Nintendo has now issued a statement to address the disappointing performance of “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp” upon its debut on mobile platforms Android and iOS. The Japanese video game company has explained why players are experiencing server problems and assured fans that it is now investigating the issue.
“Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp” officially launched earlier this week, and many fans of the original simulation video game (released in 2001) quickly grabbed the opportunity to try out the free-to-play mobile version. Unfortunately, they were immediately disappointed by the new game for it kept on displaying an error message when logging in or when attempting to load a new area. Frequent crashes and gruelling load times were also noted.
This Thursday, Nintendo commented on the issue after receiving numerous complaints from fans. The company, first and foremost, explained the reason behind the communication errors. Nintendo is basically blaming “high traffic” for the server connection issues that started to occur on Tuesday.
It’s not clear if “high traffic” is still present to this day, but Nintendo said in an in-game message that the server problem continues to persist intermittently. Despite this, the company assured fans that it is “investigating” the issue and it will work to “resolve it as soon as possible.”
To appease disgruntled fans, Nintendo is giving away 20 Leaf Tickets to everyone, as per Eurogamer. A Leaf Ticket is the premium currency in-game, so the company is hoping that this would make up for the woeful server issue. Fans who have downloaded the game should check their mailbox from time to time, since the gift will be rolled out from Nov. 23 to Dec. 23.
Nintendo also has a tip for when players experience a problem loading their Leaf Tickets. “If items you receive in game are not being displayed properly, please close the app and start it again. This should resolve the issue.”
Prior to Nintendo’s statement, Polygon’s Allegra Frank shared her thoughts on the communication error that kept popping up when playing “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.” “The culprit behind the communication errors is pretty obvious. Mobile games based off Nintendo properties aren’t known for their stable servers; ‘Pocket Camp’ is also a multiplayer-focused game with a big audience, so some lag is to be expected. But is it unfair to think that Nintendo would have gotten this together by now?”
Meanwhile, apart from the server connection problems, there are other aspects of the new mobile game that have disappointed some fans. In Ars Technica tech culture editor Sam Machkovech’s review of Nintendo’s new game, he says that though “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp” has lots of good series content to offer, the core experience it provides is too low on free-to-play scale.
For Machkovech, Nintendo converted its well-loved game from a “fixed-price, retail offering to a free-to-play microtransaction disaster” and this has apparently “rotted ‘Animal Crossing’s’ most rewarding elements from the inside out.“ Machkovech went as far as claiming that the pocket edition is basically a scam. “Nintendo should be ashamed for attaching such predatory practices to one of its most family-friendly properties, and nothing short of a full-scale redesign will fix the ‘FarmVille’-level rot within this shiny-looking game.”
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