Animal Crossing New Horizons will support cloud backup, but only if you lose or damage your Switch

After some consternation earlier in the week with reports that Animal Crossing wouldn’t support the transfer of user data between consoles, on top of it not supporting cloud saves – Nintendo has made a statement.

This game does not support Nintendo Switch Online Cloud Saves, but we are currently looking into a customized method for backing save data up that will be specific to this game in the event that your Nintendo Switch is damaged or lost. This function will be limited to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. The timing of implementation is undecided and will be announced as soon as it is finalized.

Translation thanks to Alex Aniel

So Animal Crossing New Horizons won’t support cloud saves at launch, but it will at some point in the future, but, you’ll only be able to use if your Switch is lost or damaged. This new customised way of backing up will be announced when finalised.

This same page also confirms that you will not be able to transfer your island to another machine.

This game does not support User Migration or Save Data Migration functionalities. If you purchase a second Nintendo Switch, you will not be able to move your original island to the other unit.

Translation thanks to Alex Aniel

Better have a long think about what Switch console you start playing Animal Crossing on first!