In an interview with Polygon, Programming Management Group Senior Director Takuhiro Dohta (who is the lead director on the Switch 2) confirmed that your island save data will transfer over at the same time you opt to do a system transfer from your OG Switch to the Nintendo Switch.
That's right, no need for the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island Transfer Tool app or a chat with Nintendo to get your data transferred via the cloud; everything will move over all at once.
Essentially, when you use the system transfer, all of your data will remain on the original Switch while also copying over to the Switch 2. The exception is with Animal Crossing, however, which Dohta confirms that the "island will be an actual move. So it will leave Nintendo Switch and move over to Nintendo Switch 2.”
So, you can't have the island on both the old and new console, but at least you don't need to muck around with additional apps or the like. It's much, much easier to make the move to Switch 2. The only issue is if you're planning to trade the old Switch in to get a Switch 2. You might want to hold off on that for a bit...
A bunch of Nintendo Switch games will be getting free updates to improve playability on the new console, and while it's not part of the line-up just yet, we hope Animal Crossing joins the list, because some of those load times are a little brutal. We'll see!
It should keep you busy at least until the next Animal Crossing game is announced.
Will you be transferring your old Switch island to Switch 2? Let us know in the comments!
