The Pokémon Company has announced a Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 release date for its upcoming free-to-play battler Pokémon Champions, alongside a paid starter pack which provides “useful in-game items.”
Like the Stadium games of old, Pokémon Champions is a turn-based battle game that allows you to import Pokémon you’ve caught elsewhere and command them in battles. It will launch on April 8 for Switch consoles, with a smartphone release still planned for later this year.
Within Champions, you can bring in any creature you’ve previously uploaded to the Pokémon Home cloud service from recent Switch games such as Scarlet/Violet and the Legends titles, as well as from Pokémon Go. Alternatively, you can gather a limited selection of creatures in-game — though you’ll have to hand over in-game currency to make them permanently yours.
Alongside being a vehicle to promote Pokémon Home (and give further life to your beloved creatures from past games), Pokémon Champions is being positioned as the franchise’s new flagship PVP video game platform for the future.
While various other Pokémon games may come and go, Champions will be the series’ main competitive console game going forwards, beginning in just a few months’ time with officially sanctioned championship events starting in May onwards. This includes regional heats in Indianapolis, through to the North America International in June and the Pokémon World Championships in August.
At launch, a paid-for Starter Pack will allow you to store more Pokémon (an additional 50) and receive a smattering of extra in-game Teammate and Training Tickets. You’ll also get to unlock the Trainer Battle song from Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. Exactly how the game will be monetized in future, Nintendo has yet to properly detail.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
