Official Animal Crossing: New Horizons 4K screenshots fuel Switch Pro rumours

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch items
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Recent Animal Crossing: New Horizons screenshots have potentially given fans their first look at the game running on the heavily-rumoured Nintendo Switch Pro

As initially discovered by Animal Crossing World, the screenshots, which were shared by Nintendo, appear to have a much higher resolution than the standard 1920 x 1080p we are used to seeing from the standard Nintendo Switch console, coming in at a whopping 5760 x 3240p. 

The folks at Animal Crossing World also discovered that if the tweet is viewed on a high-resolution device, for example, a PC with 4K capabilities, Twitter will “automatically load the screenshot at a 4K-like resolution of 4096 x 2304.” Not only this, but they also found that loading the images on the Twitter mobile app gives some devices the option to ‘load in 4K’ which will also bring the screenshot up to a higher resolution. 

This naturally, has caused many to wonder if these screenshots were taken and shared via the highly speculated Nintendo Switch Pro - which supposedly supports 4K visuals when docked, especially since this isn’t the first time a higher resolution image has been uploaded of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In fact, this new image size can be traced back to the start of 2021 and features on all three of the major Animal Crossing Twitter accounts for North America, Japan, and the U.K. 

Whenever there is an update or new limited-time items introduced into Animal Crossing; the official Animal Crossing Twitter account which is “run by” staple character Isabelle will share the news via the account along with screenshots of the new additions before they are available to the public. These higher quality screenshots in question are of the limited-time Boat Festival items

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However, as with all of the Nintendo Switch Pro rumours we’ve been hearing over the last year or so, we have to take this discovery with a grain of salt. Perhaps we will get some more clarity on Tuesday when Nintendo’s E3 2021 event will be kicking off. Fingers crossed we finally get to see our first look at the Nintendo Switch Pro, and maybe even get a big new update for Animal Crossing, which has also been rumoured recently.

If you're looking for a TV capable of taking advantage of a new Switch, these Prime Day TV deals might be a great place to start.

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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.