Pokemon Sword and Shield The Crown Tundra release date set for October

The Pokemon Sword and Shield The Crown Tundra release date is official, and it's less than a month away.

The Pokemon Company shared the Pokemon Sword and Shield The Crown Tundra release date of October 22 in a special video update, where it also showed the first new gameplay for the expansion. The Crown Tundra is a wintry region that players will be able to spend hours exploring as they make their way through an all-new part of the Sword and Shield story.

If you haven't already picked up a copy of Pokemon Sword and Shield but want to start playing with all the DLC good to go, you may want to wait until November 6. That's when special bundled editions of each game and their respective expansion passes will go on sale, likely saving you some money and from the potential headache of buying the wrong pass (which is a real thing that some poor folks had to deal with). There's no special content for buying the bundle, it's just a handy purchase to get the base game, The Isle of Armor, and The Crown Tundra all at once.

The Pokemon Company isn't teasing any other major updates for Pokemon Sword and Shield beyond the arrival of The Crown Tundra. These expansions likely took the place of what would have been an updated re-release in previous generations (like Pokemon Crystal or Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon), but we'll have to wait and see what's next for the series.

See what's coming beyond Pokemon with our guide to the best upcoming Switch games.