The lead designer of Animal Crossing has stated a free to play AC game is possible and is indeed something that they would consider doing.
I'm glad that even if Steel Diver is the free game Nintendo already announced, an Animal Crossing game could potentially happen. I'd personally love to see this happen.
Katsuya Eguchi wrote:I think the main thing that we need to think about before even considering doing something like that is to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning. I think that’s key in deciding whether we do something like that. If I find a business model that works, however — that works for Nintendo and the end-user — then I can’t say that [free-to-play] is something we wouldn’t consider.
I'm glad that even if Steel Diver is the free game Nintendo already announced, an Animal Crossing game could potentially happen. I'd personally love to see this happen.