We haven’t heard a word on Animal Crossing for mobile devices since the most recent delay back in January early this year. Now we have a small update from Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime on the topic in a VICE Waypoint Gaming interview.

Reggie wasn’t willing to share much, but he did restate Nintendo’s commitment to launching the Animal Crossing mobile game later this year in 2017 saying that development is continuing ‘strongly’. One does have to wonder though if there’s been some kind of major shift in the game’s development over time given that it was set to launch in the fall of 2016. We have yet to even see any screenshots from the app.

The Nintendo of America boss goes on to speak about Nintendo’s strategy with mobile games, which is to expand the user base for a given franchise, and then drive more sales for the series on their dedicated systems like the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch. As Fils-Aime points out, the company’s other mobile apps have been serving that purpose with Pokemon Go, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Super Mario Run.

Pokemon Go has boosted the awareness and sales of Sun and Moon (plus Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon later this year), Fire Emblem Heroes had a timely release near Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and Super Mario Run continues to update ahead of this fall’s major release Super Mario Odyssey.

Fans looking for some hope of seeing a new mainline Animal Crossing game debut on the Nintendo Switch soon might then read between the lines here. Imagine how the Animal Crossing mobile game could bolster such a title on the Nintendo’s new dedicated platform. The question only remains, where is that game?

Here’s the full quote from Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime:

So, specifically now, Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing development continues quite strongly, the teams are very excited about what they have. It’s an application that is going to launch this year, as we’ve committed. And we’ll be sharing more information in due course. We believe, just as we’ve seen with Pokémon Go, just as we’ve seen with Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, we believe that the application will help broaden the user base for Animal Crossing, and it’s going to end up having a positive impact on our dedicated video game business of Animal Crossing.

You can find the full interview on a variety of other Nintendo topics over at VICE’s Waypoint Gaming. As always, we’ll keep you updated here at Animal Crossing World on the latest developments of the Animal Crossing mobile game!