In a new report from Reuters, it turns out that Chinese mega-firm Tencent is working with The Pokémon Company on a new mobile title for the extremely popular franchise. No details about gameplay or other elements like monetization yet though. The game is still in the very early stages of development, so no details about a release date either.
Since the beginning of the Game Boy as a gaming platform, Pokemon exploded onto the scene in every facet of modern existence, from games to anime and even truckloads of merchandise. Since its initial creation in 1995, the gaming side of things grew like a ravenous monster from the humble beginnings of Pokémon Red and Green (later released outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue). The franchise is the second-best selling video game franchise ever, with more than 340 million units sold, and more than 1 billion mobile downloads.
Tencent has a ton of experience in the mobile space, both in China and beyond, with titles like the mobile MOBA, Honor of Kings AKA Arena of Valor. The company has a wealth of talent to tap as well, meaning that this should be a rather polished and refined mobile title when it finally does come out.
In other news, with Tencent bringing the Switch to China, we could likely expect Chinese ports of Pokémon Sword and Shield, although this is just speculation, as no formal announcement has been made about that.
The company also fully bought Riot Games in 2015, meaning that the company owns League of Legends. Tencent also has holdings in games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. These purchases along give the company plenty of capital and talent to leverage while developing the new Pokémon title.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are also putting in work on Pokémon Masters, a 3v3 battler based on the legendary property. And while you’re waiting for both of these games, there’s always Pokémon Go from Niantic.
