Pokemon | The Verge

Competitive Pokémon is on phones now, but you still need a Switch to become a champion

2026-09-05T13:31:47-04:00

To get started with competitive Pokémon battles, all you need is your phone. But to compete at the highest level, like at the Pokémon World Championships, you're going to need a Switch. And there doesn't seem to be a good reason why.

Battle simulator Pokémon Champions originally launched on the Switch and Switch 2 in April, with the mobile version following in June. The experience is nearly identical across the game's versions; since it's cross-platform, the choice really comes down to what devices you own and whether you prefer tapping or using a controller. I find myself playing Champions on my phone more often just because it's always in …

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Google launches Pokémon Sleep special-edition Fitbit Air

2026-08-27T10:58:33-04:00

The latest special-edition of Google's Fitbit Air is inspired by the Pokémon Sleep game, with a "Sleepy Blue" band emblazoned with a snoozing Pikachu. It's not exactly Snorlax blue, but matches the classic blue and gold of a Pokémon card pretty closely. The special-edition is available to preorder now for $129 and starts shipping September 15th. It's arriving as Pokémon celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, with a special-edition collection of playing cards set to launch the same week.

This isn't the first wearable that can connect with Pokémon Sleep - the sleep tracking app supports dozens of wearables from Apple, Google, Garmin, and …

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Polaroid’s new Pokémon collection captures memories, not Pikachus

2026-08-17T16:57:30-04:00

Polaroid announced a new collection of cameras, instant film, and accessories all featuring limited-edition designs to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokémon. The new collection goes a little harder than Fujifilm's Pokémon collaboration from five years ago with the introduction of Polaroid film printed with various characters around the frames, including Pikachu and Snorlax. The entire collection will be available for preorder starting on August 25th in the US, Canada, and the UK through the Polaroid and Pokémon Center websites. A global release is expected to follow on October 5th.

The Pokémon collection includes two limited-edition versions of the Polaroid Go Gen 3 (left and right) and the Polaroid Now Gen 3 (center). | Image: Polaroid" data-portal-copyright="Image: Polaroid">

The three cameras are existing models with new des …

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A decade later, Pokémon Go finally made good on its original promise

2026-07-11T15:31:05-04:00

When Niantic dropped the first Pokémon Go trailer in 2015, it was hard to grasp how a bunch of players could work together to catch a pokémon like Mewtwo. But this week at the game's 10th anniversary event in New York City, Pokémon Go showed the world how it's done. Almost 2,000 players (some of them Pokémon Go influencers) packed into Times Square on Thursday evening to participate in a special battle. It was cool to see Times Square briefly go dark before the billboards began lighting up, revealing an escaped Mewtwo Mega Evolving, and it was even wilder to see people living the fantasy depicted in the game's first trailer.

Even though mo …

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Lego’s Smart Play Pokémon can train and battle, but don’t do the one thing I wish they could

2026-06-02T13:17:30-04:00

Some of the sets’ props are drawn directly from the games; others are more… unexpected.

When Lego announced its tech-packed Smart Bricks at CES, we were impressed by the potential - enough to give it our best-in-show award. But when the first Star Wars sets actually launched in March, we were less enamored. All that promise of clever interaction and creative play ultimately boiled down to a few voice barks and flashing lights, with the smartest features we'd seen at CES nowhere to be found.

Today, Lego announced the second generation, with 12 new sets launching this summer, promising Pokémon play and some of the smarts we'd been missing. After a few hours training and battling with the new sets this morning, it's clear the Sm …

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Pokémon Champions is off to a rough start

2026-04-10T15:15:08-04:00

You first, dude. | Image: The Pokémon Company, Nintendo

Like many live-service games before it, Pokémon Champions' launch has been messy. The free-to-start battle sim, which is out now on the Switch and Switch 2 (and also coming to mobile later this year), is plagued with bugs, some of which cause issues with basic battle mechanics - not great for a game that's only about battling. But bugs can be fixed, and encouragingly, some of them already have been. Champions' bigger problem is that, in trying to be a competitive battling platform for all kinds of players, it risks satisfying none of them.

Coming hot on the heels of Pokopia, a creative and cozy spinoff with no battling whatsoever, Champions …

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Pokémon Champions is coming to the Nintendo Switch on April 8th

2026-03-24T16:33:47-04:00

Right now, Pokopia has everyone busy building houses and beautifying the world, but next month, we'll be making our pocket monster friends fight for sport in Pokémon Champions.

Today, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Champions is set to make its debut on the Nintendo Switch family of consoles on April 8th before the mobile phone version of the game releases sometime later this year. People playing the game on the Nintendo Switch 2 will also receive a free update on April 8th that improves the game's graphical quality. In addition to the new launch date, Nintendo also dropped a new trailer that showcases new footage an …

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Pokopia Pokédex review: a classic, reimagined

2026-03-10T15:00:24-04:00

Thirty years ago, Nintendo struck gold with the release of the original Pokémon games. Soon, kids across the world were introduced to dozens of magical creatures that they could befriend and learn more about using sophisticated electronic encyclopedias known as Pokédexes. The first Pokédexes were reflections of how the Pokémon world was shaped by advanced technology. And with each subsequent generation, Pokédexes evolved; by 2019 they stopped being dedicated devices and became applications on phones powered by disembodied spirits. Rotom Phones could do more things than their predecessors, but many players have continued to think of the handh …

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Pokopia made me look at Pokémon’s high-tech future in a whole new way

2026-03-05T15:15:39-05:00

Pokémon Pokopia features, of all things, a 3D printer. I wasn't sure why this surprised me so much, given all the other high-tech gear in pretty much every Pokémon game. But I was not expecting to find, inside the once-crumbling Pokémon Center I'd just worked hard to restore, a kind of machine I'd never seen before.

Until Pokopia, I hadn't spent much time thinking about tech in the Pokémon world. I've been Pokémon-pilled for so long that I took all its sci-fi technology for granted. Sure, there are magic PCs that can digitally store living creatures - that's how it's always been. Obviously fossils can be resurrected and obviously sometimes …

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We played Pokémon Pokopia, ask us anything

2026-03-04T10:03:16-05:00

Pokémon's 30th anniversary is here and Nintendo (and The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, and Omega Force) are kicking things off with a surprisingly excellent life simulation spinoff game. Pokémon Pokopia arrives on March 5th, and it's one of the first Pokémon titles that will debut exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. Equal parts Animal Crossing, Minecraft, and Dragon Quest Builders, Pokopia reimagines the Pokémon world as a massive, human-free paradise that you can rebuild however you want. Pokopia easily could have been a straightforward game about making friends and crafting neighborhoods. But as our review discusses, Pokopia's a much bigg …

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