If you’ve played a recent Nintendo game, you’ve probably been bombarded with quite a few references to other Nintendo properties. It’s fairly common to turn on one of their titles and see several Easter eggs that allude to Zelda, Pokemon, Metroid, or any other of their successful franchises. So it’s not surprising that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is also swarming with these references.
It’s even possible to buy a Nintendo Switch inside this game that’s being played on a Nintendo Switch, which is pretty meta. What’s even crazier about this is that the process of buying this handheld system in New Horizons is actually a rather obscure Easter egg that only Japanese Nintendo fans would have caught.
While buying the tiny, digital Switch inside New Horizons, you’ll notice the price is set at 29,980 bells. That’s not some arbitrary number. That’s the actual retail price of a Nintendo Switch in Japan. A quick search shows the console selling for roughly 29,980 yen, which works out to about $285.
This particular price doesn’t include taxes, which may be a sign that the world of Animal Crossing doesn’t have any kind of sales tax. Which makes sense, as it’s a reality where people can completely abandon their old lives in favor of moving to a remote tropical island and start their own society. It seems like it would be difficult to enforce taxes on citizens when they can just go off the grid at any time. This is also a world where even the greediest person there still gives you an interest-free mortgage that you can pay off whenever you like (seriously, Tom Nook is a good dude.) So a lack of taxes is just another reason to be envious of Animal Crossing’s capitalist utopia.
You’d also have to live in a utopian society to even be able to buy a Switch these days, as they continue to sell out in stores across the globe. A shortage of consoles has been a problem for much of this year. It’s an issue that was likely exacerbated by the worldwide pandemic forcing people to stay indoors and the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That was a one-two punch that’s made it harder and harder to find a Switch. You might be able to track down a second-hand one, but you’ll likely have to pay more than 29,980 yen for it.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the Switch continue to be highly popular making this a very profitable year for Nintendo. What might make it even more profitable is if they announced some new games for the console because the rest of this year is looking fairly dry.
