The sad reality is that most of the time when a mobile game shuts down, it is gone for good, just look at about 80% of Square Enix's catalogue. Thankfully for fans of one title, Nintendo is steeping up to soften the blow, thanks to the recently announced Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete.

Those astute of you out there might have figured out this will be the follow-up for the original flavour Pocket Camp which is closing down at the end of November after seven years. A good innings, I dabbled a bit myself, and a fantastic move by Nintendo to keep it alive, in a way.

Pocket Camp Complete will differ in two main ways. One, it is a one-time purchase without monetization, and two, it won’t need a continuous online connection. To be fair, Pocket Camp never did much in terms of its online capabilities beyond player markets, or occasionally seeing your friends as NPCs. 

Those who still want that quasi-multiplayer can get it through Camper Cards. These are effectively business cards that will allow friends to pop up in the new Whisle Pass location, just minus the trading. To keep things kind of fresh, all the events of the past seven years will rotate in Complete, but there will most likely not be anything new added.

Let’s nail down the important dates, cause there are a few flying about. First of all, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp in its current form will be shutting down on November 28th. After a slight delay, the complete version will launch on December 3rd. Finally, existing players will have until June 2nd 2025 to carry their save data over by linking Pocket Camp data to their Nintendo Account.

If you want to get a head start on your Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp journey head to the App Store and Google Play. Then, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will be available on Android and iOS in early December for $9.99 until January 31st, after which it will rise to $19.99.