The Pokémon World Championships isn’t just a both a gathering for all the best competitive Pokémon players across the globe, but also a pseudo Pokémon Presents showcase to talk about the future of the franchise. The event was held in Hawaii this year, so its closing ceremony took place late at night for many people around the globe. . The Pokémon Company made a few lowkey announcements at the end of the tournament, and spoilers: there was no news on the upcoming RPG Pokémon Legends: Z-A. But if you like the card game, the MOBA, or Pokémon Go, there were a few exciting announcements.
Pokémon Go is getting bigger
The mobile capture and collection game Pokémon Go got two announcements during the closing ceremony, but one was easily the bigger deal. Developer Niantic teased that Dynamaxing, the battle gimmick from Pokémon Sworld and Shield, is finally coming to Pokémon Go. These temporary transformations allow Pokémon to grow in size like a Kaiju, with some getting original forms called Gigantamax that are distinct from a typical Dynamax form. The feature was teased with a live-action trailer showing what appears to be a Dynamax Pokémon descending upon a beach.
But it’s also getting something pretty small
Also during the Pokémon Go segment, Niantic revealed Morpeko, the Galar region’s Pikachu clone, is coming to the app “soon.” Pokémon Go still hasn’t fully rolled out Generation VIII’s Pokédex, though it has sporadically released critters from the Sword and Shield games over the years. Hopefully Dynamax and Morpeko are signs that more are on the way.
Pokémon TCG Pocket is coming in October
Pokémon TCG Pocket was revealed earlier this year as a new way to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game on your phone. Now, the app has a release date. The Pokémon Company confirmed TCG Pocket will launch on the Google Play Store and App Store on October 30. You can preregister on either storefront from your phone or tablet.
Owner’s Pokémon cards are coming back to TCG
One of the highlights of the showcase was the reveal that Owner’s Pokémon cards, which include Pokémon that are trained by a specific trainer from the games or anime, are about to make a proper return. They’ll be officially known as Trainer’s Pokémon cards, include art of their respective trainer, and can only be evolved into an evolutionary card from that line. For example, the Lt. Surge’s Pikachu card can only evolve into Lt. Surge’s Raichu. The first wave of these cards was teased with an animated trailer featuring cards like Lillie’s Clefairy, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl, and a gorgeous full art of N’s Reshiram.
The Pokémon Unite roster continues to expand
The Pokémon Company revealed the next three Pokémon set to join the Unite roster. First up will be Armarouge, who will join the MOBA’s roster as an Attacker on September 12. The fire/psychic-type seems to specialize in area-of-effect attacks. Next up in October will be the mythical Pokémon Darkrai, which has the power to put enemies to sleep and strike them down while they’re incapacitated. Finally, Psyduck will join in November, acting as a support character. It looks like this will be a Pikachu situation, in which Psyduck doesn’t evolve throughout a match like other characters. So if you were hoping to play as its evolved form Golduck, that doesn’t look like it’s in the cards.
Pokémon Worlds will return to the continental United States in 2025 and 2026
The final announcement rounding out the closing ceremony was the reveal of the location for the next two Pokémon World Championships. The tournament will be held in Anaheim, California in 2025, and will stay in California in 2026 and head to San Francisco. The Pokémon Company has held the event annually since 2004 (with the exception of 2020 and 2021, which were canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic), and it has been almost exclusively held within the United States. Worlds 2013 was held in Vancouver, London hosted the 2022 show, and, surprisingly, 2023 was the only year the event was held in The Pokémon Company’s home country of Japan. I’m glad to see it return to the continental US, at least. Now I may actually get to make the trip.
Ultimately, it was a light series of announcements this year, as I know a lot of folks were hoping to hear more about Pokémon Legends: Z-A. The Kalos-based RPG was announced at the Pokémon Day Presents in February, but was only teased with a concept trailer. So we still don’t know a lot about the game beyond that it will take place entirely in the metropolis of Lumiose City.
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