Pocket Camp Complete is the same version of the game, only now in paid form. It no longer features any microtransactions, which means every single one of the thousands of items available in-game are now earned through gameplay alone. The game’s re-release also brings some new features, such as trading with and visiting other players with your Camper Card. 

Pocket Camp Complete now also allows players to import custom designs for items made in the Switch’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Make your designs in the Switch title, then import them into the mobile title to use as you see fit. Check out the tutorial video below for more details. 

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is available on iOS and Android for $9.99 until January 31, following which it will be priced at $19.99. 

It will be available for $9.99, but after January 31st, 2025, the price will increase to $19.99. The offline version doesn’t have microtransactions, and players can access all of the content, including event items, through gameplay. With over 10,000 items to unlock, new players may have a field day.

Some new elements include the Camper Card, used for trading, collecting, and even visits from other players. Players can also earn Complete Tickets and exchange them for limited edition items or fortune cookies. Longtime players should note that save data from the current version can be transferred to the offline game until June 2nd, 2025.

While Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is playable offline, it will require a connection to download data and check the time. Nintendo advises against changing the latter since it could mess with events. Furthermore, deleting the app from your phone also deletes save data, so think twice before doing so.

Seven years on from its 2017 launch, the game will end service on November 29, after which the game will become unplayable. Sales of Leaf Tickets (i.e. the in-game microtransactions) will cease on November 26, while automatic renewals of the Pocket Camp Club subscription services will end on October 28.

That does not, however mean that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is completely going away. Nintendo says it’s working on a paid version of the app that it intends to release around the same time as the existing version’s end of service. The paid version of the app will feature no microtransactions, allowing players full access to the game and all of its features with a one-time purchase.

Save data transfer from the app’s existing version to its upcoming paid version will also be supported.

Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been receiving excellent praise all around and is due to release this week. Before that, update 1.1.0 will become available on March 19th. This update adds support for Bunny Day, a free seasonal event that will be launching in April.

According to Nintendo of Europe, the update will become available at 2 AM CET. Those who have preloaded the game on the Nintendo eShop will automatically download the update, ensuring its ready by launch. We’ll see if any fixes and improvements have been added as well.

Not much is known about Bunny Day save for its Easter trimmings. If one owns Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on mobile, then they can receive different items in each game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches on March 20th for Nintendo Switch. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

The Ver 1.1.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be available ahead of launch, starting at 2am CET on 19/03. If you've preloaded the game from #eShop, the update should start downloading automatically. #ACNH

— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) March 17, 2020

Nintendo was slow to get into the mobile scene. They did so with tippy toes, so to speak, with the likes of Super Mario Run in the beginning. They’ve since released several titles in their biggest franchises for mobile devices, adapting them more to the usual mobile tactics. And as it turns out, it’s paid off for them, even if at a relatively slow pace, as combined revenue from their games have now passed $1 billion in lifetime player spending, according to Sensor Tower.

Interestingly, the number one game is Fire Emblem Heroes. While that franchise has grown significantly over the years, it’s still not at the level of a Mario or Zelda on mainline consoles. Heroes has struck a cord though, as a whooping 61% of Nintendo’s total mobile revenue comes from that game alone. Maybe more interesting is how the Mario games are all three battling at the bottom. Even Mario Kart Tour is behind Dragalia Lost and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, though it’s worth noting that Mario Kart Tour hasn’t been out for too long. This list does not include Pokemon titles, which are officially published by The Pokemon Company.

Nintendo hasn’t announced any other mobile efforts as of now, but the company seems to be getting pretty cozy with the market space. It’s inevitable that more IPs will make their way to your iOS and Android devices soon.

Unlimited SaGa

There are probably worse criticisms that a game could receive than “ruined the SaGa franchise” but that’s what Unlimited SaGa did. You wouldn’t know based on the game’s elegant box art with its butterflies and flowers, rendered in gorgeous water colour. It was all the more disheartening at the time because Square was releasing classics like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Drakengard, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Kingdom Hearts. Unlimited SaGa stands as proof that even Square could mess up big time (and not for the last time either).

Nintendo’s Dr. Mario World may be off to a comparatively slower start than mobile efforts like Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. However, its newer IP Dragalia Lost is doing very well. Since launching in September 2018, it’s garnered over $100 million in total player spending according to Sensor Tower.

The spending is across three million downloads and is already more than Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. It’s currently Nintendo’s second highest earning mobile title with Fire Emblem Heroes still in the lead. The latter’s revenue is quite monstrous at this point with $591 million earned since it launched in February 2017.

Of course, Nintendo has other titles in the works for mobile including Mario Kart Tour. The mobile adaptation of the popular kart racing series had a closed beta that concluded on June 4th. Though certain aspects could change down the line, Mario Kart Tour attracted criticism for its gacha mechanics, pay-to-win mechanics and a stamina system that limited how often you could race.

Nintendo’s first forays into the mobile market weren’t quite as grand as one might have expected. While Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp were successes in their own right, they lacked the long-term appeal of many mobile titles. It seems like things are changing, though, based on their latest financial report, which says mobile profits on the rise.

They reported that their revenue from the mobile market has exceeded $400 million (USD), a stiff rise from last year by 17%. A large part of that has been due to the success of Fire Emblem Heroes and their first original mobile property, Dragalia Lost. It makes sense, since both of those games are more in line with what the mobile market usually gravitates toward, from both an aesthetic and gameplay mechanics standpoint- much more so than earlier efforts, at the very least.

With Mario Kart Tour coming sometime this year, and having an Android beta starting soon, Nintendo hopes to keep this momentum going well into the next year. You can also read more about what Nintendo reported about their traditional games’ sales, and where Switch sales are standing.

Nintendo’s mobile efforts have been a little inconsistent so far. While games like Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost have done reasonably well, and contributed to a few hundred million dollars in annual review to Nintendo’s bottom line last year, on the whole, it is telling when Fortnite on iOS alone makes more money than all Nintendo mobile games put together.

Put simply, the company is hoping for bigger hits on mobile than what’s they have going right now. Speaking to Japanese outlet Nikkan, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa noted that the company is currently working on multiple smartphone applications, and hopes that these new upcoming games will be “huge hits”. According to Furukawa, this is important, because he expects smartphone gaming to become a “pillar” for Nintendo, in addition to their main console business. That said, he did admit that this could take quite a while.

Personally, as long as Nintendo’s mobile games are kept separate from their console efforts, I have no issues with the company continuing to put some out. If nothing else, it quells the cries from investors who would otherwise want them to go third party.

While Nintendo’s mobile game efforts haven’t been a full fledged world conquering success like many may have expected, they have still mostly done alright. For instance, in the year 2018, Nintendo’s mobile games made $348 in revenue cumulatively, buoyed mostly by Fire Emblem Heroes and the newly launched Dragalia Lost, according to Sensor Tower.

$117 million of that revenue came in the fourth quarter, which is the most revenue Nintendo’s mobile games have generated in a single quarter thus far. As mentioned already, Heroes was the top grossing mobile game, earning about $225 million; Dragalia Lost came in second, with slightly over $50 million earned, and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp rounded out the top three with slightly under $50 million units earned.

Amazingly enough, this revenue from four Nintendo games put together is less than half of what Pokemon GO alone earned last year, which puts into perspective just how a) relatively muted Nintendo’s mobile efforts have been, and b) how massive Pokemon GO really is.