Japanese mobile game developer DeNA recently announced their plans to launch a new Pokémon mobile game sometime within the upcoming months.
DeNA’s announcement came in their latest financial report, in which they presented their partnership with The Pokémon Company for this new title, but offered very little details about the game, itself aside from their plan to release the game before the end of the fiscal year, which is March 31, 2020.
DeNA’s foray into Pokémon comes after a past relationship with Nintendo, as they have made several mobile games for the company before, such as Miitomo, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. They are also the company behind Mario Kart Tour, which was originally slated for an early 2019 launch, but was ultimately pushed off to broad “summer 2019” release date, with very little information known about it.
This isn’t The Pokémon Company’s first time in the realm of mobile gaming, as they have a number of existing games appealing to various demographics. Pokémon Go, developed by American company Niantic, infamously took the world by storm upon release. Pokémon Playhouse, a lesser known title, offers narrated mini games that most cater to a preschool audience. Pokémon Shuffle pays homage to the 2006 Nintendo DS title Pokémon Trozei with its Candy Crush-style puzzles. Despite this diversity in mobile Pokémon gaming experiences, no mobile Pokémon game has actually replicated the adventure mode of a main series Pokémon game, in which players embark on a journey to battle their way to the top of the Pokémon League and catch ‘em all.
With the DeNA announcement, the Pokémon franchise appears to be in for an exciting year, as fans await the release of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield on the Nintendo Switch sometime in late 2019. Some speculate that more will be revealed about this mysterious mobile game—in addition to the Switch titles—during Nintendo’s E3 presentation, which will occur on June 11, 2019 at 9:00 AM PST in the usual form of a Nintendo Direct video.