If you're waiting for retirement before you dip your toes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it might be too late by then. Time travellers—as in those fiddling with their Switch's clocks, not actual time travellers—have discovered that, in 2061, the game will no longer be playable. Tom Nook will pack his bags and set sail, leaving behind your island and all your pals.
"Please close the game from the HOME Menu and restart after setting a date between 1/1/2000 and 31/12/2060," the error message reads (thanks, NintendoLife). You'll get this pop-up if you go forward in time to 2061, but you can easily recover your island and progress by dialling back the date on your system.
The comments of the post joke about how this means we'll get a whole new Animal Crossing in 2061, but that's 39 years away. We've had five games in the 20 years since the first Animal Crossing, so don't expect a dry spell that lengthy. Nintendo will no doubt bring KK Slider back for a few more tunes.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened with Animal Crossing. The original has an expiry date of 2030 which some players have also reached through time travel: "I remember testing this back in the day by setting the date to 12/31/30 and playing the New Year's countdown, and it just ticked up to 2031 like normal. Not sure what would have happened after that though," ImpatientCrassula wrote.
Others point out that, in 2061, the Switch will be 44 years old, making it a bona fide retro console. It might be worth a pretty penny by then if you still have one lying around, but that's some forward-thinking.
And morbidly, some comments joke that Nintendo knows something we don't, like that the world is going to end in 2061. Or maybe our islands will sink like in Club Penguin. But a common thread you'll find is people are stunned to find out how close 2061 really is. No, it's not 50 years away, and I'm sorry to tell you that.