Prehistoric Take On Animal Crossing, ‘Amber Isle’, Hatches A Last-Minute Delay On Switch

“The island needs a little more prep time”

by Jim Norman Yesterday, 3:30pm

We’ve been keeping an eye on Amber Isle, the Animal Crossing-meets-dinosaurs life sim from developer Ambertail Games, for a while now. This one was initially supposed to land on Switch in late October before getting a last-minute delay to November. Well, the developer has now announced yet another delay, with the planned release date shifting to February 2025.

A delay like this is never something that we like to see happen, but in the accompanying statement, the developer claimed that the Switch version isn’t currently up to scratch: “the island needs a little more prep time before we’re ready to open our ports and have you all come ashore”. Hey, we’d always rather see a delay than a bug-filled release.

Ambertail and Team17 shared the statement on social media last week, confirmed by a new Switch trailer (above) released earlier today. You’ll find the developer’s full message and the original socials post below:

Hey folks! We know you have been patiently waiting for Amber Isle’s Nintendo Switch release, but we’re very sorry to announce that we will be increasing the delay on our Switch port until February 2025.

Seeing the excitement around the Switch launch has made this a really difficult decision. Our team has been working to iron out the bugs from our Steam release whilst making incredible strides to get our Switch version to a high standard of performance, but the island needs a little more prep time before we’re ready to open our ports and have you come ashore!

At launch in February 2025, our Nintendo Switch version will include all previous patches and updates from the Steam version! Additionally, for those who don’t wish to wait but are able to play Amber Isle on Steam, we’re part of the Team17 Fall Savings and Steam Autumn Sale so you can pick up Amber Isle at a discounted price.

Our community has been incredibly kind and patient with us regarding our delays and bugs, and we’d sincerely like to thank you all for your understanding. Overall, we would hate to disappoint you with your first Switch experience of Amber Isle featuring performance issues, rather than being about meeting our friendly dinos! The extra time will be used to polish the Switch port to put out the highest-quality version of the game on this platform in February 2025. Thank you and see you soon!

The dev confirmed that pre-orders for the Switch version of Amber Isle will go live on the eShop in January with a 20% pre-launch discount bringing things down to £20 / $20. There are, apparently, “no confirmed plans” for a physical release either, so you better snatch up the digital copies while they’re hot.

For those who missed the initial announcement, Amber Isle is a life sim game where you set up shop on a prehistoric island inhabited by cute dinosaurs. You’ll be selling goods, making friends, decorating and customising your get-up — you know, all the Animal Crossing good stuff.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this one hatches on its new (new) release date.

Will you be picking up Amber Isle next year? Let us know in the comments.

[source bsky.app]

Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.

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