Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Becoming Pay-To-Play Is A Great Move For Nintendo And Mobile Gaming In General

5 days ago 4

The new premium Pocket Camp has been met positively by 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 make Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp a 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 Complete will cost players $9.99 so long as they buy it before January 31, 2025, which is during the early discounted price period. However, past January 31, 2025, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will 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 of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games typically costing around the same.

It's worth noting that this "Complete" edition is expected to come with a number 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-out Animal Crossing experience that many prefer to even New 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 that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is 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 Complete is a one-time payment premium experience, meaning there 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 otherwise very cozy mobile game. It's also a crucial step for the mobile game industry, as Nintendo is prioritizing the overall experience of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp over 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 like Mario 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, including Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp . It ended support completely for Mario Kart Tour in 2023 and similarly stopped supporting Dragalia Lost in 2022 and Dr Mario World in 2021. Fans may also remember support for Miitomo ended back in 2018.

Nintendo pushing against this is great for the gaming industry and fans, especially making Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp a 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 casual Animal Crossing and 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 up Pocket Camp now.

Pocket Camp Costing Money Shows Its True Value

It's A Great Move For The Game & Nintendo

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp moving to a pay-to-play model also shows its true value as a premium experience and helps solidify it as one of the best mobile games ever. As aforementioned, the majority of free-to-play games come with an understanding that in order 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 that Pocket Camp is 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.

Isabelle smiling and waving over a screenshot of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

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 Camp becoming 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 for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp fans and the cozy gaming community in general.