Update

Less than four years after launch, Pokemon Duel is shutting down

Servers will go offline this October

Less than four years after launch, Pokemon Duel is shutting down
|
| Pokemon Duel

Less than 4 years after launch, The Pokemon Company has today announced that Pokemon Duel will be going offline on October 31st.

The game originally released in the west back in 2017. It’s a tactical board game that received a fairly lukewarm response from fans and critics, with many disliking its reliance on luck-based mechanics. There was also some controversy around its IAPs which allowed you to buy booster packs to upgrade characters, resulting in claims of it being pay-to-win.

yt
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

Regardless, it’s a shame that it’s shutting down only several years after launching. You’ll still likely be able to play some elements of it, but its online components will soon be a thing of the past. From today, you’ll no longer be able to purchase new Diamonds, though refunds are still open for any recent purchases. In addition to that, the Player Pass is also due to be removed entirely.

If you haven’t actually played it, Pokemon Duel is a fairly standard deck-building board game where you do battle with online opponents in league matches. In addition to your standard deck, you have access to 6 Pokemon figures that can be upgraded using in-game currency.

It’s always a surprise when multiplayer games go under, especially those with the brand power of Pokemon. Perhaps it struggled right out of the gate due to the tepid initial reaction, then failed to regain players from then on. Whatever the cause, it’s never nice to see multiplayer games disappear or have entire mechanics stripped away due to their servers going offline.

If you want to give it a try before the multiplayer becomes inaccessible, you can download Pokemon Duel from both the App Store and Google Play. The more recent user reviews seem to suggest that the game has improved substantially over time, which only makes its upcoming death all the more unfortunate.

Check out our news section to discover the latest, and greatest, games.
Cameron Bald
Cameron Bald
Cameron started out as an intern here in late 2018, then went on to join us as our News Editor in July 2019. He brings with him an encyclopedic knowledge of decade-old GamesMaster review scores and plenty of stinking takes on games, movies, and proper pizza etiquette.