Animal Crossing winter update may have revealed a major Switch Pro clue

The last major Animal Crossing: New Horizons update of 2020 is almost here! The game gained a lot of traction right at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and has retained a large player base ever since thanks to its consistent updates. This free winter update brings new holidays, emotes, hairstyles, and one massive save date change.

This quality of life improvement not only makes Animal Crossing: New Horizons more accessible, but could future-proof the game if ongoing Nintendo Switch Pro rumors are true.

The winter update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons was revealed on Tuesday with a brand new trailer. While a majority of the video is dedicated to the new in-game features, one of the final reveals is that players will be able to transfer their save data to a brand new system. Before this, your island and its villagers were locked to whatever Switch system you first played the game on.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons' next update will add this feature alongside lots of other new additions on November 19, 2020.

A press release and support page about this new update reveal more about the new save data transfer feature.

Players have two options for save transfers: an Entire Island Transfer and a Resident Move Single Player Transfer. The Entire Island Transfer, as its name suggests, brings your island as well as all of your progress made to a new system.

Meanwhile, the Resident Move will let players move a players' villager, their home, and their items and storage to a new system and a seemingly fresh island. This can be done as players start a new file on a new system or if they just want to move to another island, but can't be done with a "Resident Representative," the first playable character on your island. These transfers will be done through a free Island Transfer Tool app that will be available on the Nintendo eShop starting November 19.

What does this mean for Switch Pro? The addition of this Animal Crossing: New Horizons feature is extremely well-timed. First, it is coming out just before the holidays when people might get new Nintendo Switch systems and could want to move their saves onto a new console, especially if they began their journey on a friend or family member's Switch.

That said, it's also a really important addition if the rumored Nintendo Switch Pro is released sometime in the next year. For those out of the loop, Bloomberg has consistently reported as recently as September that Nintendo is planning a mid-generation upgrade for the Nintendo Switch akin to the Xbox One X or PlayStation 4 Pro.

This rumored hardware revision that fans have deemed the Switch Pro will supposedly beef up the system's power. According to Bloomberg, Nintendo has even told developers that the system will support 4K. If these rumors turn out to be true and this upgraded system is on the way, this new Animal Crossing feature is extremely important.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the Nintendo Switch's second best-selling game at over 26 million units, so it's a game that a lot of potential Switch Pro owners would own. As such, offering players a way to easily transfer data is a necessity, and will be possible following the game's next update. The Nintendo Switch Pro has yet to be confirmed, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons is clearly ready to make that possible transition seamlessly.

If you've stopped playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons a while ago, this update gives you plenty of reasons to jump back in, especially if you're getting a new Switch system.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.