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Pokémon Trading Card Game Coming to iPad

by Bryan Rose - August 16, 2014, 2:02 pm EDT
Total comments: 23 Source: Kotaku

Now you can play the game anywhere you go, virtually!

The Pokémon Trading Card Game will be coming to iPad tablets soon.

Before the confirmation by The Pokémon Company, shots were shown of a virtual Pokémon card game in action on iPad software at the Pokémon World Championships in Washington, D.C. Previously, only a few official Pokémon apps such as a virtual Pokedex were released by the company. This would be considered one of the first Nintendo franchises to have a game of sorts on devices like the iPad.

There is no word yet on a release date.

Talkback

OblivionAugust 16, 2014

A few things to note:


This is a port of a shitty PC game, not developed by Game Freak.
Game Freak may be a second party of Nintendo, but Nintendo controls them much less than people think.
Don't expect normal Nintendo franchises to start appearing on mobile devices.

AVAugust 16, 2014

just imagine how cool street pass could be used on 3DS game. You get a random card!

besides this being a port of the TCG online game that is on PCs that I've seen, this fails automatically because it lacks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2C2hadQVLc

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorAugust 16, 2014

Imagine Pokemon: TGC for Wii U and 3DS with on-line and cross-play support.

Play Online vs. other Wii U or 3DS players on the Wii U using the tablet.
Play Online vs. other Wii U or 3DS players on the 3DS.
Play multi-player at home using the tablet/a 3DS.
Play multi-player on the go with multiple 3DS systems.

"One Collection" syncs your deck/collection between systems using local wireless and online Spotpass.

Sell cards online to others for eShop credit (yeah, right).

As someone else mentioned, StreetPass for random bonus cards (need a hard limit per day/week, or folks like me could abuse the s*** out of Homepass).

I would pay $60 for this title.  And I don't even play Pokemon: TCG.

Or just a ROM hack of Pokémon TCG for Game Boy Color that adds in the extra 15 years worth of cards.

marvel_moviefan_2012August 17, 2014

so everyone says Nintendo needs to make a mobile game, Nintendo says no thanks, Wii U tanks investors say make a mobile game and Nintendo throws up a middle finger as they release their first mobile game to shut people up and Nintendo fans downplay the move. Sure Pokemon is sort of a separate entity to Nintendo as a whole but this could be taken as a sign they are testing the waters. I am not going to really expect much to come off this I don't personally want Nintendo to make mobile games because mobile games suck and Nintendo already has the best platform for real mobile games anyways.

marvel_moviefan_2012August 18, 2014

Quote from: marvel_moviefan_2012

so everyone says Nintendo needs to make a mobile game, Nintendo says no thanks, Wii U tanks investors say make a mobile game and Nintendo throws up a middle finger as they release their first mobile game to shut people up and Nintendo fans downplay the move. Sure Pokemon is sort of a separate entity to Nintendo as a whole but this could be taken as a sign they are testing the waters. I am not going to really expect much to come off this I don't personally want Nintendo to make mobile games because mobile games suck and Nintendo already has the best platform for real mobile games anyways.

A serious reply is in order. This is not game changing news.

OblivionAugust 18, 2014

Game Freak isn't Nintendo. End of story. This is not Nintendo testing the waters.

marvel_moviefan_2012August 18, 2014

Quote from: Oblivion

Game Freak isn't Nintendo. End of story. This is not Nintendo testing the waters.

I thought it was a wholly owned subsidiary so they have some ties to them and public perception is Nintendo makes Pokemon and all the headlines are saying Nintendo so it isn't end of story.

OblivionAugust 18, 2014

No. They are a Nintendo partner. This means they basically choose to make games for Nintendo, but do not have to.


They are as much of a partner of Nintendo is as Square Enix and Namco Bandai is. If you call Game Freak a "wholly own subsidary" then so are those companies and many more.


So yes, it is end of story.

marvel_moviefan_2012August 18, 2014

why so hostile I said I THOUGHT they were a subsidiary not that they were for a fact. Also ALL the news reports are saying Nintendo confirms ... so the PUBLIC does very much associate Pokemon with Nintendo.

OblivionAugust 18, 2014

*shrug* I was explaining.

marvel_moviefan_2012August 18, 2014

I get that but all my research clearly says they are majority owned by Nintendo and Nintendo owns the Pokemon IP and the public perception is Pokemon = Nintendo. Also I think it was Bloomberg reporting Nintendo stocks up due to this very announcement and that article mentions Nintendo owning a stake in the Pokemon Company. I was under the Impression Game Freak just makes the Games but Nintendo's subsidiary the Pokemon Company does everything else. I could be wrong, reliable information is hard to come by but nevertheless the public sees Pokemon they equate it to Nintendo so it is going to stir up that debate again like it or not. FYI I am NOT for them  (Nintendo) making games for mobile devices, and I am not for them going third party.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorAugust 18, 2014

mm2012 - you do know that this isn't the first officially-branded Pokemon app for iOS, right?

Regardless of how much control Nintendo has over Game Freak, Nintendo would have to sign off on this for it to happen. If Nintendo didn't want this to exist, it wouldn't.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorAugust 18, 2014

We can't say that for sure.  For all we know, there's something in a contract somewhere that gives GameFreak some kind of rights to release titles on non-video game devices or something without having to go through Nintendo first.  Hell, for all that matters, there could have been something in the contract with the company that created the PC version (the one that's getting ported here) the rights to port the PC version to other operating systems.

I suppose that's possible, but given this is Nintendo I doubt they'd agree to those terms in the first place, especially with something as big as Pokémon.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorAugust 18, 2014

It'd be funny if there was something in the contract for the PC version that was *intended* to allow for an Apple/Mac port of the PC game, but this other company found a way to use the wording to support an Apple/iOS release. :D

Any word on an Android version?  I don't think any of the other iOS Pokemon titles came to Android...

Mop it upAugust 18, 2014

I don't know, I feel like GameFreak have the leverage here, because if Nintendo don't cooperate then they can find a way to cancel the contracts and go release Pokémon on Sony systems or something. Pokémon has such a huge fanbase that I would think most people will go where the games are, so I think Nintendo have more to benefit from the partnership than GameFreak, at least now that Pokémon is so successful and established.

Then again, that may not be possible depending on how the partnership is set up. I don't think we'll ever know exactly how it works, but the bottom line is that Pokémon is not completely Nintendo.

Nintendo may not own all of Pokémon, but I'm fairly certain they own enough of it to prevent that from happening. Game Freak can't just take it and leave.

marvel_moviefan_2012August 21, 2014

An article on Forbes recently stated Nintendo owns 32% of Pokemon, more than enough to keep them from slipping away.

MythtendoAugust 23, 2014

Quote from: Mop

I don't know, I feel like GameFreak have the leverage here, because if Nintendo don't cooperate then they can find a way to cancel the contracts and go release Pokémon on Sony systems or something.

The Pokemon IP isn't going anywhere. Nintendo owns the IP. And even though the copyright is split among 3 companies (Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokemon Company), Nintendo fully owns The Pokemon Company (it's a 100% owned subsidiary, so they control it) and thus owns 2/3 of the copyright. Game Freak doesn't really have any leverage here since Nintendo would never allow the IP to go anywhere they didn't want it to.

nickmitchAugust 24, 2014

The third copyright holder on Pokemon id Creatures, Inc, I believe.

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