GoKawiilis a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
Right now, Pokopia has everyone busy building houses and beautifying the world, but next month, we’ll be making our pocket monster friends fight for sport in Pokémon Champions.
Today, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Champions is set to make its debut on the Nintendo Switch family of consoles on April 8th before the mobile phone version of the game releases sometime later this year. People playing the game on the Nintendo Switch 2 will also receive a free update on April 8th that improves the game’s graphical quality. In addition to the new launch date, Nintendo also dropped a new trailer that showcases new footage and explains how Champions will be able to connect with other games in the Pokémon franchise.
While Champions will give you access to a random selection of pokémon that you can temporarily recruit to use in battle, you will also be able to bring your own monsters over from Pokémon games like Scarlet and Violet and Pokémon Go via the Pokémon Home app. This could make Champions a great place to show off groups of your favorite pokémon who might otherwise just be stuck in boxes. But The Pokémon Company says that Champions is set to become the new primary platform for competitive play, so you might want to pick the monsters you bring over very carefully.