 - 31/12/2060."

in_new_horizons_you_cant_play_after_2061_the_game from r/AnimalCrossing

If you do happen to still be playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2061, don’t panic. You can always just rewind time on the console and get another 60 years worth of island fun from the game. 

It’s also extremely likely that we would have all moved on by then though, playing with a new Nintendo console several generations in the future. If anything, it could mean we should expect at least one new Animal Crossing game at some point in the next three four decades, so look forward to that. 

Although you’ll still be able to visit your island for another 38 years, Nintendo has officially stopped rolling out free new content for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as revealed during the Animal Crossing Direct last October. We got a tonne of new features in the game including The Roost cafe, Kapp’n boat tours, Harv’s Island, and more. But Nintendo says this will be the "last free major content update" for the game.

In other Animal Crossing: New Horizons news, Nintendo has revealed it is releasing a real-life critterpedia. The encyclopedia was designed to educate kids about the world’s ecosystem, this includes all of the fish, bugs, and sea creatures you can catch in New Horizons. Unfortunately, it looks like the book and accompanying DVD won’t be released outside of Japan. 

Looking for ways to keep busy on your island for the next 38 years? Find out everything you should be doing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.