Animal Crossing mobile shuts down in November but will live on in new app

In a statement today, Nintendo assured current players they would still be able to fully enjoy the game for three more months. “We will continue to hold events and add items until the service-end date.”

In addition to the game shutting down on November 28th, Leaf Tickets (which could be used to expedite the building of campsite accessories) will no longer be available for purchase starting on November 27th. As of October 28th, new monthly Pocket Camp Club subscriptions will also no longer be accepted, and existing subscriptions to all three tiers will no longer automatically renew.

November won’t be the permanent end of the trail for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Nintendo has assured players that their save data can be carried over to a new version of the game currently in development by linking their Nintendo accounts. The company doesn’t plan to reveal the new version until sometime in October but shared a few details today. The new Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will be a “paid app without in-app purchases” and will not require a constant internet connection to be played.

The announcement is part of Nintendo’s slow shift away from mobile. After the success of the Nintendo DS and the Wii, with many gamers migrating to smartphones, Nintendo did the same. In 2015, it released its first mobile game, Miitomo, which was followed by more ambitious apps like Super Mario Run in 2016, Fire Emblem: Heroes and Pocket Camp in 2017, and Mario Kart Tour in 2019.

The past five years haven’t seen much of anything from Nintendo for iOS or Android, but at least the company isn’t shutting down Pocket Camp entirely and leaving paying players with nothing, like it did when it shut down its free-to-play mobile game Dragalia Lost.