The release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now less than two months away, and officially-confirmed details about this highly-anticipated game still remain relatively sparse. Indeed, Nintendo has yet to give players an extremely thorough look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and fans have thus been turning to alternative sources for information. One such source is the game's official ESRB rating description, which suggests that ACNH may have DLC, microtransactions, or both.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' ESRB rating states that the title will have "in-game purchases," which is likely to bring the idea of microtransactions to mind for many players. Certainly, with the vast array of collectibles and cosmetics that are sure to be found in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it is not difficult to imagine how microtransactions might be implemented, and perhaps fans will find that they can purchase the game's clothing, furniture, and more with real world money.
However, it is also possible that the in-game purchases being referred to by the ESRB rating description are paid Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC packages that may be planned for the future. This scenario is something that fans saw recently with Pokemon Sword and Shield, which were also said to contain in-game purchases that ultimately turned out to be paid DLC, and it would thus not be extremely surprising if this was again the case with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
As with microtransactions, it is easy to imagine Animal Crossing: New Horizons with DLC, and ongoing post-launch support could be a great way to keep players engaged with the title. This DLC could manifest as new sets of furniture and clothing or even new islands to explore, and assuming that the price is right, there are undoubtedly many Animal Crossing fans that would be happy to extend their time with the game through add-ons.
That said, without Nintendo's official confirmation neither microtransactions nor DLC can be considered definitive. Hopefully this is something the developer will touch on soon, perhaps in the rumored February 2020 Nintendo Direct, giving fans a better sense of exactly what they can expect from Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons releases on March 20, 2020, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: Nintendo