Nintendo has announced the pending end of service for their mobile game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
The official Pocket Camp Twitter account shared this message today:
“Thank you for playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Service for the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp smartphone app will end on November 28, 2024 at 3:00 PM UTC.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who has supported the title since service began. We will continue to hold events and add items until the service-end date.
You should also know that we are developing a version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp that users can continue to play with their existing save date. We plan to share details around October 2024, so we ask for your patience until then.”
They also link to an FAQ, which states that the upcoming offline, post sunset version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will actually be a paid app.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp launched in 2017 for Android and iOS, and is a modified version of the Animal Crossing we know and love on Nintendo platforms. This title was mainly developed by Nintendo EPD, with assistance from subsidiary NDcube. It was also a part of Nintendo’s joint venture with mobile gaming company DeNA.
Nintendo experimented with different monetization models for this title. There are in-game transactions, thankfully based on a single currency. Nintendo also dared to make time limited loot boxes, though this choice led them to delist the title in Belgium. Around 2019, Nintendo also offered subscriptions, that mainly offered QOL improvements, new features, and easier access to more items.
Nintendo did not elaborate on the reasons for the closure, but it doesn’t seem hard to guess what that would be. While Nintendo seemed to have entered mobile gaming with enthusiasm, their end results were mixed in the end. It was not so much that games like Miitomo and Mario Kart Tour were not at the very top of mobile sales charts. Actually, Nintendo was able to demonstrate to investors that there was a hard ceiling to how much they could make on mobile.
On its own, that doesn’t sound like a reason to close down mobile games with millions of users, but Nintendo did learn about the true nature of the free-to-play beast. Mobile gamers may potentially bring millions of revenue, but they have to be constantly engaged to do so. Many a blockbuster mobile title, such as Angry Pigs, or Words with Friends, see their popularity wane in time, and mobile devs often have to make new versions of their games to keep going.
Could Nintendo have transitioned to a full time mobile game developer? We think they have the talent for it, but it’s not actually worth it for them. The blockbuster sales for the Switch, with both healthy lifetime console unit sales, and the incredible long tails of their most reliable titles, have ultimately proven more lucrative than their mobile games. Furthermore, Nintendo found new avenues to expand their business, between the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Super Nintendo Land, and the upcoming Nintendo Museum.
It’s good that Nintendo is committed to making an offline paid version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, because it’s clear that they’re preparing to finish up on their mobile gaming efforts. Apple themselves have failed to make successful premium game market on Apple Arcade, and so the giant business of mobile gaming is best left to developers who specialize on them, such as MiHoYo or ShiftUp. But then again, those developers are also looking for growth beyond mobile, on consoles and PC. Maybe the big numbers in mobile gaming belied just how good a market it really is, as businesses are really looking for sustainable and dependable audiences.
For Nintendo fans, this looks like a positive sign overall. They aren’t closing all their mobile games all at once, but the way they are quietly sunsetting each title indicates that they’re ready to move on. Which also implies that Nintendo’s developer is slowly narrowing their focus on making games on their own platforms. We are set to get more Nintendo games, and they could be releasing more quickly, too.
