It’s the end of an era for Animal Crossing fans. The long-standing Pocket Camp mobile game is set to be replaced by Pocket Camp Complete in December.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will be released on Monday, December 2, following the winding down of the original edition of the game on Thursday, November 28.
The first version of the game was released in 2017, and was a free-to-play title supported by micro-transactions.
What is Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete?
This new version, Pocket Camp Complete, removes all the micro-transactions but comes with an up-front cost of £17.99. There is an early bird sale, though, which reduces the price to £8.99 if you buy before the end of January 2025.
Already spent a small fortune on the free-to-play version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp? Hard luck, you still have to pay for the new version. But your current progress and items can be ported over to the new game before the end of June 1, 2025.
“You can keep items such as furniture, clothing, and Bells you've collected as well as Friendship Levels with animals,” says Nintendo.
However, you will have to wave goodbye to any Leaf Tickets you have amassed, the currency of the original edition, as they are not part of Pocket Camp Complete. They are, roughly, replaced by Leaf Tokens. These are earned in-game rather than by paying real money.
The paid version features a “jam-packed selection” of the content from the free-to-play original, although it’s not currently clear if some of the old content, amassed over seven years of content packs, will be left in digital limbo.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will also get almost a year’s worth of new and returning events, to justify the not-insubstantial cost, but there’s already a hard limit on fresh content.
There will be new events in December 2024, April, July and September 2025. But, after that, Pocket Camp Complete will rely on recurring seasonal events to keep players interested.
“There will no longer be new cookies and new events after October 2025,” says Nintendo.
It’s not likely to seem stale for a long time, unless you’ve been playing since day one, though. Previously held events will loop in Pocket Camp Complete on a “four-year cycle”.
While the economy of Pocket Camp will change, most of the basics won’t. The aim is to still make your ideal campsite, packed with friends you meet along the way.
Nintendo has posted a video that delves into some of the finer points in more detail:
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’s discontinuation follows the end of its first phone game, Miitomo, in 2018 and Dr. Mario World in 2021.
Mario Kart Tour, Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes remain active, and the latter has proved to be Nintendo’s biggest earner on mobile. It reportedly reached almost $1bn (£740m) in revenue by early 2022.
For some wider context, Pokémon Go is estimated to have generated around $8bn (£6bn) since its release in 2016.
