free content update for the game. The update added returning characters Kapp'n and Brewster, both bringing new activities and locations to the game, as well as the ability to fund permanent locations for the game's random visiting vendors. Alongside other quality-of-life improvements, it also included new purchasable items, such as furniture and music, new villagers, and the ability to cook food via farmed crops. Announced alongside the update was paid downloadable content, entitled Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise; similar to the 2015 spinoff Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, the expansion allows players to visit a distant island and design vacation homes for villagers, and adds new customization options that can also be used on players' personal islands once learned. The version 2.0 update released on November 3, 2021, and the Happy Home Paradise add-on released on November 5, 2021. Development Development of a new main series Animal Crossing game for the Nintendo Switch was confirmed in a Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2018, with an unspecified 2019 release date. Although the game was announced in 2018, game director Aya Kyogoku confirmed that the game had begun development in 2012, shortly after the original release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan; she stated how concepts for the game were forming long before ideas for the Nintendo Switch had even existed. Hisashi Nogami and Katsuya Eguchi reprised their roles as the game's producers. Nintendo released the game's title and first trailer at its E3 2019 Nintendo Direct on June 11, 2019. The game was delayed until March 20, 2020, with Yoshiaki Koizumi stating that in order "to ensure [that] the game [was] the best it [could] be, [Nintendo had to] ask that [players] wait a little longer than [Nintendo itself] thought." Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser cited a desire to avoid crunch and maintain a healthy work–life balance for Nintendo employees as the primary reason for the delay. Nintendo's stock market value posted a 3.5% loss in reaction to the delay, amounting to a total loss in value of more than US$1 billion. Kyogoku stated that the success of the Animal Crossing series was due to the fact that the developers make each game different enough from the last, to bring appeal to newcomers yet keep the core concept for returning players. Kyogoku and Nogami stated that they selected a deserted island as