Today’s Pokémon Presents came in with a surprise: the announcement of a new multiplayer game called Pokémon Champions. The game is coming to both Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms, and it will link with Pokémon Home so you can bring all your favorite ‘mon to the arena.
Pokémon Champions seems to focus on the battling aspect of the franchise more than anything else, and the trailer definitely gave off Pokémon Stadium vibes. It doesn’t look limited to any particular generation or ability set, either; the trailer showed Terastallized Pokémon duking it out against Mega Evolutions.
The game promises multiple game modes. As it’s intended to be accessible for both new and veteran players, a ladder system separating skill levels would make sense. It could follow the pattern of other recently-released, mobile-friendly Pokémon Champions games and be free to play with a battle pass and microtransactions.
This is just speculation; without more details, it’s impossible to say with any certainty what the game will entail — but the trailer did show a Double Battle between two trainers, each fielding two separate Pokémon at once.
The YouTube description from the official video reads, “Get ready to experience everything you love about Pokémon battles all in one place—in Pokémon Champions. This new, battle-focused game will feature familiar mechanics such as Pokémon types, Abilities, and moves, creating an environment conducive to rich and varied strategies for new and experienced Trainers alike.”
Neither Game Freak nor The Pokémon Works gave an expected release date, and we suspect it’s still at least a year or more away. The game is listed only as being “in development now.” That said, Pokémon games have a history of launching roughly six months after the initial announcement — that’s how it worked for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet — and a battle-focused game should be somewhat easier to develop, if only because of its more limited scope.
