Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is already available in Australia on iOS and Android
It has been mere hours since Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was revealed, at 4am this morning, but it looks like some people are already able to get their hands on the game. Despite its release date being listed as November currently, the game is already available for download in Australia, for Android at least.
The Google Play Store page for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is live, but in most territories, the button to download the game is replaced by "pre-register" instead. In Australia, you're able to download the game, which we've verified on the Google Play Store.
Why it's available in Australia, and whether this is intentional or not is up in the air. It's possible that the app was accidentally released in Australia, and there was meant to be a simultaneous worldwide release later this year, or it's possible that Australian players are being given early access to test the game. Something similar happened with Pokémon Go with its release, where Australian stores had the game first, although that's not a Nintendo-developed title.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp itself is an upcoming free to play mobile game where you'll take on the role of a camp manager for a series of anthropomorphic animals, designing the camp, improving it, and making friends with the animals. It was revealed in a livestream early this morning, after some months where it was known to exist with no details available until now.
On the app stores, it's listed as version 0.9.0, which could imply that this is indeed some sort of beta test, testing both the game and the servers. It's not unheard of for this sort of thing to happen, although "late November" is the likely final release date, meaning this would be a long testing period where Australian players get a huge head start.
The app is now also available on both iOS and Android, although the game is meant to have a simultaneous release in November. We've reached out for official comment on whether this is intentional and if it will remain available.