Trading in Pokemon TCG Pocket has been announced as a future feature to be added later on, currently with a release date to come in early 2025. There's still a lot of details to come about how the trade system will work and what the limitations will be - it was always unlikely to become a pure free-for-all where players can swap and trade cards whenever they want - but it'll still be more than what we have now. Below, we'll talk about all we know and what's been revealed so far about the Pokemon TCG Pocket trading system, including release windows, details, and more besides.
Pokemon TCG Pocket trading release date and everything we know so far
Right now the ability to trade in Pokemon TCG Pocket is not live, but a rough window for the release date has been announced, with trading coming in January 2025.
Trading is a presented option in the social menu of the Pokemon TCG Pocket app, but it's greyed out and reads "coming soon".
Hi everyone! Today, I'd like to share a brief statement by the #PokemonTCGPocket Team about more immediate updates coming to the game in the next few months.I look forward to sharing more details with everyone as they become available! pic.twitter.com/eaN35vRpSwNovember 13, 2024
Of course, we have seen trading in Pokemon TCGP done as part of the initial announcement trailer. Here we see users trading cards with other players both person-to-person and seemingly long-distance, though the trailer is thin on details about exactly how this is done, showing only selective excerpts of the process. Still, it does appear to be straightforward in terms of goals - each player choosing a card to exchange with the other.
It is also likely that Pokemon Go (which has been hugely successful) may act as a template for some of the trading systems. Pokemon Go's trading had numerous limitations and barriers attached, including the following:
- Players had to be friends in-game.
- Players had to spend in-game currency in each trade.
- Players had to be within a certain distance of each other.
- Rare Pokemon had additional limitations, with "Special Trades" only possible once per day. It's very possible that all the Pokemon TCG Pocket rare cards will be harder to trade.
The reason for trading being delayed has not been stated, but we can make some educated guesses. I myself wrote in the wake of TCGP's announcement that it was a revolutionary feature in the industry, owing to the potential compromise to the in-game economy and need for microtransactions. It's also possible that the developers are waiting for further cards to expand the available pool, so there's a broad variety of options in the Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks meta, or that they're collecting data on player behaviour first.
Regardless, we'll update this page the moment we hear more details. In the meantime, why not read up on some details we do know, like if the bent packs in Pokemon TCG Pocket actually have rare cards in them?
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