Pikaching And His Money-Making Mates Are Back – Pokémon Champions Launches April 8
Pikaching and his money-making mates are being wheeled out for another outing this week, with The Pokémon Company’s launch of Pokémon Champions on April 8.
Champions is the 40th – ish – main Pokémon game. It comes a little over a month after the launch of Pokémon Pokopia on Switch 2, and ahead of 2027’s Pokémon Winds and Waves launch. It will become the new competitive Pokémon platform for the foreseeable future.
The Champions website says, of the game: “This new, battle-focused game will feature familiar mechanics such as Pokémon types, Abilities, and moves, creating an environment conducive to rich and varied strategies for new and experienced Trainers alike.”
Casual Battles
As well as Private Battles, the game features Casual Battles. Wins and losses don’t count against a player’s ranking. They offer a good opportunity to try out potential new fighters and practice before heading into Ranked Battles.
Ranked Battles And Victory Points
Ranked Battles pit players of a similar ranking against one another. Victory Points, which are awarded to competitors and used to determine ranking, are also used as in-game currency. VPs, which cannot be purchased for real money, can be used to recruit and train Pokémon.
According to the Champions website, they may also be available from events and other areas in the game.
World Championships
Pokémon doesn’t feature in the eSports World Cup, but it has its own popular competitive framework, culminating in the $2m World Championships. Pokémon Champions will replace Pokémon Scarlet and Violet in Pokémon World Championships and Championships Series events in most regions. It seems highly likely that this will remain the case for the foreseeable future.
“Free-To-Start”
Champions is “free to start”, but players should expect heavy psychological warfare designed to encourage gratuitous spending (aka microtransactions).
Indeed, the dark arts start from the off. While the game is free-to-start, players can buy a Champions+ Starter Pack.
The Starter Pack increases storage from 30 to 80 Pokémon. You also receive 50 training tickets, used for, erm… training, and 30 quick tickets – which reduce the Roster Ranch wait time from 22 hours to one hour.
Roster Ranch Recruitment
As well as being able to bring eligible Pokémon over from Home, the Roster Ranch is the area where trainers can recruit new Pokémon. 10 random Pokémon will be available, refreshing every 22 hours.
Players will be able to use Trial Recruitment to take one Pokémon on trial, for free. That character will be available for 7 days before it leaves the player roster.
Alternatively, players can spend Victory Points to recruit Pokémon permanently.
Quick coupons reduce the refresh time from 22 hours to one hour, and Teammate Tickets, earned through in-game missions, enable the permanent acquisition of a Pokémon without using hard-fought VPs.
Tiered Battle Pass
Pokémon, as well as other rewards, will also be available through the tiered Battle Pass system. Opportunities to recruit Pokémon will be limited with the free Battle Pass. But, Premium Battle Pass subscribers will enjoy premium rewards, likely including new recruits.
When it comes to who you can recruit, only final evolution Pokémon will be compatible, initially.
Devs have said battles will be more accessible for new players, ensuring unevolved characters don’t get totally wiped.
However, while most base-stage characters are excluded, the Pokémon poster boy, Pikachu, is compatible. Obviously. You can’t have a Pokémon game without Pikachu. Even Black and White eventually relented.
Keep On Pokemoning
I played a lot of Pokémon TCG in the early 2000s. And, like 100 million other people, I also gave Pokémon Go a go. But I’ve never really got into the three dozen or so video games that have launched in the past three decades.
With that said, it’s impossible to ignore fans’ devotion and the franchise’s continued success. Pokémon is a cultural phenomenon.
It is, by most metrics, the most successful entertainment franchise of all time. It has amassed a huge $150bn of lifetime revenue, with around $30bn of that coming from video game sales.
Pokopia, which launched in March this year, shipped more than 2 million copies in its first four days.
While Call of Duty games have generated more revenue than Pokémon games, and there are more games in the Mario franchise, neither of these comes close to Pokémon’s cultural influence. With Pokémon Champions bringing a new competitive platform to the game’s popular eSports tournaments, and enabling players to bring their champions over from Home, it is likely to prove yet another massive hit.
