Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp shutting down, but there’s good news for fans

By Carli Velocci August 22, 2024

Nintendo

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is going offline after seven years, but it’s not going away forever.

X (formerly Twitter) account Wario64 first posted an end-of-service announcement from Nintendo, which stated that the mobile entry in the popular life-simulator series will be ending online service on November 29. The game will be unplayable after that date, and services like the Pocket Camp Club subscription will also end.

However, in a unique twist, Nintendo quietly announced that a new paid version of the app will be releasing around the shutdown, and Pocket Camp players will be able to transfer their data over through linking their Nintendo account. This does require Pocket Camp fans to pay one more fee if they want to continue playing, but there won’t be any more in-app purchases or extra services to buy.

Nintendo will have more information on this in October, but promises the new app will have the same “basic gameplay and controls.” It will be missing some features that required an online connection in Pocket Camp, including visiting other players’ campsites. The company will end Pocket Camp Club enrollment on October 28, along with any automatic renewals.

Pocket Camp launched in 2017 amid a larger push into mobile gaming with other titles like Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. It keeps the familiar Animal Crossing formula, only this time you run a campsite. You have to decorate it, complete tasks for fellow campers, and earn money you can put back into the camp.

However, Nintendo has been gradually pulling out of the mobile space over the past few years. Out of the seven Nintendo-published mobile games (not including Niantic-partnered ones like Pikmin Bloom and Pokémon Go), Nintendo has ceased service or ending new content rollout on five: Miitomo, Dr. Mario World, Mario Kart Tour, Dragalia Lost, and now Pocket Camp.

Topics

Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

Gaming

Nintendo’s mobile games are more influential than you might think

Alear and Marth open a door in Fire Emblem Engage.

Nintendo’s mobile games don’t get enough credit. While Nintendo had some undeniable hits like Pokémon Go and Fire Emblem Heroes, many consider the rest of its mobile efforts fairly underwhelming and even somewhat disappointing for a video game company of Nintendo’s stature. While nothing ever quite reached the high bar Pokémon Go set in 2016, Nintendo’s mobile games are a bit more influential than they get credit for.
Over the past few years, games like Pokémon: Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have built upon their mobile counterparts. Then, during the September 13 Nintendo Direct, Fire Emblem Engage’s announcement and main gimmick cemented that Nintendo isn’t just viewing mobile games as a mostly failed side experiment. While they might not be the most successful games out there, their DNA is creeping into the Nintendo Switch’s bestselling titles.
Mediocre mobile returns
Nintendo’s mobile gaming efforts kicked off in the mid-2010s. Niantic created the AR game Pokemon Go, which quickly became a smashing success in 2016. In the six years since, the game has generated around 678 million installs and $6 billion in player spending, according to data from Sensor Tower.
While working with Niantic proved fruitful for The Pokemon Company, Nintendo partnered with DeNA for most of its initial mobile games. Unfortunately, none of these quite reached the heights analysts and Nintendo expected. Super Mario Run was a smash hit at launch but failed to sustain much interest and consistent revenue, so it’s considered a disappointment by Nintendo.
Meanwhile, other games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour, Dr. Mario World, and Dragalia Lost launched, and while they’ve still made lots of money for Nintendo, most haven't matched the success of the most popular mobile titles. The biggest exception to this is Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game where players can summon classic Fire Emblem characters. It’s had over $1 billion in player spending alone as of June 2022 and is Nintendo’s “flagship title on the [mobile} platform,” according to Sensor Tower.
More recently, Nintendo tried to recapture the success of Pokemon Go with Niantic’s Pikmin Bloom, although that game has reportedly disappointed as well. Overall, it’s understandable why some people are surprised to see only a couple of surefire mobile hits from a company with the pedigree of Nintendo and consider it a side venture that never realized its full potential. If you look closely at the console games in these series that Nintendo put out since, though, it isn’t ignoring everything learned while making mobile games.
Mobile's monumental impact
Nintendo has the masterful ability to find the strongest elements of an idea, draw those out, and then expand upon them to create something uniquely memorable. We’ve seen it do this time and time again with subsequent entries of its flagship series, but it’s a mindset it has applied to its mobile games upon closer inspection.
As far back as 2018, Pokemon: Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee recognized the charm of not needing to battle a Pokemon to capture it, and incorporated that into a traditional RPG experience. More recently, items and mechanics like gardening and cooking from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp made their way into Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was able to revive its live service offerings by repurposing the best tracks and assets from Mario Kart Tour.
Fire Emblem Engage – Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
The legacy of Nintendo’s mobile games could also be felt in the September 13 Nintendo Direct. The showcase’s first announcement was Fire Emblem Engage, which is turn-based strategy game where the main gimmick is being able to summon classic Fire Emblem characters with a ring. While it doesn’t look like Fire Emblem Engage goes full gacha, it’s clear that Nintendo recognized how people liked collecting and using classic Fire Emblem characters in a new adventure, so the developers drew and expanded upon that idea for Fire Emblem Engage.
Before the announcement of Pikmin 4, Shigeru Miyamoto also took a lot of time to highlight Pikmin Bloom. While we don’t know much about Pikmin 4’s gameplay, Nintendo could find some aspects of that game’s exploratory experience, weekly challenges, or something I’m not even thinking of to freshen up the next mainline game. The same could even happen with Super Mario Run the next time Nintendo decides to make a 2D Mario game.
While watching Fire Emblem Engage’s reveal during the latest Nintendo Direct, it became clear that Nintendo’s mobile games have quietly become influential forces in the company's console games. Nintendo has slowly plucked the best ideas out of them and brought them into Switch games without extra monetization. While the future is cloudy for Nintendo's seemingly stalled mobile push, I hope the company can still find a place for its games on mobile, using the platform as a space to experiment with its beloved series.

Gaming

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Turkey Day guide

Animal-Crossing-New-Horizons-Cook

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is celebrating the second Turkey Day event this year on November 25. Seasonal events are some of the most exciting reasons to jump back into the game for their unique and time-limited tasks, but mostly for the special rewards you can earn that you otherwise couldn't get your hands on. With the most recent 2.0 patch and DLC already having been released and marking the end of any substantial additions coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, these events are even more important to participate in to keep the game, and your island, feeling fresh.

Turkey Day is a not-too-subtle reference to Thanksgiving but renamed so that players around the world will be able to associate with it. Also, the key new character for Turkey Day is himself a turkey, so the name feels quite appropriate. Last year offered a ton of great rewards for helping to whip up some seasonal dishes, and we expect this year to be quite similar. However, with cooking now being a part of the normal gameplay, there may be a few surprises in store when the 25th rolls around. If you want to get a (turkey) leg up on what to expect from this year's Turkey Day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, here's a full guide on how to prepare.

Gaming

The best Animal Crossing games, ranked from best to worst

My New Horizons character dances next to her satellite farm.

The Animal Crossing games have always had a dedicated fanbase. It wasn't until Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrived on the Nintendo Switch, however, that the series exploded in popularity. This cute life-simulation series speaks to the more laid-back crowd, somewhere between a game like the Sims and a Harvest Moon-style game. While each game does mix things up, adding new mechanics and ways to express yourself and explore, the core concept has always been about taking your time, making friends, and living out a peaceful life in these bright and colorful worlds. Oh, and paying off the massive debt you always seem to get dumped on you by Tom Nook, of course.

Animal Crossing began on the N64 in Japan, but the first time we got to experience this lovely series was on the GameCube in 2001. Including the debut entry, only eight titles in the series have been made across various systems. While this is a small number compared to some other Nintendo franchises, such as Zelda or Mario, each game can be played almost endlessly. The number of things to do, make, decorate, and more makes it hard not to get hooked on these games. Whether you're a seasoned villager or looking for a new game to relax with, we've taken all of the Animal Crossing games and ranked them from best to worst.