Several days ago, Nintendo released the Winter Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Like previous content expansions, AC:NH's Winter Update is set to transition players' islands to the new season, including new events, new visiting villagers, a slew of new items and DIY recipes, and many more. Additionally, the Winter Update adds two new features to the game, allowing players to expand their in-game storage and a new hairstyle collection.
However, despite the many new things that the Winter Update has added to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players should remember that it also patched in a limitation to time travel. Since the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players can change the system time and date on their Switch, allowing players to time travel and trigger events before their scheduled release date. So how will this affect players who like to utilize time traveling in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
Time Travel is Now Limited
Immediately after the release of the Winter Update, Nintendo has now imposed a limitation on time travel. Right now, players won't be able to travel forwards in time, and the reason why Nintendo did this is to ensure that all players get to experience the upcoming Turkey and Toy Day events at the same time. Of course, apart from this, time travel limitation also has indirect effects on players who utilize this exploit to purchase turnips ahead of time and sell them to other players who have Nook's Cranny offering to buy them at a low price.
Moreover, the time travel limitation could also mean that players won't do their usual chores in Animal Crossing: New Horizons faster than usual. To the uninitiated, some players use the time travel exploits to get more resources such as Iron and Wood that are used for crafting and grinding for Nook Miles to upgrade their houses in a flash. Additionally, time travel is also used to spawn certain visiting characters such as Saharah, Redd, and others, who visit the island on certain schedules.
Will This Limitation Be Permanent?
At the moment, it is currently unclear whether the time travel limitation will be a permanent part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is worth noting that unlike in previous Animal Crossing games, Nintendo doesn't really mind if players change the date and time on their consoles to travel through time in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is why it has been available in the first place. However, as previously mentioned, the one thing that Nintendo did not like with the ability to time travel is when players travel forward to unlock in-game events earlier than scheduled.
It is possible that after the Toy Day event, Nintendo will release another patch to reverse the limitation on time travel, though this appears to be unlikely. During the preview trailer for the Winter Update, Nintendo teased that another big expansion is set to arrive in Animal Crossing: New Horizons next year, which means that there will be more events scheduled in the coming months, and reversing the time travel feature would once again allow players to experience events earlier than intended.
Nonetheless, at least Nintendo did not get rid of time travel altogether, given that players can still travel backward in time. Of course, veteran time travelers would know that having the ability to go back in the past allows them to experience in-game events that they couldn't attend, including all the content they have missed. As of now, it appears that the limitation will be permanent, but that remains to be seen after the Toy Day event, which falls on November 24th.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
