Pokémon TCG Pocket will let you open digital card packs via your smartphone in October

A flurry of Pokémon news has confirmed a launch date for the long-awaited Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, and a look ahead at what’s next for Pokémon Go. Pokémon TCG Pocket, a digital version of the phenomenally-popular trading card game, will go live via the iPhone App Store and Google Play for Android worldwide on 30th October. As previously announced, you can open two packs of Pokémon cards for free per day – just enough to get you hooked – and it’s interesting to see the pack-opening mechanic front and centre in the game’s trailer below. You’ll also be able to play the Pokémon TCG, of course, as well as gaze at your collection of digital cards, and trade them with others. There’s some lovely card art on show, and some impressive visual effects. But as the trailer turns back to that pack-opening mechanic at the end, it’s hard not to feel like this – and its associated revenues – is why the app has been made. In other Pokémon news, we now have official confirmation of the Dynamax/Gigantamax mechanic coming to the next season of Pokémon Go. “We’ve all learned a gigantic amount from exploring the world and encountering all sorts of Pokémon together over the last eight years,” Pokémon Go developer Niantic wrote in a new blog post, “and yet there always seem to be new mysteries to uncover, looming just over the horizon. A new Season means big changes, big battles, and… big Pokémon?” A teaser shows a Pokémon Go player interrupted at the beach by the arrival of a towering monster from the clouds – yep, as previously forecasted through numerous leaks and datamines, Gen 8’s big Gigantamax mechanic is coming. A separate announcement – that the cute/scary Pokémon Morpeko is coming to the app – has potentially given some indication of how Dynamax/Gigantamax will work. Morpeko will be able to change form mid-battle – into its Hangry Mode – by using a special Charged Attack. Is the addition of this feature suggesting Pokémon will be able to Gigantamax in battle too? And what other Pokémon might be able to change forms mid-fight? Pokémon Go’s next season begins on 3rd September. “We’ve definitely been thinking a lot about Gen 8 for a while in Pokémon Go,” the game’s director Michael Steranka told me back in June. “Know that as the team is thinking about Gen 8 Pokémon, they’re thinking about Galar, they’re thinking about what makes those Pokémon special, and when it’s time for them to make their debut in Pokémon Go, it will make sense.”