Nintendo Shows How Online Game Shutdown Should Work
This week I received an email out of the blue saying that their mobile title Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp would be closing down for good. Following in the footsteps of of many an online game I have enjoyed over the years, the servers will be turned off and just like that all that time and invested money will be lost.
A lingering problem with our digital age is preservation, particularly so with video games. The most popular types of games are those you play on your phone and many are ‘episodic’ in nature. This means the developers keep them perpetually running with a stream of constant updates to keep players engaged, funded through video arcade-like mechanics of charging for extra lives or to remove gameplay barriers. Because these titles require a constant internet connection we run into problems when they reach the end of their life. New games are always rising to drag players form old ones and inevitably audiences and profits dwindle. When these games are put out to pasture their servers are turned off. All player progress is deleted, cast to the digital ether never to return.
With the online titles of consoles and PC this isn’t normally a problem. Many titles have their lifespans extended by decades by a dedicated audience of hobbyist players who run their own servers or often have offline modes that can be enjoyed ad…
