Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Launches Worldwide Today

I'm a little disappointed because I was somehow under the impression that booster packs would include 10 cards each when it's only five.

Anyway, I'm glad that this is finally here. Hopefully it provides a few minutes of fun each day.

Would much rather have seen a sequel/successor to the excellent GBC adaptations on Switch though.

I just have the need to collect those immersive cards... waiting for the app to download on my phone

Lol... it became available as I hit the "reply" button.

Just spent too long playing it haha. Level 5 already and now waiting for all the timers to refresh to open more.

I've been playing, and I'm quite impressed. It's UNBELIEVABLY polished. It feels like Pokémon took some ideas from Yugioh Duel Link. It's a reduced deck and bench size with simplified mechanics. It's pretty great!

This is pure magic. I feel like I’m a kid again. ✨

Luckily we still have physical card packs in the netherlands... (because of course the app is not available over here)

Probably because they treat Belguim and Netherlands as one, while the first has more strict rules.

Oh well, one less money greedy app on my phone then (trying to see this as an postive thing, and failing)

Finally finished my 2 hour long time of opening free stuff. I know freemium mobile games love to shower you with rewards at the start to get you hooked, but I've never had one that required so much work to get it all. All in all I got about 110 cards, 5 levels, and a bunch of other stuff I'm still not entirely sure the use of yet. And Mewtwo EX with the animated background, so already doing better than expected.

Since it's not available in the Netherlands, I downloaded the game using my US account.

The game works by setting your region to the US (in game) and then you can 'play' it. But very quickly you know why this game isn't available in the Netherlands (or Belgium). It's extremely trying to get you to pay to open packs. You can't actually battle when you first start, just open packs. One 5 card booster pack at a time. You get a few free ones when you start, and then it's 2 ! packs per day.

So yeah, this game is absolute trash. It's just money grabbing because they can. Honestly they should've just made a "complete" version of the game like Animal Crossing is doing next. At least the visuals are good.

@valtianeea We in the netherlands do allow them under the condition that the rates are honest.

But yeah, you can just side load via QooApp and play that way.

I am somewhat impressed so far. I've spend way too long playing it this morning and I can't wait to expand my collection.

Omg I cant believe it. I managed to exit the app when I recieved the certification code on my email and now my account is stuck in limbo :'( I already contacted support. I hope they can fix this.

@valtianeea Yeah, I noticed it wasn't on the Play Store on my phone and figured it was a law thing, again. So glad the government is looking out for our wellbeing!

For anyone looking to use this on a tablet the app is in a forced vertical perspective. Not a fan but let's face it it's designed for phones really.

@Pillowpants This is hilarious, right, especially when every street corner holds a casino here in Amsterdam XD
My daughter was looking forward to those beautiful 3D cards ... hope she will be too busy with other things to remember this app.

@Yalloo It's absolutely preposterous. Especially since Holland Casino is government owned. They should handle the real problem, instead of forcing this kind of stuff on folks.

It's quite odd that you can still buy physical TCG packs and that they're being sold to kids, but we aren't allowed to download this game...

@Pillowpants Completely agreed. That's why I think politicians are the number one mafia in the world (ah well, only after banks). Worse even, they're using our tax money for their salaries. And it's never enough, they need new taxes and increase the existing taxes constantly. But that's what the people want ... cheap solutions that only create more problems. And cost more money. You'd think with better education we could slowly improve ... but guess who's in charge of education ...

I will stop here before my heart just pops.
Still, happy to read we are not all completely blind yet. 😘

I will go buy some paper cards, at least this is still allowed. *** trying real hard to find the positive on this ***

As far as I can tell, the timer for the free pack openings does not reset when you use hourglasses to skip it. There also does not appear to be a hard limit on the number of packs you can open using hourglasses in a day. If I'm right, then this means that by waiting 11 hours after a free pack opening, you will then be able to buy more packs for 1 hourglass each for the final hour until the timer ticks over. I really hope I'm right about the way this works because if I am then that's really funny

@Yalloo Casino's aren't advertising toward children. Pokémon is. Case closed.

I’ve opened I think 6 packs and one wonder thingy and that seems all I could do on day one. Very slick presentation but it’s a bit like the start of Animal Crossing waiting for the good stuff to start.

@sanderev This is a completely incorrect shortcut my friend.

Are children allowed Credit Cards or any other payment method used on mobile phones?
No. And the reason why these apps are forbidden is exactly because parents are not taking responsability and leaving the children play unreasonably with such apps.
These apps could actually be very fun, AND the perfect way to learn what to be careful about.
But since people are too dumb, then it must be forbidden. Now, it's not just banned for children is it, it's banned for everyone. Is Pokemon only for children then? And aren't adults responsible for themselves and whatever s*** they get themselves into?

Do you know how much money Candy Crush generates each year? Do you know where those billions actually come from? From adults paying bonuses to skip a level to show their friends how big their ego is. "Please save me from myself Mighty Government".

@Yalloo No the very issue is that it's marketed at children at all. If they would allow children in a casino that casino would be closed within a day. Even though most people would be adults. Also most Pokémon players are children.

It's not allowed to market ANY gambling towards children.

And the government stopping children from getting addicted to gambling is a good thing. Also CandyCrush is not gambling, it has microtransactions yes. But not lootboxes/gacha mechanics. This Pokémon game does.

@sanderev Well, it seems that one of us is clearly missing the point here.

As you can see this app is allowed everywhere else in the world, and looking at the comments here, many people are enjoying it a lot.

What I am saying is that it is not the government's place to decide this. Unless too many people in the Benelux specifically are too *** choose the word carefully here *** to take care of themselves and their kids to be abused by a videogame.
The rule is not against this Pokemon game specifically, it's about all videogames. I'm 41, and I can take care of myself. At least I think so. I find that absolutely abnormal to be treated like this by my own government.

And to clarify, I have nor never had any interests in Pokemon, just I know that my 10 year old would love opening 2 free card packs everyday and she was really looking forward to seeing the new 3D cards in action. I don't see the harm in that. And when she will ask me to pay for more, I will tell her "no" and explain to her why. As simple as that.

What is positive about all this though, is that there are actually people who are happy being treated like this by their own government. And I can only be happy for you in that regard. It makes this law not completely useless after all.

Well I downloaded it last night (it’s morning now where I live) and wasn’t high enough level to actually battle with my cards yet :/

But the presentation of cards is undeniably epic in this game so my hopes are high

I thought it would just be a cool way to look at the cards, I've never tried getting into the battling but figured I'd try the game out. Got the Charizard crown EX in the first 3 pulls and was like "Oh no, this is how the addiction starts....."

Was able to download the app last night and had just unlocked battles so gonna go try that out now. My friend and I are pretty excited about the app

The game came out last night where we live and me and my sister are both enjoying it quite a bit.

And with that, Pokémon dragged me, kicking and screaming, back into the mobile gaming hell hole... I finally stopped playing Pokémon GO! over a year ago...

NOT worldwide
I live in The Netherlands
and (just like with Masters EX) the game is unavailable, due to a Loot Box ban
((but I still want to play both games dammit!))

@sanderev

As @Yalloo has already stated, it's down to the adults/parents to police their children. I mean no offense whatsoever, but it seems like you're trying to blame the company instead of accepting personal responsibility. Just because a product is offered doesn't mean the consumer has to consume.

@Yalloo Completely agree with everything you said.

This should not be up to the government, parents should be responsible. It’s very rigorous and disproportionate that a lot of people now miss out on it entirely, because the complete game gets banned for everyone in that region altogether. Scary practices…

@8bit-Man I very much appreciate knowing other people have a similar perspective as I have.
And @Vegeta937 what a nice and clear way to put it... I can get very passionate, even more when it comes to such topics as individual freedom. I have a hard time accepting that in Europe in 2024 I have to suffer from such rules in my day-to-day life because other people are limited and/or refuse to take their own responsability.
Much love 🧡 fellow gamers 🎮
I'm not going to call out sanderev, but I do hope that simply talking about it/exchanging here online can open up minds and let anyone be more tolerant/responsible. 🙏🏻

Amen to that. Freedom is incredibly important. While this mobile app is just a trivial example, it's still frightening to see how easily someone's freedom of choice can be taken away, just because a ruling authority decides that's "safer" for its people...