Nintendo wants to charge £18 for a mobile game and fans are surprisingly okay with it-Kenneth Andersen-Entertainment – Metro

Pay upfront, not later (Nintendo)

Nintendo is bringing back Animal Crossing but instead of a free-to-play game with in-app purchases it will cost £18.

Nintendo’s push into the mobile market was always half-hearted and only brought about by the failure of the Wii U. Once the Switch became a big enough hit that they didn’t need to worry about mobile, they quickly lost interest and have ended support for five of their eight main mobile titles since 2016.

Those include Miitomo, Dragalia Lost, Dr. Mario World, Mario Kart Tour, and, added to the list in August this year, the microtransactions-riddled Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

Now a new version of the previously free-to-play Pocket Camp is on the horizon, but will cost £18, but it doesn’t seem as if fans are keen on paying that much – even though Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Switch costs £50.

The new smartphone app is called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete and launches December 3, a few days after the free-to-play version shuts down on November 28.

Instead of asking fans to buy loot boxes using in-game currency and subscriptions, after installing it for free, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete has no extra monetisation and everything is available right from the start.

‘There are no in-game purchases for items, so you can use all features after purchasing the game once,’ insists the Pocket Camp website.

The webpage also says that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will launch with an introductory offer, at half price, until January 31, 2025. So, £9 instead of £18.

Fans will be able to retain most items they’ve obtained in the free-to-play version, and save data is transferable to the paid-for edition until June 1, 2025.

Most popular mobile games are free and full of in-game microtransactions but despite occasional attempts by publishers to charge prices similar to console games (such as the recent attempt by Capcom to bring Resident Evil 4 to iPhone 15) they never catch on.

Microtransactions are a particular anathema to Nintendo, who originally tried to charge an £8 flat fee for Super Mario Run but when it didn’t prove successful they were forced to fill it with microtransactions and make it free-to-play.

Surprisingly though, the response to Pocket Camp’s new price has been largely positive online.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp – K.K. Slider is fine with the price (YouTube)

‘Ten dollars is a steal,’ says Sly on Twitter, while Campingcam insists that, ‘This is what every single Live Service game should do without question.’

‘Exciting news for Animal Crossing fans, offline convenience without microtransactions,’ adds Alok Bugalia.

‘They definitely won me over with this. $20 is not bad for new items for almost another year, and I love that we won’t necessarily lose our friends because you can transfer them over into the little cards and see them in Whistle Pass!, opined daringred_ on Reddit.

Once Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete comes out, the only other Nintendo mobile games still active will be Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Pikmin Bloom.

Assuming the Switch 2 is a success, Nintendo is unlikely to take much further interest in mobile games but The Pokémon Company is still all for it, with the new Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket due out on Wednesday, October 10.

At least you can transfer your save files (Nintendo)

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