Animal Crossing: Pocket Campstarted life as a free-to-play mobile game with a heap of microtransactions, but it’s now making the bold transition to being a premium game. Although there’s sometimes reason to be cynical about monetization changes, this switch isn’t just the original game getting a price tag slapped on it. Rather, the original game is being taken down completely, with fans being urged to transfer their save data to the new version. Once it has been officially shut down,the premium version will take its place.
The newpremiumPocket Camphas been met positivelyby fans, largely thanks to its swathe of new features. More largely, the switch to a premium model is an important one, as it almost defies the trend of monetized free-to-play mobile and live-service gaming.Nintendo’s decision to makeAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campa pay-to-play game is a great one, and hopefully one that helps shift the industry in the right direction.
How Much Pocket Camp Will Cost Now
It Has A Flat One-Time Purchase Fee
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Completewill cost players $9.99so long as they buy it before June 16, 2025, which is during the early discounted price period. However, past July 13, 2025,Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Completewill cost $19.99, which is not an insignificant amount of money. It’s not particularly surprising, as the higher $19.99 price is the typical triple-A cost for premium mobile games, with a lot of Square Enix’s ports ofFinal FantasyandDragon Questgames typically costing around the same.
It’s worth noting that this “Complete” edition is expected to come with anumber of brand-new features, as well as the much-requested offline mode. It’s not as if players are paying for the exact same experience they were getting free before. The ability to play it offline is also crucial, making it possible to play a downloaded copy of the game forever on compatible hardware, even if Nintendo decides in the future to remove it from mobile storefronts. Essentially, it means that players get to keep the game they own, which is always a plus.
10 Best Furniture Items In Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp remains popular, likely in part because of the fun furniture players can get and see their cute guests interact with.
The $9.99 price point is a bit of a steal for what is a fairly fleshed-outAnimal Crossingexperiencethat manyprefer to evenNew Horizons. It’s not hard to see how Nintendo landed on that cost and why fans have reacted relatively positively towards the announcement. However, if microtransactions were left in the game, even $9.99 could feel like a lot for an incomplete experience. Luckily, fans can rest easy knowing thatAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campis altering that side of its monetization.
Will Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Have Microtransactions?
It Is Getting Rid Of All The Old Microtransactions
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Completeis a one-time payment premium experience, meaningthere are absolutely no in-game purchases whatsoever. This is obviously a huge boon for players who disliked the free-to-play model and having to pay for convenience in their otherwisevery cozy mobile game. It’s also a crucial step for the mobile game industry, as Nintendo is prioritizing the overall experience ofAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campover a constant stream of payments from those who can afford the microtransactions.
Despite industry trends pushing live service and free-to-play models, Nintendo has been slowly moving in the opposite direction. The company did this initially by dropping support for its other mobile titles likeMario Kart Tour, and shutting down one of its most popular mobile titles is an even bigger step. Of course, Nintendo makes enough money from its console and triple-A sales that it doesn’t strictly need to rely on in-app purchases to stay afloat. However, other triple-A publishers, such as Ubisoft, have pushed monetization models on premium games in the name of earning enough money from the player base.
Nintendo has pulled support or completely shut down five mobile games now, includingAnimal Crossing: Pocket Camp. It ended support completely forMario Kart Tourin 2023 and similarly stopped supportingDragalia Lostin 2022 andDr Mario Worldin 2021. Fans may also remember support forMiitomoended back in 2018.
Nintendo pushing against this is great for the gaming industry and fans, especially makingAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campa premium experience with no microtransactions. While it remains to be seen how popular the paid version of the game ends up being, it’s reasonable to assume that a majority of the original game’s player base will pick it up, as will casualAnimal Crossingand cozy game fans. In fact, there’s an audience of players who won’t try free-to-play games because of their reliance on microtransactions, and that community is more likely to pick upPocket Campnow.
Pocket Camp Costing Money Shows Its True Value
It’s A Great Move For The Game & Nintendo
Animal Crossing: Pocket Campmoving to a pay-to-play model also shows its true valueas a premium experience and helps solidify it as one of thebest mobile games ever. As aforementioned, the majority of free-to-play games come with an understanding that to truly engage with all the game’s content, players will need to pay for some of it. This devalues the base free-to-play experience, as it’s a shallower version without the extra paid content.
However, now thatPocket Campis a premium experience, not only do players get access to everything from the outset — without the need to pay for any future content — they also get all the new features Nintendo felt it could invest in now that it has a price tag.This is great for the consumer, and it’s also good for Nintendo, which can focus on creating other premium games without needing to devote resources to constantly updating free-to-play titles for a steady revenue stream.
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp’s Final Month Is Jam-Packed With Activities And Events
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is in its final days, but November will be a very active and memorable final month for the free mobile game.
Ultimately,Animal Crossing: Pocket Campbecoming a premium experience is the best-case scenario for everyone. It ensures that players get to keep it and their progress forever, that no one feels forced to pay for microtransactions to enjoy it, that Nintendo can devote resources to producing other premium experiences, and that fans get a range of new features to enjoy. It’s hard not to feel like this is how the majority of mobile games should be, although that is admittedly wishful thinking. Nevertheless, this switch is a huge win forAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campfans and the cozy gaming community in general.
