Entertainment
Nintendo is cutting support for another mobile game in November-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro
There’s further evidence to suggest Nintendo is pulling away from the mobile market, as it announces plans to end support for another title.
Pocket Camp is packing up (Nintendo)
There’s further evidence to suggest Nintendo is pulling away from the mobile market, as it announces plans to end support for another title.
Nintendo’s experiments with mobile haven’t exactly taken off in the way you’d expect from such a well established company, with the platform only making up a tiny percentage of its overall earnings.
As of October 2023, Nintendo has reportedly earned $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) from in-app revenue across its mobile games since 2016, with the most successful being Fire Emblem Heroes which has generated $826 million (£629 million). For comparison, Niantic’s Pokémon Go is estimated to have brought in $7.9 billion (£6 billion) since it launched eight years ago.
In light of the numbers, Nintendo has cut support for several mobile titles over the years, and now it’s adding Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to the list.
In a statement published on Thursday, Nintendo announced Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will end on November 29, 2024, seven years after it launched. After this date, the current app will cease to function, with microtransactions and any subscriptions ending at the same time.
For those who still want to play the app, Nintendo is developing an offline version which will be released ‘during the same period’ as the end of service.
The paid app will be stripped of all microtransactions, while your save data can be carried over to this new version by linking your Nintendo Account.
Nintendo has cut support for five of its eight main mobile games since 2016, between Miitomo, Dragalia Lost, Dr. Mario World, Mario Kart Tour, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
After November, the only games still active will be Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Pikmin Bloom. The latter, however, like Pokémon Go, is developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo.
As the most financially successful from Nintendo’s mobile offerings, Fire Emblem Heroes will probably stick around for a while yet. Unlike the others though, Super Mario Run is locked behind a one-time payment and doesn’t require regular updates, so there’s perhaps no reason to cut that one from app stores.
Either way, it’s clear Nintendo is stripping back its mobile support as it moves its priorities elsewhere, most likely towards the impending Switch successor.
Pocket Camp is an Animal Crossing spin-off (Nintendo)
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