Building upon the success of their mobile apps, Nintendo has decided to expand their growing venture with the announcement of 2 additional mobile games. Mobile versions of "Animal Crossing" and "Fire Emblem" were supposed to be released in early 2017 but reports suggest that there will be a change in schedule.
The Verge reports that the new "Animal Crossing" game for smartphones will be delayed for an April 2017 at the earliest. The reason for the delay was to make room for the upcoming "Fire Emblem" Heroes which is due for a February 2 release.
The announcement was made via a financial statement along with other plans for Nintendo's net mobile games. After the release of "Fire Emblem" Heroes, the gaming company will now shift their focus on developing "Super Mario Ru"n for Andriod phones which makes it a tight schedule for "Animal Crossing."
The release of "Animal Crossing" is now scheduled for the next fiscal year. For Nintendo, the next fiscal year begins on April 1 up to March 2018.
"Animal Crossing" seems to be the perfect game for smartphones as farming simulations are quite popular on smartphones. Kotaku reports that the mobile version of "Animal Crossing" will be connected with the other "Animal Crossing" games for dedicated gaming systems.
What's notable is that Nintendo didn't specify which console will the mobile version of "Animal Crossing" will be connected to. As of the current console that Nintendo supports, only the 3DS has a "Animal Crossing" game.
The 3DS is already a portable console. And in addition of Animal Crossing game on 3Ds being a 4-year-old game, it would be unwise for Nintendo to link their new Animal Crossing mobile game to an old game. This would suggest that Animal Crossing could soon find its way to Nintendo's upcoming console hybrid the Nintendo Switch.
It will be interesting for Nintendo to find a way to link both games in portable devices without compromising their mobile gameplay. But knowing Nintendo, they always have a trick up their sleeve.
