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Pokemon Champions could run "forever" if the series does, producer says, even if that means cramming "10,000 Pokemon" into the PvP battler as part of the process
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Pokemon Champions is planned to be updated "far into the future," even when there could be as many as "10,000 Pokemon," according to game producer Masaaki Hoshino.
Speaking via interpreter in a group interview attended by GamesRadar+, Hoshino says he doesn't have "any specific concrete plans" he can share when I ask if the idea is for all Pokemon to be available in Champions, be it at launch or over time, thanks to future updates. However, he adds, "But of course, we want to include as many Pokemon as possible in the game. That's our goal."
With that said, it might not be as straightforward as just making the entire Pokedex available to use at the same time. Acknowledging that the team wants to make Champions "a game that can be easily enjoyed by a wide audience," Hoshino explains that "our current plan is to have these different blocks," AKA the the Regulation Sets that The Pokemon Company already uses to lay out the rules of what Pokemon can be used in different seasons of the competitive Video Game Championships (VGC) scene.
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"Our plan right now is to have that kind of change over time, so the meta game or the Pokemon that are available at any given time to be used may be different as time goes on," he adds.
It sounds like part of this is about future-proofing that level of simplicity going forward, so that players don't feel increasingly overwhelmed as the different generations of Pokemon come and go, bringing with them all-new creatures to fight with.
"We're planning to keep Pokemon Champions going far into the future – basically forever, as long as the Pokemon series is continuing," Hoshino explains. "And who knows? Far in the future, we'll have 2,000, 3,000, maybe 10,000 Pokemon.
"If we had all of those available to be played, I think it would just become such a complicated situation. So I think the idea that we have right now is only a limited selection available, but shifting over time."
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Elsewhere in the interview, Hoshino notes that Champions is a game that's "going to continue to evolve," supporting "the new Pokemon that come out," so we definitely can't expect the PvP game to remain stagnant. Clearly, its Switch launch on April 8 is just the beginning.
I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.
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