Despite an unofficial global release date of “Summer 2019,” Pokémon Masters is live and playable on Android devices in Canada and Singapore. Players with access to the Google Play store in either of these countries can download the game for free right now; unfortunately for the rest of the world, the only option available is still pre-registration, so it’s going to be just a bit longer before the rest of the world is able to jump in and start building their sync teams.
For those who may have missed it, Pokémon Masters is The Pokémon Company’s most recent foray into the realm of mobile games, announced in the Pokemon Press Conference back in May. It’s being developed and published by DeNA, who’ve worked with Nintendo previously on other mobile games like Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
Wait, What’s Pokémon Masters?
To put it simply, Pokémon Masters is a gatcha game. It allows players to collect iconic Pokémon Trainers and their partner Pokémon from throughout the Pokémon series, like Red, Misty, and Flannery. Trainers come with one partner Pokémon, known as a “sync pair,” and team up with two other sync pairs to form teams of three that battle other teams in real-time. These sync teams compete with each other to earn their spot in the Pokemon Master’s League and prove their dominance as the strongest Pokémon Trainers. Pokémon Masters is the first mobile Pokémon game to directly reference the main series, making direct references to different storylines and elements of Trainers’ backstories.
At the moment, the most we know about Pokémon Masters’ global release is a rumored August window listed by Serebii.net. The Pokémon Company itself has not yet confirmed this, so it’s not 100% set in stone, but if the Pokémon Go soft launch is anything to go off of, odds are we don’t have too much longer to wait before we’re all able to head to the island of Pasio and start competing for the title of Pokémon Master. For the time being, check out the sick animated trailer below!