‘Animal Crossing’ time travel reveals game will stop functioning in 2061

The tried and true method of time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons seems to have revealed that the game will stop working when the player gets to the year 2061.

Whilst time travel – where the player changes the date on their console clock to move the in-game days – is a longstanding Animal Crossing tradition, it appears that Nintendo hasn’t accounted for the practise past the 2060’s in New Horizons.

A Reddit user (via GamesRadar) discovered an in-game message that prevents players from accessing the game if the Nintendo Switch’s clock goes past 2061, it reads:

“Please close the game from the home menu and restart after setting the date between 1/1/2000 and 31/12/2060”. According to the Reddit post the game is unplayable at this point.

In new horizons you can’t play after 2061 the game will display that message from AnimalCrossing

While this won’t impact many players, it’s interesting to see that Nintendo recognises players wanting to time travel, even if the game’s clock doesn’t seem to work past the end of 2060. That gives players around 38 years to get everything they want to do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons if they never time travel, which is probably enough time.

Players could always of course rewind the clock in 2061, but new Animal Crossing games and Nintendo consoles likely will have come and gone by that point either way.

For those with a hankering for more Nintendo action, we’ve compiled a list of all the times you can play the Mario Strikers: Battle League Football demo online this weekend.

In other news, an Elden Ring mod has turned the game into a randomiser, as every boss drop, item, enemy placement and key item can be switched around and customised. “In the best case, I hope the randomiser gives players an experience of discovery and adaptation not always found in normal re-playthroughs,” said mod creator Matt Gruen.

The tried and true method of time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons seems to have revealed that the game will stop working when the player gets to the year 2061.

Whilst time travel – where the player changes the date on their console clock to move the in-game days – is a longstanding Animal Crossing tradition, it appears that Nintendo hasn’t accounted for the practise past the 2060’s in New Horizons.

A Reddit user (via GamesRadar) discovered an in-game message that prevents players from accessing the game if the Nintendo Switch’s clock goes past 2061, it reads:

“Please close the game from the home menu and restart after setting the date between 1/1/2000 and 31/12/2060”. According to the Reddit post the game is unplayable at this point.

In new horizons you can’t play after 2061 the game will display that message from AnimalCrossing

While this won’t impact many players, it’s interesting to see that Nintendo recognises players wanting to time travel, even if the game’s clock doesn’t seem to work past the end of 2060. That gives players around 38 years to get everything they want to do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons if they never time travel, which is probably enough time.

Players could always of course rewind the clock in 2061, but new Animal Crossing games and Nintendo consoles likely will have come and gone by that point either way.

For those with a hankering for more Nintendo action, we’ve compiled a list of all the times you can play the Mario Strikers: Battle League Football demo online this weekend.

In other news, an Elden Ring mod has turned the game into a randomiser, as every boss drop, item, enemy placement and key item can be switched around and customised. “In the best case, I hope the randomiser gives players an experience of discovery and adaptation not always found in normal re-playthroughs,” said mod creator Matt Gruen.