Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Sadly Ending in 2024

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp is shutting down after a run spanning 7 years. Nintendo recently announced the news, thanking its dedicated fanbase for keeping the game afloat. The free-to-play mobile spinoff was released in 2017 and adapted many of the features of mainline games. Decorating, visiting campsites, and doing daily tasks were all key components of its gameplay. With the game maintaining a sizable player base, this news will likely shock many who play daily.

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The End of Pocket Camp

As covered in IGN, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp will conclude its services on November 29, 2024. Ironically, this date roughly falls a week after the seventh anniversary of its worldwide release. The game emerged as Nintendo began to seek out new revenue streams in the mobile market. The company tested the waters with titles like Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. Fire Emblem Heroes in particular assessed the initial receptiveness of players to microtransactions. Animal Crossing Pocket Camp would latch onto this feedback and expand upon its online and marketplace services.

Commonplace in many mobile games, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp featured elements like gacha-style loot boxes. This forced the game to shut down in Belgium in 2019 over regulation concerns. At the time, the President of Nintendo Tatsumi Kimishima stated that the Animal Crossing franchise would be a good target for a mobile iteration due to a wide-ranging appeal that included "children and women." In contrast to mainline titles, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp focused on a campsite as opposed to building up a town or city. Popular villagers in the series made their return as did NPCs with some, such as Blathers and Gulliver, bearing different roles compared to their previous portrayals.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Gameplay

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp contains minimalistic but comfy gameplay. During the early era of the game, activities were simplistic. The user acted as a camp counselor of sorts, managing their site with decorations and visitors with limited functionality. Over time, Pocket Camp expanded with the addition of numerous timed events. Fishing, gardening, and collectible objects became enormous factors in the experience. Players could snag unique furniture sets by achieving certain milestones. Furniture could also be crafted—as was true for New Horizons—with further benefits bestowed by the optional, paid monthly Pocket Camp Club subscriptions. These could include swifter crafting times and discounts on special furniture.

As touched upon, one of Pocket Camp's trademark features was furniture collecting and interplay. At the height of the New Horizons craze, many Pocket Camp aficionados observed the superior interactivity and diversity of the mobile game's item sets compared to the mainline game. However, many sought-after pieces of furniture were locked behind events and fortune cookies. They could be accessed through the usage of an in-game currency known as Leaf Tickets. Leaf Tickets could be acquired through leveling up or via real-world cash. Amassing them would take either great time or money. Avid, loyal players who worked hard to garner such perks are likely stunned by the news of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp's end.

Paid Replacement

Fans of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp will find some light amid otherwise depressing news. Nintendo announced that with the spin-off going dark, they intend to release a paid version of the game. While the mobile game was free-to-play, shored up by microtransactions, this new version only requires a one-time flat fee. Even more encouraging, it will be possible to transfer an extant Animal Crossing Pocket Camp save file to the latest paid edition of the game. This will require linking your current Nintendo account to the app. One caution given by the company is that certain online features will no longer be available. This includes such elements as Leaf Tickets and Pocket Camp Club subscriptions.

Nintendo has cautioned that any leftover Leaf Tickets must be redeemed before November 28, 2024. After that date, the Tickets will no longer be available for purchase and are ineligible for transfer to the new app. Pocket Camp Club subscriptions will also be ending on October 28, 2024, during a maintenance period. All automatic renewals will cease at this time and players will be unable to sign up for the subscription service. Members of a subscription plan during this maintenance will receive an in-game badge based on their tier level. Any benefits conferred by the subscription tier will continue until the end of service occurs.

Future of Animal Crossing

Social media has been filled with contrary points of view on the fall of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. Some committed fans have been grieving the end of a game they consumed every day. Others appear delighted at the news of an offline, paid version that does not invalidate all their loyalty and effort. Many games that terminate online services do not compensate their player bases for their enthusiasm. At least with the save transfer function, the furniture and memories acquired will not amount to wasted time or money.

But the demise of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp does impart an open-ended question on the trajectory of the Animal Crossing franchise. New Horizons was a smash hit for the Nintendo Switch and exponentially grew the fanbase. However, the end of New Horizon's free updates several years ago has likely left devotees craving more. There has been no news of a follow-up, so the next time we may see more Animal Crossing content is with the successor to the Nintendo Switch. For now, Nintendo has stated that the price and release date of the paid version of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp will be announced around October.

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This article was originally written by Chase Martin.