Nintendo has finally revealed Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, the paid version of its long-running Pocket Camp mobile game that’ll be the way to play after the company takes the older game offline.
While the seven-year-old free-to-play title will be removed from app stores on November 29, players can pay a onetime fee to roll over their progress and most of their data to Complete when it launches on December 3. This is a big break from tradition. Usually, when a game is taken offline, it’s gone. At best, previous owners can still play it offline; at worst, it’s unplayable forever unless it’s pirated or emulated.
Right now, Nintendo is offering it at a $10 introductory price, although that’ll go up to $20 at 10 p.m. PT on January 30, 2025. That gives players almost two months to make the jump at a lower price. You can preregister at the Google Play Store for Android or preorder it on the Apple App Store for iOS.
Players won’t be able to roll over all of their data, but most of the important data will be preserved. They can maintain their level, the amount of bells they own, their friendships with animals, items they own at both campsites and warehouses, and the layouts of their campsite, cabin and camper.
However, Leaf Tickets and those maps and gifts can’t be transferred. The Pocket Camp Club subscription service will also end, although Nintendo stopped accepting new subscriptions for that already. Probably the biggest change is that players won’t be able to play directly with other friends. That said, players can still interact with others through Camper Cards. Just set up your favorite outfit and animal on a digital card, which you can then share with others with a QR code. There will be a new location called Whistle Pass where you can then interact and even enjoy a KK Slider concert. Of course, your friends list can also be rolled over to Complete.
Nintendo released a 12-minute video that goes over all the details, which you can watch below.
Complete also won’t be just a hub for old Pocket Camp players and features. There will also be some new features, including Leaf Tokens as a new in-game currency. Some plans from the Pocket Camp Club subscription will also now be included. Nintendo has also added some new events and fortune cookies that’ll launch consistently until September 2025.
Nintendo says it’ll be easy to transfer your data. All you need to do is link up your Pocket Camp with your Nintendo account. Once you open Complete for the first time, you’ll be asked if you want to transfer your old account. Unfortunately, you’ll only have until June 1, 2025, to get everything set.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.