Get ready, trainers! The brand-new Pokémon battle game, Pokémon Champions, is set to drop on Nintendo Switch on April 8, 2026, with a mobile version slated for this summer. Fans are hyped for this fresh take on Pokémon battles.
In a recent chat with overseas gaming outlet GamesRadar+, Masaaki Hoshino, the producer of "Pokémon Champions," spilled the beans on the game's vision and positioning. He revealed they're already thinking about a future where Pokémon numbers could skyrocket past "10,000" – a crucial consideration given the steady release of new games over the years.
Right now, the Pokémon series boasts a staggering 1,025 species, including the three starter Pokémon from "Pokémon Wind and Wave," which is expected to launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027. That number is already wild, and it gets even crazier when you factor in regional forms, Gigantamax, Mega Evolutions, and other variations.
But here's the catch: balancing that many Pokémon is an almost impossible task. That's why recent main series titles have only featured a select roster of Pokémon.
"Pokémon Champions," however, is tackling this head-on with a different approach: a "rotation system." This means the roster of usable Pokémon will gradually change over time, much like the official VGC (Pokémon Video Game Championship) rules, where different seasons restrict the list of available Pokémon.
Hoshino stated, "The current plan is to have the available Pokémon change over time, meaning the meta will constantly evolve." This design essentially acts as "future insurance," preventing players from being overwhelmed by complexity as the Pokémon roster continues to grow.
When asked if all Pokémon would eventually be usable in the game, Hoshino replied that there are currently "no concrete plans that can be disclosed." However, he added, "Of course, our goal is to include as many Pokémon as possible in the game."
Hoshino was upfront, stating, "We intend for 'Pokémon Champions' to be a long-term operation – essentially, as long as the Pokémon series exists, this game will too. In the future, there might be 2,000, 3,000, or even 10,000 Pokémon. But if all of them were usable simultaneously, the game would become incredibly complex. So, the current direction is to limit the available numbers and rotate them regularly."
Considering that each generation adds roughly 100 new Pokémon, the total count will likely exceed 1,100 by the time the new game drops in 2027. At this rate, we're looking at around 2,000 species by 2048, and hitting 10,000 might not happen until the mid-2200s! (Just kidding... mostly.)
The explosive growth of Pokémon numbers in the future is practically a given, and it seems the developers are already strategizing on how to tackle this "numerical hell."
via： GamesRadar+