The Game Freak Thread: Pokémon, New IP Etc. [Update: Nintendo Survey]

[Lelouch0612]

since GF is working on Gen 10 and Champions at the same time, I suspect any balance changes will happen in both games. maybe even EV/IV/Natures are customized in Gen 10? who knows. Pokemon has a ton of toggles which even allows for the competitive scene. the problem GF had was attempting to expose them to people without it being an overwhelming sweatfest. fully custom rentals in Champions will just turn it into Showdown, and as someone on Smogon mentioned, will incur the same issue as fighting games do: get wrecked 6 ways from sunday if you attempt to climb rank

Their goal is to make battling more accessible than ever. This means Champions will be the easiest place to play with the Pokémon allowed in the VGC.

It will have a different flair than Showdown, I think your roster of Pokemon will extend as you play and the tools to customize them will be given progressively.

That way you could have a wide variety of people participating and a ladder with a very progressive difficulty curve.

random aside: if Champions is used in VGC, will ipads be used or switch 2s?

Switch 2 I assume since it is easier to make sure everyone is playing on the same device that way. You would need to force a model for the iPads, which is more troublesome.

 

[Koni]

I disagree with this. Mainly because we only seen GF attempt to stretch this format a handful of times. The most interesting take, triple battles, they just one-and-done it without any more exploration. Same with hordes and calling for support. Only a few times they realize that they can make "impossible" pokemon that shakes up the strategies: PokeStar Studios; and raid battles, where pokemon have 5 moves, shields, and nullifiers; and boss battles that give permanent boosts. They don't even explore proper hard modes. Blueberry academy shows they can make a challenging single player that utilizes competitive compositions. And that's not counting extra challenges like applying VGC rules to single player (normalized levels, same number of mons as opponents, no items). Normally, you have to artificially apply that yourself. All of these things are cool and underexplored. As such, I don't think Gen 10 will offer a radically different combat system because of a separate battle sim app

You make very good points tbh. Though I will say that apart from Triple Battles, I think a lot of these are more supplementary changes that don't really pop out too much, especially to the majority of people who buy the series - casual gamers. They're not as "box-office" as the major gimmicks like Mega Evolution, or even less major ones such as regional variants (which brings actual Darwinian evolution to the series, like religious pundits feared all that time ago. xDD). Horde battles and calling for support should get a second look, though, like Raid battles did. Even in those cases, they can explore those elements more in an action RPG format. Raid battles in Scarlet and Violet did away with turns, I believe.

Also, for what it's worth, I too don't think Gen 10 will be all that different from past Pokemon games in terms of combat, but I definitely believe that they're going to look at what works from both Legends Arceus and ZA and implement it there. And if Legends ZA's combat is successful and well-recieved enough, there's a very good chance that Gen 11 could be an action RPG instead of a turn based one. It doesn't mean it will, but the door is open now, I think.

 

[Lelouch0612]

Interesting video from Wolfey (VGC Pokemon Champion).



Talks about the explosion of the competitive scene in recent years, the impact Champions could have for both the VGC and the mainline games in the future.

Worth the watch, and looking at how quickly the video blew up (900k views in a single day), there's no denying that there's big potential there.

 

[Joseki]

On a related note: TCPi is incredibly lucky to have Wolfie as the VGC-goat. He's a PR dream: funny, charismatic, handsome.
He's the perfect ambassador.

 

[RDragon]

The Pokemon Company is the best brand management company right now. Really impressed by AZ (aside from some poor texture work and the city looking empty) and will definitely give it a try. The long development time is showing some great improvements.

For champions still not sure about its implications. quite a strange play. is it to broaden the Esport reach on a global stage. I can see it being used in emerging markets to build communities and get people into the franchise. Or maybe it is the warzone for Pokemon. looking forward to hearing more.

Has been for a long time. People online act like Pokemon is ran by monkeys, but it's one of the few franchises that has not only maintain its popularity, but has grown its brand and has done so for nearly 30 years.

That and I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding what the Pokemon audience is. A lot of online fans act like it's still 2001 where Pokemon's prime audience were children and people who played mainline Pokemon for the singe-player.

 

[Aleh]

The combination of Champions and action combat in ZA is certainly an interesting coincidence. Gen 10 will probably still use the classic turn based combat, but Gen 11? I never thought of it as a possibility, but these recent developments are making me second guess.
Hopefully the combat in ZA is really good, what they have shown so far seems very promising and already a lot more fun than Arceus which had a terrible combat system.
The biggest benefit an action combat has is that it lends itself a lot better to the throwaway fights during the main story, like normal trainers and wild Pokémon. It's always been kind of a fool's errand to make those quick fights meaningfully use the classic combat system, since it's strategic and slow by nature. You can only really make the battles interesting when your opponents have proper teams but that breaks the flow of the game too much when you're just exploring. So you end up with trainers with 1 or 2 Pokémon that just result in boring fights. Competitive Pokémon is amazing but a good action combat for the main story can do wonders for the average fun factor.

 

[ILikeFeet]

One thing, I think, people forget to mention with the possibility of competitive being removed from the main games is that there needs to be some kind of multiplayer still. They're too focused on single player balance, but there's no meat in the single player to start with. Playing with others is what helps the legs, and in that respect, competitive has been the main draw. Until they have more extensive, and long lasting, cooperative multiplayer, I don't think removing competitive from the main games make sense.

Or maybe they just change the battle system entirely and make that a new competitive mode. Online Legends ZA battling anyone?

 

[Andri]

Overall really enjoyed the presents.
AZ is looking very interesting from the combat side, even if the starter choice is arguably the worst of any game ever going by what we know now(as in, not assuming they will have new final forms)
2 monotypes and the worst of the Fire Fighting starters.
At least they grant me Talonflame, so that will be my Starter instead.

The biggest thing i see with champions is getting balance patches more often than when a game releases, or when dlc add new mons/moves

One thing, I think, people forget to mention with the possibility of competitive being removed from the main games is that there needs to be some kind of multiplayer still. They're too focused on single player balance, but there's no meat in the single player to start with. Playing with others is what helps the legs, and in that respect, competitive has been the main draw. Until they have more extensive, and long lasting, cooperative multiplayer, I don't think removing competitive from the main games make sense.

They wont axe competetive mp from the maingames anytime soon, since that has for a long time been about half the "endgame" content in them at minimal costs.

i think its more likely that they will let people access the champions battle pool via gen 10 games.
Like instead of going to the battle subway, there will be a Champion arena that lets you fight people playing on their phones.

Or maybe they just change the battle system entirely and make that a new competitive mode. Online Legends ZA battling anyone?

completely changing the comp systems is incredibly unlikely, since the current format has been very successful and is only getting more popular as time goes on.
The big advantage of turn based comp is that connection strenght is basically a non factor, which is important both since it means NSO isnt taxed, and it widening the pool of people able to play.
Considering they are expanding into Latin America they are most likely taking such things into consideration.

Interesting video from Wolfey (VGC Pokemon Champion).



Talks about the explosion of the competitive scene in recent years, the impact Champions could have for both the VGC and the mainline games in the future.

Worth the watch, and looking at how quickly the video blew up (900k views in a single day), there's no denying that there's big potential there.

While i more or less agree with him, its always good to remember that he has personal incentives to portray and push Pokemon as focused on VGC as much as possible.

 

[ILikeFeet]

i think its more likely that they will let people access the champions battle pool via gen 10 games.
Like instead of going to the battle subway, there will be a Champion arena that lets you fight people playing on their phones.

that sounds technically difficult since the two games will, most likely, be built on different technical foundations (Trinity and Unity). making the two connect would be quite the leap. IMO, makes more sense for Gen 10 to be the format for a while then allow those pokemon to transfer into Champions at a later date. it would solve the issue SV has with having a stale metagame due to so much time between games (there's still one more year of SV after 2025 if it's not replaced by Champions)

completely changing the comp systems is incredibly unlikely, since the current format has been very successful and is only getting more popular as time goes on.
The big advantage of turn based comp is that connection strenght is basically a non factor, which is important both since it means NSO isnt taxed, and it widening the pool of people able to play.
Considering they are expanding into Latin America they are most likely taking such things into consideration.

NSO is a non-issue here. these games are P2P, and the data sent is minimal. the biggest issue is probably balance and watchability. watching players dodge roll around tiny arenas like their eldin ring players would look stupid as all hell.

but, as I mentioned before, there's still a lot they can do with the format. though they said that Legends Arceus laid the groundwork for the future, I'm still wonder what that might be (probably meta changes like sleep/freeze)

 

[Lynsen]

The graphics discourse seems to be more rampant than ever

 

[Andri]

the graphics discourse will both never end and also never be relevant

 

[ILikeFeet]

On a related note: TCPi is incredibly lucky to have Wolfie as the VGC-goat. He's a PR dream: funny, charismatic, handsome.
He's the perfect ambassador.

the graphics discourse will both never end and also never be relevant

I don't want to say it's never relevant. GF does have a problem that they're slowly overcoming. my biggest problem with discourse is that it's already running on fumes. nothing really new and it's the save 4 ingredients arranged differently. the CEDEC talk was a great bit of insight and shown that their tools are capable, but the games proper still haven't lived up to that concept image

not a high bar, IMO. that said, ZA looks like it's coming the closest, just needs anti-aliasing and fixing some poly starved assets (like the windows and balconies)

EDIT: I cannot explain this attachment thing

 

[Andri]

I don't want to say it's never relevant. GF does have a problem that they're slowly overcoming. my biggest problem with discourse is that it's already running on fumes. nothing really new and it's the save 4 ingredients arranged differently. the CEDEC talk was a great bit of insight and shown that their tools are capable, but the games proper still haven't lived up to that concept image

i meant relevant in the sense that it has functionally no effect on both their decisions(they will work on performance and looks either way, and as you said they are progressing even if slowly) and sales(see the massive success on switch even tho all the games besides lets go ran rough).

The discourse running on fumes was a given, considering that by the time gen 10 is out, it will have been a decade of it

 

[SquidEnthusiast]

Has been for a long time. People online act like Pokemon is ran by monkeys, but it's one of the few franchises that has not only maintain its popularity, but has grown its brand and has done so for nearly 30 years.

That and I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding what the Pokemon audience is. A lot of online fans act like it's still 2001 where Pokemon's prime audience were children and people who played mainline Pokemon for the singe-player.

I think most of the ire towards Pokemon is directed towards Game Freak specifically more so than the brand's overall direction.

 

[RDragon]

I think most of the ire towards Pokemon is directed towards Game Freak specifically more so than the brand's overall direction.

It is and and it's primary at the mainline games. I won't repeat the ire since we all know what it is, but the only one that really matters, imo, is performance. They can't have another S/V and hopefully GameFreak won't pull a Capcom. Gen 10 would need to be a Wilds' fumble for GameFreak to mess it up.

Also, being real for a moment, it's all GameFreak or Nintendo for the online audience since no one online knows who runs Pokemon. The Pokemon Company is almost never brought up nor Ape who does most of the Pokemon designs.

 

[Koni]

Hoenstly concerning Z-A, I'm more curious as to what the game might look like running on Switch 2 as compared to just the Switch.

Especially with this:

I don't want to say it's never relevant. GF does have a problem that they're slowly overcoming. my biggest problem with discourse is that it's already running on fumes. nothing really new and it's the save 4 ingredients arranged differently. the CEDEC talk was a great bit of insight and shown that their tools are capable, but the games proper still haven't lived up to that concept image

not a high bar, IMO. that said, ZA looks like it's coming the closest, just needs anti-aliasing and fixing some poly starved assets (like the windows and balconies)

EDIT: I cannot explain this attachment thing

That actually looks pretty good! Damn, I need to see that CEDEC presentation. I can see the vision now. With more time between games, more experience on console hardware, plus better hardware to utilize in general, I'm sure Pokemon will make strides in the graphics department.

The graphics discourse is tiring to me because it feels like a pretty severe case of people judging a book by it's cover since it always seems to overshadow everything else. I know people have had problems with the series culminating with Dexit, but sometimes it feels like people look at Pokemon graphically looking subpar (which it is) but then use that to reach and make claims about Game Freak and the game itself. Scarlet and Violet are on track to outsell Sword and Shield despite it looking and running the way it does - there are reasons for that. And it's not like Pokemon hasn't had have poor reception to a game reflect on it's sales in the Switch era, as BDSP dropped like a stone after it's launch.

If I may throw something new into the graphics debate: Pokemon is going to catch up graphically. I dunno how long it will take, but it will because Pokemon is improving graphically faster than current-gen graphics are. This will continue to be the case as current-gen graphics further hit diminishing returns, allowing for Nintendo themselves catch up with their hardware.

 

[ILikeFeet]

here's coverage of that presentation with lots of images from the slides. my big takeaway was that SV seems to have had higher visual ambitions but had to be cut back, seemingly at the last minute (like, why was there a small rock/water formation that was significantly more detailed than everything else in the Teal Mask DLC? )

「ポケモンSV」ポケモンの表現は部位ごとにこだわる！ クワッスの頭や汚れなど見た目の仕組みを解説【CEDEC2023】

もはや生活の一部になったといっても過言ではないほど世界的に浸透している「ポケットモンスター」シリーズ。「ポケットモンスター 赤・緑」からはじまるナンバリングタイトルをはじめ、「Pokemon LEGENDS アルセウス」や「ポケモンスナップ」、「ポケモンGO」、「ポケモンスリープ」など多くのタイトルが発売されてきた。

game.watch.impress.co.jp

 

[Lelouch0612]

In retrospect Dexit is one of the best decisions they made. They needed to rip-off that band-aid at some point, but it eventually became that huge burden to develop/adapt/balance for every new game.

From a game design perspective, it also made the Pokedex completable again, which culminated with Legends Arceus, with a decisive boss battle for those that did.

With Home and Champions, they'll be able to focus on making the single player experience better while keeping things interesting on the competitive side.

A potential win-win if they stick the landing.

 

[Serebii]

Interesting video from Wolfey (VGC Pokemon Champion).



Talks about the explosion of the competitive scene in recent years, the impact Champions could have for both the VGC and the mainline games in the future.

Worth the watch, and looking at how quickly the video blew up (900k views in a single day), there's no denying that there's big potential there.

I get what he's saying but I also disagree because I have seen the numbers for VGC stuff and it's not as blown up as he makes it out to be. It doesn't do the numbers. It doesn't do amazing stream numbers, playerbase is still like 1-2% of the overall Pokémon audience and hasn't really grown that much and adding a barrier to entry even more than there already is of needing another game won't give it any extra boosts, and I say that as someone who is hyped about Champions. The analytics aren't there.

Like yeah more people go to live events now than 10+ years ago (Just had the biggest at 1400 players compared to when it was capped at 250), but in terms of online analytics and play, it really hasn't grown that much. Like take Ranked Battle in SV. Last season (Feb 2025), only 201,695 participated. The last Global Challenge (Feb 2025), which gives access to Worlds via points or invites (Japan and Korea) had 14,947 people enter.
For the equivalent season in SWSH 3 years ago (Feb 2022), 251,845 people entered. The equivalent Global Challenge (February 2022) had 327,327 people enter...but they did dangle a shiny Legendary Pokémon for entry on that, a later one in May 2022 which didn't have a Shiny dangle had 42,972 people play.

That doesn't show growth, if anything that shows contraction.

You can't even say it's a spectator sport because whenever it's streamed, when it's not on Twitch front page it caps out at 6k viewers for an International level event, usually capping out at 3k for Regionals

I also heavily disagree with the trending notion that it means the traditional main series will change things up now and shift competitive solely to Champions. That's why Legends exists.

 

[Charamiwa]

I get what he's saying but I also disagree because I have seen the numbers for VGC stuff and it's not as blown up as he makes it out to be. It doesn't do the numbers. It doesn't do amazing stream numbers, playerbase is still like 1-2% of the overall Pokémon audience and hasn't really grown that much and adding a barrier to entry even more than there already is of needing another game won't give it any extra boosts, and I say that as someone who is hyped about Champions. The analytics aren't there.

Like yeah more people go to live events now than 10+ years ago (Just had the biggest at 1400 players compared to when it was capped at 250), but in terms of online analytics and play, it really hasn't grown that much. Like take Ranked Battle in SV. Last season (Feb 2025), only 201,695 participated. The last Global Challenge (Feb 2025), which gives access to Worlds via points or invites (Japan and Korea) had 14,947 people enter.
For the equivalent season in SWSH 3 years ago (Feb 2022), 251,845 people entered. The equivalent Global Challenge (February 2022) had 327,327 people enter...but they did dangle a shiny Legendary Pokémon for entry on that, a later one in May 2022 which didn't have a Shiny dangle had 42,972 people play.

That doesn't show growth, if anything that shows contraction.

You can't even say it's a spectator sport because whenever it's streamed, when it's not on Twitch front page it caps out at 6k viewers for an International level event

I also heavily disagree with the trending notion that it means the traditional main series will change things up now and shift competitive solely to Champions. That's why Legends exists.

It sounds like the current system to play competitive is needlessly convoluted and that streamlining it with a standalone free app will help a lot. Otherwise, what's Champions for?

 

[Serebii]

It sounds like the current system to play competitive is needlessly convulated and that streamlining it with a standalone free app will help a lot. Otherwise, what's Champions for?

We're not sure and it's not that convoluted, especially as you're using Pokémon you've got from the main series in it via Pokémon HOME.

We need more info for Champions, truly. There's so much speculation and misinformation being spread as fact about it.

We also don't know it's free FWIW. I asked and was told it was "TBD"

 

[Charamiwa]

We're not sure and it's not that convoluted, especially as you're using Pokémon you've got from the main series in it via Pokémon HOME.

We need more info for Champions, truly. There's so much speculation and misinformation being spread as fact about it.

We also don't know it's free FWIW. I asked and was told it was "TBD"

I think the fact that it's also on mobile tells us it's either free or a subscription like Home maybe.

 

[Serebii]

I think the fact that it's also on mobile tells us it's either free or a subscription like Home maybe.

Maybe, but it's not confirmed.

Seen big accounts sharing both, but the truth is we don't know

Regardless, my point stands that competitive Pokémon has not grown as much as VGC players continually claim. They've always highly overstated their weight in the overall Pokémon community and zeitgeist, even before the growth of 2020 onwards. I remember disappointing a lot of big VG players when I brought out the analytics before haha.

I see this as a former VGC competitor who has played at the National/International level, who played Pokkén on stream at Worlds. VGC isn't as big as they feel

 

[Aleh]

I didn’t care about the lack of multiplayer for Arceus but ZA has an interesting combat system that would be fun to see in PvP. Hopefully they announce something about it in the end.

 

[Serebii]

I didn’t care about the lack of multiplayer for Arceus but ZA has an interesting combat system that would be fun to see in PvP. Hopefully they announce something about it in the end.

My understanding is Z-A is single player

So Champions is the first fruit of the new studio in partnership with ILCA. Looks interesting so far, and a worthy successor to the Stadium titles.

For what it's worth, the Pokémon Works also now maintains Pokémon Sleep, and probably do the maintaining of Pokémon HOME as well now instead of general ILCA

 

[Aleh]

My understanding is Z-A is single player

I thought so too at first but that “promotion match” tease at the end made me think maybe they’re doing something with online matches too, though it can easily just be something for the main story
Arceus still had trading and asynchronous online features so maybeeee we could get something

 

[Simar]

I thought so too at first but that “promotion match” tease at the end made me think maybe they’re doing something with online matches too, though it can easily just be something for the main story
Arceus still had trading and asynchronous online features so maybeeee we could get something

It could be the new rank system.
In PLA you just had to do the research tasks to rank up.
In PLZA they could combine that with gym battles: You catch and research Pokémon, prove your worth in a match, get promoted and get access to new wild zones/progress the story.

 

[Koni]

I get what he's saying but I also disagree because I have seen the numbers for VGC stuff and it's not as blown up as he makes it out to be. It doesn't do the numbers. It doesn't do amazing stream numbers, playerbase is still like 1-2% of the overall Pokémon audience and hasn't really grown that much and adding a barrier to entry even more than there already is of needing another game won't give it any extra boosts, and I say that as someone who is hyped about Champions. The analytics aren't there.

Like yeah more people go to live events now than 10+ years ago (Just had the biggest at 1400 players compared to when it was capped at 250), but in terms of online analytics and play, it really hasn't grown that much. Like take Ranked Battle in SV. Last season (Feb 2025), only 201,695 participated. The last Global Challenge (Feb 2025), which gives access to Worlds via points or invites (Japan and Korea) had 14,947 people enter.
For the equivalent season in SWSH 3 years ago (Feb 2022), 251,845 people entered. The equivalent Global Challenge (February 2022) had 327,327 people enter...but they did dangle a shiny Legendary Pokémon for entry on that, a later one in May 2022 which didn't have a Shiny dangle had 42,972 people play.

That doesn't show growth, if anything that shows contraction.

You can't even say it's a spectator sport because whenever it's streamed, when it's not on Twitch front page it caps out at 6k viewers for an International level event, usually capping out at 3k for Regionals

I also heavily disagree with the trending notion that it means the traditional main series will change things up now and shift competitive solely to Champions. That's why Legends exists.

I realize it's pretty early and we definitely do need more info before a fairly concrete opinion can be formed, but I wonder what do you make of the Pokmeon Champions announcement? The Legends Z-A reveal, too. I'm curious as to what you think both might mean for the franchise.

 

[Serebii]

I realize it's pretty early and we definitely do need more info before a fairly concrete opinion can be formed, but I wonder what do you make of the Pokmeon Champions announcement? The Legends Z-A reveal, too. I'm curious as to what you think both might mean for the franchise.

Hard to say with Champions until we get more information but I have wanted chaos formats including Mega, Z-Moves, Teras and Dynamax. Like I said though, I disagree with the notion that people including Wolfe have said that it means the main games will change

Z-A looks fun, I am very intrigued by the new battle system.

It goes to show that Legends games are Game Freak's experimental series.

 

[Charamiwa]

Hard to say with Champions until we get more information but I have wanted chaos formats including Mega, Z-Moves, Teras and Dynamax. Like I said though, I disagree with the notion that people including Wolfe have said that it means the main games will change

Z-A looks fun, I am very intrigued by the new battle system.

It goes to show that Legends games are Game Freak's experimental series.

Do you think official VGC tournaments will be played on Champions down the line?

 

[Lelouch0612]

I disagree with the notion that people including Wolfe have said that it means the main games will change

I'd say that it does open the door to more experimentation.

One example would be to go wild with the stats of Legendary Pokémon in the mainline games and nerf them on Champions.

Introduce busted moves, that wouldn't be available on Champions etc.

I think it is key that the battle system shares the same fundamentals with Champions since there's a clear bridge between the two. But they could balance some things differently between the two.

 

[Serebii]

Do you think official VGC tournaments will be played on Champions down the line?

Next year I do, yes. SV's rulesets are almost done in what they can do, so next year having rotating rulesets including Megas, Tera etc. makes the most sense.

After Gen 10 is out, so 2027 season and on, I'm unsure.

I'd say that it does open the door to more experimentation.

One example would be to go wild with the stats of Legendary Pokémon in the mainline games and nerf them on Champions.

Introduce busted moves, that wouldn't be available on Champions etc.

I think it is key that the battle system shares the same fundamentals with Champions since there's a clear bridge between the two. But they could balance some things differently between the two.

I disagree because Champions is inherently an additional barrier into it. Having it be in the traditional games where you raise the Pokémon is the key aspect of growth.

We already have Legendary Pokémon with wild stats that can't be used, like Eternamax Eternatus, plus Game Freak like consistency with stats between games. For example, Legends Arceus had a completely different stat system, but the base stats were identical. Having massive nerfs can create confusion.

Though really, these changes people claimed Champions opens up are basically the usual "Pokémon needs to change genre" stuff

 

[Rotimiade]

Next year I do, yes. SV's rulesets are almost done in what they can do, so next year having rotating rulesets including Megas, Tera etc. makes the most sense.

After Gen 10 is out, so 2027 season and on, I'm unsure.


I disagree because Champions is inherently an additional barrier into it. Having it be in the traditional games where you raise the Pokémon is the key aspect of growth.

We already have Legendary Pokémon with wild stats that can't be used, like Eternamax Eternatus, plus Game Freak like consistency with stats between games. For example, Legends Arceus had a completely different stat system, but the base stats were identical. Having massive nerfs can create confusion.

Though really, these changes people claimed Champions opens up are basically the usual "Pokémon needs to change genre" stuff

Do you think Champions will help bring the game to emerging markets. I alway felt that the Pokémon battles alone are not enough to capture audiences. Maybe it’s because I stay in a country that doesn’t really have a Pokémon community. I just think the things like battle frontier are for the super competitive fans. And I don’t know how many are not playing already.

Maybe if champions is going to be free to play.

Do you also think they will bring back gigantomax and super moves or whatever it was calmed in sun and moon?

 

[Lelouch0612]

I disagree because Champions is inherently an additional barrier into it. Having it be in the traditional games where you raise the Pokémon is the key aspect of growth.

I would argue that Home is a bigger barrier for collecting than Champions is for battling to be honest.

We have little info so I won't make definitive claims but I expect Champions to be F2P while Home is on a sub service.

 

[Rotimiade]

I would argue that Home is a bigger barrier for collecting than Champions is for battling to be honest.

We have little info so I won't make definitive claims but I expect Champions to be F2P while Home is on a sub service.

I do agree home is a barrier.

 

[Serebii]

I would argue that Home is a bigger barrier for collecting than Champions is for battling to be honest.

We have little info so I won't make definitive claims but I expect Champions to be F2P while Home is on a sub service.

I mean both are the barrier...though HOME has a free service that you will be able to use for Champions

Do you think Champions will help bring the game to emerging markets. I alway felt that the Pokémon battles alone are not enough to capture audiences. Maybe it’s because I stay in a country that doesn’t really have a Pokémon community. I just think the things like battle frontier are for the super competitive fans. And I don’t know how many are not playing already.

Maybe if champions is going to be free to play.

Do you also think they will bring back gigantomax and super moves or whatever it was calmed in sun and moon?

It all depends on how accessible it will be without connecting to the main series. It could end up being like Battle Revolution where you get a few rentals but you can't really go far with it. If they have a lot and a good way of getting Pokémon for it, then it's possible but otherwise, I don't see it causing things to grow that much

And yeah I think they'll bring back Dynamax...I noticed there's plenty of room in the stadiums for it

 

[jesusraz]

My understanding is Z-A is single player


For what it's worth, the Pokémon Works also now maintains Pokémon Sleep, and probably do the maintaining of Pokémon HOME as well now instead of general ILCA

Thanks for that Isn't Sleep looked after by SELECT BUTTON inc., though, or did that team only create the app in the first place and Works is now handling long-term management?

 

[ILikeFeet]

I'd say that it does open the door to more experimentation.

One example would be to go wild with the stats of Legendary Pokémon in the mainline games and nerf them on Champions.

Introduce busted moves, that wouldn't be available on Champions etc.

I think it is key that the battle system shares the same fundamentals with Champions since there's a clear bridge between the two. But they could balance some things differently between the two.

They already have that in games. Here's a video on that. GF has been introducing a lot of "impossible" pokemon that still fits within the framework of the combat system. if Sun and Moon came later, we'd probably would be able to fight Motherbeast Lusamine. Hell, I think that was the intent

 

[Serebii]

Thanks for that Isn't Sleep looked after by SELECT BUTTON inc., though, or did that team only create the app in the first place and Works is now handling long-term management?

Pokémon Sleep was created by Select Button but in November of last year the transition began where The Pokémon Works is taking over the day to day work on it as well as development of new features. They were added to the title screen list of developers in December

They already have that in games. Here's a video on that. GF has been introducing a lot of "impossible" pokemon that still fits within the framework of the combat system. if Sun and Moon came later, we'd probably would be able to fight Motherbeast Lusamine. Hell, I think that was the intent

Heck even look at Eternamax Eternatus

 

[Aleh]

They need to bring back the Nihilego form in some way for the next Alola game, just without Lusamine inside lol

 

[ILikeFeet]

all this begs the question of what will be the boss pokemon for Legends ZA. cause they gotta top Noble Avalugg somehow

---

as for Champions, this is their chance to really show out and meet Battle Revolution's presentation. still the best battles to look at

 

[Serebii]

all this begs the question of what will be the boss pokemon for Legends ZA. cause they gotta top Noble Avalugg somehow

---

as for Champions, this is their chance to really show out and meet Battle Revolution's presentation. still the best battles to look at

It'll be Zygarde clearly haha

And yeah, the special footage on the Champions site shows that they've gone all out with animations

 

[Charamiwa]

Watch those animations somehow not make it to the mainline games.

 

[SquidEnthusiast]

I get what he's saying but I also disagree because I have seen the numbers for VGC stuff and it's not as blown up as he makes it out to be. It doesn't do the numbers. It doesn't do amazing stream numbers, playerbase is still like 1-2% of the overall Pokémon audience and hasn't really grown that much and adding a barrier to entry even more than there already is of needing another game won't give it any extra boosts, and I say that as someone who is hyped about Champions. The analytics aren't there.

Like yeah more people go to live events now than 10+ years ago (Just had the biggest at 1400 players compared to when it was capped at 250), but in terms of online analytics and play, it really hasn't grown that much. Like take Ranked Battle in SV. Last season (Feb 2025), only 201,695 participated. The last Global Challenge (Feb 2025), which gives access to Worlds via points or invites (Japan and Korea) had 14,947 people enter.
For the equivalent season in SWSH 3 years ago (Feb 2022), 251,845 people entered. The equivalent Global Challenge (February 2022) had 327,327 people enter...but they did dangle a shiny Legendary Pokémon for entry on that, a later one in May 2022 which didn't have a Shiny dangle had 42,972 people play.

That doesn't show growth, if anything that shows contraction.

You can't even say it's a spectator sport because whenever it's streamed, when it's not on Twitch front page it caps out at 6k viewers for an International level event, usually capping out at 3k for Regionals

I also heavily disagree with the trending notion that it means the traditional main series will change things up now and shift competitive solely to Champions. That's why Legends exists.

I'm not sure I buy Chanpions as being ab additional barrier to entry, in fact, if the game is f2p and available on mobile I would submit that it's removing barriers to entry to competitive battling such as needing to purchase an entire console and premium game.

 

[Serebii]

Watch those animations somehow not make it to the mainline games.

They probably won't. With the main series, they've shrunk the time for battles so animations are a bit more rapid and thus less cinematic

I'm not sure I buy Chanpions as being ab additional barrier to entry, in fact, if the game is f2p and available on mobile I would submit that it's removing barriers to entry to competitive battling such as needing to purchase an entire console and premium game.

Like I said, it all depends on the Pokémon you can use in it without connecting to HOME

 

[Tbone5189]

They probably won't. With the main series, they've shrunk the time for battles so animations are a bit more rapid and thus less cinematic

Like I said, it all depends on the Pokémon you can use in it without connecting to HOME

an arguement few weeks back, but in your opinion with a gen X being released for Nov 2026 do you believe itll be cross gen or exclusive to NSW2?

gamefreak has always been late to the party with the mainline games on each new system but i dont believe itll be the same this time personally though i can see either way.

this would be by far the earliest they released a mainline NEW gen if it were to release at that time frame

 

[Serebii]

an arguement few weeks back, but in your opinion with a gen X being released for Nov 2026 do you believe itll be cross gen or exclusive to NSW2?

gamefreak has always been late to the party with the mainline games on each new system but i dont believe itll be the same this time personally though i can see either way.

this would be by far the earliest they released a mainline NEW gen if it were to release at that time frame

I could see them doing both to be honest

 

[Joseki]

"Pokemon Card Game MEGA" Trademarked, Goodbye "Scarlet & Violet!" - PokeBeach

A new trademark for Pokemon Card Game MEGA has been filed by Pokemon Japan. While it's under the same terms as trademarks used for set names, this

www.pokebeach.com

Interesting detail: the TCG will end the "Scarlet & Violet" era when the first set dedicated to the Mega Evolutions debuts later this year.
This is usually not case as the debut games of the generation give the name to the TCG sets until the next generation comes.
Probably a result of the generation lasting 4 years instead of the usual 3? Or a sign of TPC giving more relevance to PLZA?

Spoiler

Great news for my wallet, my collection of SV Blackstar promo cards will end soon

 

[SquidEnthusiast]

"Pokemon Card Game MEGA" Trademarked, Goodbye "Scarlet & Violet!" - PokeBeach

A new trademark for Pokemon Card Game MEGA has been filed by Pokemon Japan. While it's under the same terms as trademarks used for set names, this

www.pokebeach.com

Interesting detail: the TCG will end the "Scarlet & Violet" era when the first set dedicated to the Mega Evolutions debuts later this year.
This is usually not case as the debut games of the generation give the name to the TCG sets until the next generation comes.
Probably a result of the generation lasting 4 years instead of the usual 3? Or a sign of TPC giving more relevance to PLZA?

Spoiler

Great news for my wallet, my collection of SV Blackstar promo cards will end soon

What I'm curious about is if this could be the start of a reintroduction of Mega evolution to the series as a whole, it's always been an incredibly popular feature that pretty much every subsequent generational gimmick has failed to recapture the magic of. People like the simple idea of their favorite Pokemon getting "super" forms more than weird gigantic or crystal forms I think.

 

[Aleh]

If gen 10 is cross gen that would mean the first new generation exclusive to Switch 2 will release in 2028, unless they somehow go back to 3 years between gens for the game that probably requires the most time yet. I just can’t see it happening lol