Animal Crossing Smartphone App Will Be the Focus of New Nintendo Direct Coming This Week

Following Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Super Mario Run, Nintendo appears finally ready to reveal details for its fourth iOS gaming app, Animal Crossing. The company has confirmed on its Japanese website [Google Translate] that a new Animal Crossing-focused Nintendo Direct will debut this Wednesday, October 25 at 12 p.m. local time in Japan, meaning the direct will take place on October 24 in the United States at 8 p.m. PT (via GameSpot).

The announcement has so far been shared through Nintendo's Japanese and Animal Crossing UK Twitter accounts. Anyone will be able to watch the broadcast worldwide on Nintendo's Japanese YouTube channel right here, and the company's English language YouTube channel should see the new Direct posted around the same time.

Animal Crossing for iOS was first announced in April 2016, alongside Fire Emblem's iOS game, as the two newest titles in Nintendo's original goal to release five smartphone apps before March 2017. When Animal Crossing didn't show up for its original fall 2016 launch window, Nintendo delayed the game in January 2017 until its next fiscal year, running from April 2017 to March 2018. So, with the upcoming Nintendo Direct, it appears that the company is ready to debut Animal Crossing as its next iOS game, potentially before the end of the year.

After Animal Crossing -- which will be the fourth game in Nintendo's partnership with iOS developer DeNA -- rumors have suggested that the final fifth game will be one set in The Legend of Zelda universe. Sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal in May predicted that Animal Crossing will hit iOS sometime "in the latter half of 2017," and a smartphone version of The Legend of Zelda would launch afterwards, so if the Animal Crossing release window is accurate there may be some veracity to Zelda being the next Nintendo IP to come to iOS devices.