Nintendo is shutting down 'Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp' — but you'll still be able to keep playing

One of Nintendo's flagship phone games is shutting down, but it isn't going away completely.

As announced on the official website for the iOS and Android version of Animal Crossing, service for Pocket Camp will end on Nov. 28 of this year. The game will continue to work, and there will even be seasonal events and other activities until that date. But after Nov. 28, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as you know it will end, as have many online service-based games over the years, including Nintendo's own Dragalia Lost in 2022.

But it's not completely over. A single-player, offline version of Pocket Camp, which you can buy with a one-time payment (the original game is free-to-play with microtransactions) that gets you access to the game's "included features," per a vaguely worded FAQ page on the website. Yes, you will be able to transfer your save data to this new version of the game, so you can keep going.

There are some asterisks to this — both good and bad. Unfortunately, since this new app is offline, you won't be able to use any network features, like the ability to visit your friends' camps. On the plus side, there will be no microtransactions nor subscriptions in the game anymore; you simply buy it once and that's that.

Considering so many online games (such as Dragalia Lost) shut down unceremoniously with no way to keep playing, this approach to Animal Crossing's end-of-life process is a pivot for Nintendo. Maybe other companies will start thinking about doing similar things in the future.