The Pokemon Company’s big new announcement is Pokemon Unite, a strategic battle MOBA-like with Tencent

Uh

This morning, Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokemon Company announced Pokemon Unite, the first “strategic battle game in the series.”

Ishihara has partnered with Tencent (presented by its Timi Studio) on the game (uh oh), a partnership that The Pokemon Company seems to be really proud of. Described as a 5v5 team battler, you’ll trawl across the map to capture Pokemon (MOBA camps), capture points and take down opponents. As a catch-up mechanic, points scored in the last two minutes are “double” (I’m sure MOBA players will “love” that!). Pokemon seen in the playthrough stream (which evolve from their base forms) include Charizard, Snorlax, Pikachu, Lucario, Clefable, Venusaur, Gengar, Blastoise, Talonflame and Machamp. Creatures will seemingly have ultimates/heroics, called “Unite Moves.”

Naturally, because Tencent is involved, it’ll be a “free-to-start game,” launching on mobile devices (Android/iOS) and Switch with cross-play. Given the last bit of the presentation, there might be an effort to make this into an esport? It’ll likely be a long road, but it has a large country’s GDP of cash behind it. “More information will come later” as to when it’ll actually launch.

Sinnoh remakes indeed!