Pokémon Champions Launches Next Month With Paid Upgrade Pack to 'Support Early Progression'

The Pokémon Company has announced a Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 merchandise day for its upcoming free-to-play battler Pokémon Champions, alongside a paid starter battalion which provides "useful in-game items."

Like the Stadium games of old, Pokémon Champions is simply a turn-based conflict crippled that allows you to import Pokémon you've caught elsewhere and bid them successful battles. It volition motorboat connected April 8 for Switch consoles, with a smartphone merchandise inactive planned for aboriginal this year.

Within Champions, you tin bring successful immoderate carnal you've antecedently uploaded to the Pokémon Home unreality work from caller Switch games specified arsenic Scarlet/Violet and the Legends titles, arsenic good arsenic from Pokémon Go. Alternatively, you tin stitchery a constricted enactment of creatures in-game — though you'll person to manus implicit in-game currency to marque them permanently yours.

Alongside being a conveyance to beforehand Pokémon Home (and springiness further beingness to your beloved creatures from past games), Pokémon Champions is being positioned arsenic the franchise's caller flagship PVP video crippled level for the future.

While assorted different Pokémon games whitethorn travel and go, Champions volition beryllium the series' main competitory console crippled going forwards, opening successful conscionable a fewer months' clip with officially sanctioned title events starting successful May onwards. This includes determination heats successful Indianapolis, done to the North America International successful June and the Pokémon World Championships successful August.

At launch, a paid-for Starter Pack volition let you to store much Pokémon (an further 50) and person a smattering of other in-game Teammate and Training Tickets. You'll besides get to unlock the Trainer Battle opus from Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. Exactly however the crippled volition beryllium monetized successful future, Nintendo has yet to decently detail.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social