ACNH 3.0 update finally adds multiple islands per device, but there’s a problem

Nintendo surprised everyone last week by announcing a huge new update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. After more than five years, the beloved Animal crossing The title will receive new content on January 15, 2026. The free update will bring many new features, including a huge hotel with new rooms to decorate and characters to befriend.

As exciting as the hotel addition is, there will be an even more notable update in the next ACNH Update 3.0. According to Nintendo’s preview video, the update will finally allow players to create multiple islands, something fans have been asking for for years. Unfortunately, there are several pitfalls.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update 3.0 will finally allow players to design multiple islands

Up to three island designs can be saved at a time

Animal Crossing: New Horizons had a limited form of multiplayer, thanks to the Drowzee-like tapir character Luna. With Luna’s help, players could download a copy of their real-life islands into the “dream world”. where other players could visit and explore it. Neither visitors nor creators could make changes to these static dream islands.

With the advent of the new free update, these dream islands will now be fully customizable, both in single player and in multiplayer mode. Players can now create up to three dream islands from scratchwith complete control over the size of the island and every tree condition and decoration style that goes into it.

This incredible amount of customization allows players to experiment with fun new island designs without having to restart their main islands. These islands also allow up to 12 friends to freely design islands together in multiplayer.

This also solves a huge problem players are having with ACNH: you can only have one island per Switch (or Switch 2) console. Players who want to redesign their islands can’t just create a new save file; they must completely destroy their current island. The new Dream Islands allow you to have multiple islands without having to sacrifice work hours on an existing island.

Creating multiple islands in ACNH will be limited to dream islands

A Nintendo Online subscription is required

As exciting as it is to finally have a way to create more than one island at a time, dream islands have several significant limitations. One problem is that using all three Dream locations and creating Dream Islands requires Nintendo Online membership.

A basic individual Nintendo membership costs $19.99 per year or $34.99 for a family membership, so it’s not a huge extra charge. However, the online-only existence of Dream Islands means fans will have to pay extra to unlock more island designs. This also means that anyone who ends their Nintendo Online membership will likely lose access to their Dream Island creations.

The other big problem with the one-island-per-device policy is that Sharing a Switch device also means sharing an island. Being able to design multiple islands is great, but an even bigger feature that’s still missing is giving each user their own individual island.

Although this does not solve all the problems, the possibility of creating several islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a huge step forward for the franchise. The multiplayer aspect is also a fun bonus, although the entire feature comes at a price. This update could be a preview of what’s to come for the Animal crossing franchise, so I hope that the next title in the series will be integrated with dedicated spaces for each user.