Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was unveiled yesterday, with Nintendo officially debuting the upcoming mobile game in a Direct presentation. But while the new game will look very familiar to fans of the series, it does feature a new addition that we haven’t seen in an Animal Crossing game before: microtransactions.
While microtransactions are unfortunately part and parcel of mobile games these days, this is the first time that Nintendo has introduced them to Animal Crossing, and they will aptly be handled by the series’ resident loan shark Tom Nook. Yes, everybody’s favorite wheeling-and-dealing raccoon will handle all in-app purchases you make while playing the game, and he looks positively thrilled about it:
Tom Nook about to play you all for fools lmao pic.twitter.com/tQOHaSePxb
— Tylor (@theSirToasty) October 25, 2017
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp‘s microtransactions will come in the form of Leaf Tickets, which will allow you to purchase in-game currency that can be exchanged for resources. These resources are then used to craft furniture, the central hook of the game, meaning that they will be very valuable for those who want to fill up their camp site with swinging chairs, cacti and other such decorative items.
Also: How Animal Crossing Helped Me Get Through a Very Bad Year
I’ve seen a few people on Twitter commending Nintendo for limiting microtransactions to $7.99, though the segment of the Nintendo Direct presentation outlining the feature depicted a scroll bar, indicating that players could well be allowed to spend much more than $7.99 on Leaf Tickets. Considering most mobile games include microtransactions in some way, it’s not exactly like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is breaking the mold here, even if it is odd to see an Animal Crossing game with in-game purchases.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will be free-to-play, and will launch on iOS and Android devices in late November.
