The next evolution of the digital Pokémon TCG is almost here with The Pokémon Company officially announcing that the Pokémon Trading Card Game Live experience is coming soon.
This will be the next iteration of Pokémon TCGO, letting players experience true-to-game TCG play digitally on PC or mobile, with some much-needed improvements over the original application.
With TCG Live, TPC is promising more frequent updates to the game compared to TCGO. Players will also be able to transfer almost all of their TCGO content over to TCG Live once it launches, though there will be some limitations at the start.
The game will be free-to-play and players can unlock content by completing daily quests. But there will be options to purchase content with in-game currency, Coins, Credits, and Crystals, that all have different uses. There will be no in-game trading options.
Players can instantly carry over all of their TCGO data to TCG Live as long as they use the same Trainer Club account at first login. At the start, players can transfer up to four copies of any unique cards to TCG Live.
Only sets from Sun and Moon Lost Thunder onward will be playable right away, according to the press release. Players can still transfer cards from any Black and White set, though, and they’ll be made playable in future updates. Additionally, it appears that TPC doesn’t plan on adding support for the HeartGold and SoulSilver series at this time, likely to focus on newer sets and updates.
This move makes sense because the current expanded format is played using Black and White series cards and forward, showing that TPC is going to support multiple aspects of the current meta in TCG Live.
With a closed beta to be held in Canada and global beta scheduled to launch globally later this year on PC and Mac, players will get their first taste of the new interface soon.
