
When you pre-purchase a game, a non-playable version of the game will be pre-loaded to your system at the time of your order.

The following statement from the NoA website confirms this: This is the standard pre-order unlock procedure for major first-party games by Nintendo of America and can be expected to continue for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Mountain Time: 10:00PM CDT (March 19th).In North America, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will launch for you at a different time depending on where you are located! Here’s a quick cheat sheet below… North America (United States / Canada / Mexico) Note that unlocking the pre-load requires an internet connection to download a very small update enabling the game to be encrypted and playable. However, there is a major exception to this rule for North America in particular. Generally speaking, you can start playing your Animal Crossing: New Horizons digital copy from the Nintendo eShop unlocked at 12:00AM on March 20th, 2020 in your country. And yes, that means you could play Animal Crossing: New Horizons a number of hours earlier depending on the eShop region!

The answer to that will depend on where you live, or rather which Nintendo eShop you purchase your copy from, as Nintendo does not release games simultaneously worldwide. We’ve reached single digits of days remaining until Animal Crossing: New Horizons is released to the world on March 20th! The digital download version will be the fastest way to get started, but exactly when can you begin playing?
