Pokemon Trading Card Game Preregistrations Open Now, Mobile Launch Date Revealed
The Pokémon Company, the same developer behind the wildly popular Pokémon TCG Online from 2011, dropped some good news (and a trailer) at the tail end of the Pokémon World Championships in Hawaii of its new game, now called Pokémon TCG Pocket. The trailer showed off the look and feel of the game without going too much into specifics.
The trailer highlights players in numerous locales opening packs and how familiar and unique cards will look like, while giving a glimpse of card trading, plus an EVEN smaller glimpse at the actual gameplay. The video shows off Pocket-specific collector cards, such the "immersive card" featuring Mewtwo. Tapping on the digital art gives owners the opportunity to explore the scene in 3D space, which to me just looks merely like a different take on holographic collector cards from the 80s and 90s.
According to the developers, players can "open two booster packs every day at no cost" to add cards to their digital Pokémon collection. Based on that quote from the actual game description, there may be a card purchasing element to Pocket, although it remains to be seen if packs and cards are obtained via in-game credits (similar to that found in Pokémon TCG) or as in-app purchases. What would be cool is if players can add cards already in their real-world collection somehow.
The Pokémon Company said that the game will be released globally on October 30, while lucky folks in New Zealand will get an even earlier soft-launch, although the date for that hasn't been revealed yet. For now, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is open for pre-registration on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store
