Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket heading to mobile this year

A digital version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is heading to mobile later this year.

As announced at today's Pokémon Presents, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is a free-to-start mobile game for players to collect and share trading cards, plus battle with others online.

And, being digital, it will feature “immersive cards” that will animate when touched and allow players to explore their worlds.

Players will be able to slice open a fresh pack with a swipe of their finger, with two packs available per day for free. Presumably more packs will be available for a cost.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket will be available on both iOS and the Google Play store in 2024.

It's being developed in partnership between The Pokémon Company, Creatures Inc (creators of the Pokémon Trading Card Game), and DeNA (Pokémon Masters EX).

The quality of the digital cards is intended to show off brilliant colors and stylish effects, mirroring the care taken to design paper cards.

For battles, the game will have new streamlined rules based on the existing battle system, so players can take part in quick battles.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has been around since 1996. This mobile version will certainly save on paper.

Elsewhere in Pokémon Presents, a new Pokémon Legends game was revealed.