Last week, The Pokemon Company hosted a special presentation where it unveiled a number of upcoming Pokemon projects, including the highly-anticipated New Pokemon Snap. It concluded its presentation by teasing another big Pokemon announcement for June 24, which has now been revealed to be a Pokemon MOBA called Pokemon Unite.
Pokemon Unite is in development by Tencent's TiMi Studios, the company behind a number of other MOBA games and the popular Call of Duty Mobile. Pitched as a "strategic team-based battle game," Pokemon Unite looks to feature typical MOBA gameplay, but with a Pokemon twist.
In Pokemon Unite, players compete on two teams of five. They can cooperate with teammates to perform unique "Unite" moves, though type advantages aren't a factor as they are in other Pokemon games. Like other MOBAs, Pokemon level up and gain new abilities throughout the match, and they can even evolve.
No release date information was announced for Pokemon Unite, beyond that it will be announced at some point in the future. It was confirmed that Pokemon Unite is in development for both the Nintendo Switch as well as mobile devices, with cross-play support enabled. It was also confirmed that Pokemon Unite, similarly to many other MOBA games, will be "free to start," though it's not entirely clear what that means. It's possible it will be entirely free-to-play with players having to purchase the Pokemon they want to play as, or it could require a premium purchase to keep the game. More details will come to light as we near Pokemon Unite's release.
A Pokemon MOBA is not a bad concept in and of itself, but it's safe to say that some fans may come away from this presentation with some disappointment. The Pokemon Company teased the game as a "big project" that it has been working on, and it's safe to say that many fans won't consider a mobile Pokemon MOBA as a "big project." Rumors were swirling that it would instead be something like Pokemon Let's Go Gold and Let's Go Silver or maybe even a new Pokemon Stadium game.
On the bright side, there is still plenty of main series Pokemon content to look forward to, with the Crown Tundra DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield set to launch later this year.
Pokemon Unite is in development for Switch and mobile devices.