Mobile Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem will be "free to play"

[3DSPoet]

Don't forget the likes of Game Guardian for tinkering with locally processed values.

Of course, I still prefer a real controller and self-contained experience...wonder if these will be released on the eShop, as well, like Pokemon Shuffle was.

 

[BORTZ]

I am fine with this. No one ever really "wins" animal crossing, so its almost already a perfect mobile game anyways.

 

[Bladexdsl]

yeah perfect for micro$ you want that chair and table in the furniture store? get your wallet out! than we got your starter packs which contains 100 of everything or the gamers pack which contains 500 of everything for real moniez.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

yeah perfect for micro$ you want that chair and table in the furniture store? get your wallet out! than we got your starter packs which contains 100 of everything or the gamers pack which contains 500 of everything for real moniez.

Actually, that's a perfect use. You get a certain allotment of Bells for doing stuff in-game, but if you're impatient you can buy them with real life money based on a fluctuating $ -> ★ conversion

 

[Bladexdsl]

You get a certain allotment of Bells for doing stuff in-game

which takes 1 real day to get 1 bell

 

[3DSPoet]

I can see Animal Crossing being an "earn it or buy it" or a strictly "buy it" model.

The game works like every other Animal Crossing in that the store stock rotates and changes and you can find random stuff, but there'll be a real money store where you can buy whatever you want. Or you can buy in-game currency (Bells or maybe even DLC-exclusive currency).

Alternatively, it could go the Sims route and have a nice, built-in set of stuff, but with tons and tons of extras you can buy for real money. I'd like to think that the game will be perfectly playable for free, preying on the wallets of "collectors", "completionists", and the impatient for its profits.

As for Fire Emblem, I'm working my way through Awakenings right now and there's quite a lot of DLC stuff in it...I'd imagine they'll expand that idea with maps and characters, maybe a special item shop and such.

 

[teegeeack]

I can see Animal Crossing being an "earn it or buy it" or a strictly "buy it" model.

The game works like every other Animal Crossing in that the store stock rotates and changes and you can find random stuff, but there'll be a real money store where you can buy whatever you want. Or you can buy in-game currency (Bells or maybe even DLC-exclusive currency).

Alternatively, it could go the Sims route and have a nice, built-in set of stuff, but with tons and tons of extras you can buy for real money. I'd like to think that the game will be perfectly playable for free, preying on the wallets of "collectors", "completionists", and the impatient for its profits.

i replied to a miitomo thread a while ago, saying that i would have preferred animal crossing instead. a fully functional animal crossing game of course, not a facebook/twitter add-on like miitomo.

so this news is really interesting. as you and others mention, microtransactions can be implemented in different ways. since animal crossing is a game without a "win" condition or really much in the way of mandatory goals, microtransactions don't necessarily need to act as roadblocks to the same degree that they do in other games.

i can only hope that a mobile animal crossing will have a fairer microtransaction scheme than, say, seabeard (an animal crossing/harvest moon imitation on mobile that had timers on every activity to steer the player to their nickel-and-dime microtransactions).

ideally they (nintendo and other mobile game publishers) would just sell games outright and nevermind in-app purchases. but if "free to start" meant a free download that acts as a demo, then takes a one-time purchase to unlock the full game, that'd be fine too.