Super Mario Run for Android still hasn’t jogged onto the Play Store, but fans are already clamoring for the next game. Animal Crossing Mobile is one of the titles set to drop this year, but today we are hearing it’s going to be delayed for a bit.

2017 is going to be an interesting year for Nintendo. The jury is still out on the switch, and they have several mobile games set to debut as well. Animal Crossing Mobile was set to arrive sometime this year, but we never got a firm release date. Well, we still don’t have one but know that it could be far longer than we initially thought. Nintendo has reportedly pushed the release date back with the new window running into 2018.

We don’t have a reason for the Animal Crossing Mobile delay. The company has just said it will arrive between April 2017 and March 2018 which is a wide window. It could mean the game just isn’t up to snuff or they are rethinking their mobile strategy altogether after the Super Mario Run game floundered. It’s probably a combination of the two truth be told as they can’t afford to have too many missteps on the mobile front. Fans are only forgiving for so long.

With a company as big as Nintendo, it’s hard to say that 2017 will be a make or break year for the company. That said, they have had too many issues on the gaming front of late as the Wii U did not exactly sell like hotcakes. The NES Classic did however which shows the company still has their old-school fans, even if newer gamers have opted to move on to the Xbox One S and PlayStation 4 Pro. Two true gaming consoles with far larger libraries although they lack Nintendo’s exclusives.

It’s unfortunate to see something as popular as the Animal Crossing game get bumped back as this franchise could seriously bring some heat on the mobiles if done properly. We will have to wait a while to find out just how they’ll handle things, but will get to dig into Fire Emblem Heroes before the end of the week.

via – The Verge