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Pokémon Masters Smartphone Game's Trailer Previews Summer Launch

The Pokémon Company began streaming a trailer for DeNA's Pokémon Masters smartphone game on Thursday. The trailer reveals that the game is slated to launch for iOS and Android devices this summer.

The company also began streaming an introduction video for the game that includes the trailer, as well as comments from The Pokémon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara and DeNA producer Yū Sasaki.

The game lets players "battle alongside your favorite Pokémon Trainers from the main series RPGs." Important Trainers from past Pokémon games appear in the smartphone game in Sync Pairs with a single Pokémon. Players form groups of three Sync Pairs to participate in three-versus-three battles to try to win a tournament on the artificial island of Pasio. The game's real-time battles have players use a move gauge to attack as quickly as possible and fill the gauge. Trainers themselves can also use moves to heal Pokémon or raise their stats.

The original idea for the game came from GAME FREAK's Ken Sugimori, who suggested a game featuring all the past and present Pokémon trainers in the series. Game company DeNA announced earlier this month that it plans to launch a new smartphone game in the new fiscal year based on the Pokémon franchise.

Niantic and The Pokémon Company launched the Pokémon GO app in select countries including the United States in July 2016. The game earned an estimated US$795 million worldwide in 2018, and has earned US$2.2 billion as of the end of 2018.

In 2015, Nintendo partnered with DeNA to lend its intellectual property for the creation and launch of "approximately" five smartphone titles by March 2017. Through that partnership, Nintendo and DeNA have released the Super Mario Run, Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp games. Service for Miitomo ended in May 2018.

Source: The Pokémon Company International's YouTube channel and website