Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Announcement Trailer

Another year, another Pokémon Day, and the Pokémon Company has graced us with another presentation informing us on their latest projects in the works for 2024 and beyond. Alongside some Tera Raids featuring the original starter trio in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet and new Pokémon and characters coming to Pokémon Café ReMix, Pokémon UNITE, Pokémon Masters EX, and Pokémon GO, the one project that was given a significant amount of time was the Pokémon TCG… or at least a version of it.

Coming to mobile phones is Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, a virtual way to collect cards and battle your friends. Given the recent popularity of the Pokémon TCG and pack openings, as well as the success of games like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, this might be their answer to those trends. Not only will it feature opening packs (twice per day), it’ll have a simplified version of the actual card game so you can actually use those shiny new cards for something.

What I found extremely interesting is that, seemingly, it actually puts the “trading” in “trading card game”, allowing you to trade cards with people. This is pretty huge as most virtual card games don’t let you do that but instead make you buy more cards instead, with duplicates being able to be turned into some sort of currency that allows you to trade for a single specific card.

Now, I’m actually really excited about this. Yes, more than the recent announcement of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I’ve always wanted to play the TCG, but I never had the chance to, so Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket might be the easiest way to get into the game. However, this all depends on how it monetises the game. We’ll just have to wait and see.