Cloud saves are coming to ‘Animal Crossing’ on July 30th

Animal Crossing’s second summer update, Wave 2, arrives in just two days, and it’s bringing a much-needed feature: cloud saves. Nintendo Switch Online members will be able to enable Island Backup & Restoration Services, which will automatically upload islands and user save data to the internet at certain times. This should prevent your island from being lost forever.

Thanks to cloud saves, if your Switch is lost or damaged, you “may be able to recover your island paradise.” That doesn’t sound like a strong guarantee, but it is better than nothing. If your Switch is lost or damaged, you will have to contact Nintendo Consumer Support about restoring the island and user save data on your new or repaired device.

This feature is separate from the Save Data Cloud functionality offered for select Nintendo Switch games. According to Nintendo, “a function specific to Animal Crossing: New Horizons to move users and save data to another system is planned for later this year” and details will be announced in the future.

Wave 2 is also bringing dreams to Animal Crossing. When you go to sleep in the game, you’ll be transported to a dreamland where you’ll meet Luna. With her help, you can visit other islands in your dreams and allow others to visit your island in their dreams.

Finally, Wave 2 is adding another summer activity: weekly fireworks. The shows will begin at 7PM local time every Sunday through August. Like Wave 1, which introduced swimming, Wave 2 is adding a summer activity that you may be doing less of because of the pandemic. If you haven’t made it to many fireworks displays this year, watching them in Animal Crossing may provide some consolation.

You can look for these changes beginning July 30th. According to Nintendo, another free update will arrive this fall.