Here's the link to the livestream again in a convenient location!

EDIT: Here's the Direct in video form.

And here's the UK version of the stream. I'll be sticking with the US link myself, though, as the UK Directs often lag a few seconds behind.

12 minutes to go, now - is everybody ready?

I've been on Nintendo's Twitch channel since 8:30. I'm so excited!

Flagging 2 more minutes!

absolutely cried

that was so beautiful

the terrain transforming, the LIGHTING in the museum, the sound of the rain!!

Literally got so excited to see Isabelle

That was fun and charming - I loved how it was completely in-character throughout.

I'm happy to see the Amiibo support turn out to be similar to that of ACNL's Welcome Amiibo update, the new island tours look fun, the museum looks amazing, there are SO MANY OPTIONS that I didn't expect at all thanks to the building-permits, and the "Dodo Code" for visiting users who aren't on your friend-list might make impromptu gatherings with other members here a lot more convenient, if I've understood that feature correctly.

EDIT: And I called the pattern-scanning in the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone application in another thread a while back - that was fun to see!

Overall I like it!

I'm scared I'm going to be bad at customizing my island. SO I guess your original map doesn't make such a big difference then.

Museum looks beautiful!

Interesting about holidays being updates...

So I have a couple of major takeaways, one good and one bad.

First, the good: The resident services center is open around the clock, which means that we can sell things at night! I remember nights in Wild World where I would go fishing and bug hunting and would progressively release the least valuable fish or bug in my pockets when I caught one that was more valuable, and would sometimes set some up in my house if all I had were super valuable ones.

Unfortunately, it looks like the island from New Leaf is back in some capacity. I'm glad to see tours return, but my biggest gripe with New Leaf was that it was too easy to complete the encyclopediae, and a big component of that was the tropical island permanently set to August where super valuable bugs and fish were commonplace and which you could access at any time. I was really hoping that that wouldn't also be the case in New Horizons, but it looks like it very well may be.

The Direct also seemed to imply that there's no in-game chat function, which is definitely concerning to me. I would probably be more concerned were I not skeptical that they would make such an odd decision. I don't have a smartphone, and the thought of not being able to communicate in-game with other people in town isn't a great one.

There's so much to absorb that I'm going to watch it again later. I don't have a cell phone, but I was never big on patterns/QR Codes. I also don't plan on playing online aside from the island games, so the chat feature isn't important to me. I'm thrilled to know amiibo will be supported as I have every amiibo card. Everything looks so beautiful! I'm really looking forward to buying this game next month.

"I don't have a smartphone, and the thought of not being able to communicate in-game with other people in town isn't a great one."

This (and the attendant difficulty with sharing patterns) is something I'm quite irritated by as well. I do have a smartphone now, but the Nintendo app refuses to run on it.

Loved it! There's going to be so much to do, much more than the previous games had to offer. Just the beginning of the Direct where the island had nothing and then later on when there were paths, furniture, facilities and villagers enjoying it all, it really seemed to come to life and that's our job! It's going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to play online with friends so we can all show off our progress.

On the commercial that leaked yesterday, on the scene with the able sisters building, I was sure it looked like there was a small cliff on top of another cliff as the house was not beside the beach but a cliff.  Now with the new terraforming feature, I think this means we can build cliffs on cliffs!  Finally will have a three tier town again

I was blown away by how gorgeous the museum was! wow! and I am simply in awe of how much outdoor and terrain customization there will be...sooo exciting! I was also relieved to see holidays being confirmed, since he had yet to see that!

This direct left me sooo excited, I cannot wait to play ACNH!

707penguin, GoldenCelebi - I have a phone that can run the application, but I don't wish to use it (I play some games competitively and got harassed a bunch on previous consoles, which is just a laughable waste of my time, so I'm perfectly happy with the default setup of that being absent entirely if you don't connect your account to the app ), so having to use a separate device to use a touch-screen keyboard when the Switch itself already has a touch-screen is aggravating, and I hope that it's just an oversight that they didn't show an in-built one.

Even the pattern-scanning feature can't make me change my mind. Though at the very least there's a way around that, which I've just posted a separate thread about.

I was also impressed by how beautiful the museum is.

As for the holidays being added in later, what I'm getting from this is that the game isn't actually finished yet and they chose to put off developing holidays for later rather than delay the entire game again, which I suppose is the right choice.

I am very excited after watching the direct. I cannot wait for the 20th!

Does anyone have any speculation about how we will get the museum, the Able Sister's, and Nook's Cranny? They kept saying "We" will work on upgrading the island. I hope these staples come quickly.

It looked stunning and I can't wait to get into it. My island will be a water-filled paradise with a massive lake within the middle of the island.

I have to say I think I'm most excited about the terraforming feature.

"The Direct also seemed to imply that there's no in-game chat function, which is definitely concerning to me. I would probably be more concerned were I not skeptical that they would make such an odd decision. I don't have a smartphone, and the thought of not being able to communicate in-game with other people in town isn't a great one."


Where was that implied?

Looks like there is a chat interface on the Nookphone at 25:23 in the video (where you can communicate with your "best friends"), sort of like your friends tab in New Leaf with a "send to all" button indicating that you can send a message to all your "best friends" that your town is open or whatever.

I'm soooo glad we can relocate buildings because the thing I was most anxious about was choosing a spot for a major building and wanting to move it later

the museum is absolutely gorgeous!!! the new museum has always been a favourite part of each new game for me and NH's museum DOES NOT disappoint

the norther lights are soooo incredible as well! in the past they looked a bit cartoony, but they look so realistic and beautiful now

AND THE SNOW! IT GLITTERS AT NIGHT! I've always loved how snow glitters in real life and I'm so happy to see that in game. PLUS THE TREES WITH THE WHITE LEAVES! god I don't usually use words like gorgeous and stunning and beautiful but I don't know how else to describe this game

I wonder how many levels you can add to a town with terraforming. could you potentially make your town into one big staircase if you wanted?

my only minor disappointment is that the haircut we saw before on the render of the girl in the pink shirt catching bugs is actually a long haircut with one side tucked behind the ear, instead of a short asymmetrical cut like I had hoped

707penguin I agree about being a bit worried about the difficulty of the game due to tours. :/ And same for the holidays. If adding them as updates means that they'll get enough time to make them good, then *shrug* But I definitely wasn't expecting it.

Mr_Zora_Decu cliffs on cliffs on cliffs

julphi I agree!!

Pathos Yeah considering that the best friends chat feature is in the game I'd think that in-game chatting would also be supported.

I've been eyeing up screenshots that show more customized/decorated towns, seems great!

"Where was that implied?

Looks like there is a chat interface on the Nookphone at 25:23 in the video (where you can communicate with your 'best friends'), sort of like your friends tab in New Leaf with a 'send to all' button indicating that you can send a message to all your 'best friends' that your town is open or whatever."

At 16:01 it shows off the smartphone chat and seems to imply that that is the way to chat online.

It looks like you can send a message that your town is open but that doesn't mean that you can actually input anything beyond that.

At 16:01 it shows off the smartphone chat and seems to imply that that is the way to chat online.

It looks like you can send a message that your town is open but that doesn't mean that you can actually input anything beyond that.

I think that chat icon on the smartphone is what opens up the "best friends" chat, where you can chat privately with your friends (like in New Leaf), but you should be able to talk in your town normally just like all the other games before it.

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean. They want you to download a smartphone app. Hopefully that's just a convenient thing you can do and not the only way you can chat in your town.

"I wonder how many levels you can add to a town with terraforming."

What I'm curious about is whether it's possible to make new cliff areas as well as just changing the position of the ones you already have. It looks like at the beginning of the game, there will be three different levels to the island, something like this:

1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3
1 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

It would be cool to try to do something like this:

1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2
1 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 1 2
2 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3