Nintendo has announced that it will discontinue the service for its Animal Crossing smartphone game, Pocket Camp, and replace it with a paid app that will retain player data.

Starting November 29, 2024 – seven years after Pocket Camp’s launch – the current app will be discontinued. Players will no longer be able to purchase microtransactions and the monthly subscription service will also be discontinued before that date.

At the same time, a new version of Pocket Camp will be released, which, according to Nintendo, will allow players to transfer their saved data.

This paid app removes all in-app purchases and the need for a constant internet connection. Saved data is retained, but Leaf Tickets (used for purchases) are not.

The closure of Pocket Camp is another sign that Nintendo is weakening its focus on mobile games.

Compared to other major publishers such as Activision and Take-Two, for which mobile regularly accounts for more than half of their annual revenue, the platform has contributed only a tiny percentage of Nintendo’s revenue since it began developing mobile games in 2016.

Nintendo’s mobile games

Support has now been discontinued for at least five of the eight major mobile games the company has launched so far, including “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.”

Fire Emblem Heroes is by far Nintendo’s most successful mobile game, according to Appmagic data published by Mobilegamer.biz. Last year, Nintendo earned over $810 million from its estimated $1.5 billion in mobile gaming revenue.

Mario Kart Tour has overtaken Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as Nintendo’s second-biggest mobile moneymaker, grossing around $243 million from 230 million downloads and generating revenue of around $2 million per month.