It seems the Pokémon brand is looking to get in on that sweet, money-raking MOBA action. Pokémon UNITE, which was announced this morning at a truly un-godly hour (about 6AM PST), takes its gameplay cues from genre staples such as League of Legends and DOTA.
Pretty soon, players will be fighting for the left, right, and middle lanes as their favorite Pokémon in 5v5 team battles. Hopefully, the collective cuteness and innocence of it being Pokémon will perhaps cut down on some of the toxicity so prevalent in these sorts of games.
It's only a little bit concerning that Pokémon UNITE is billed as a "Free-to-Start" title, which leaves the door wide open for all manner of predatory micro-transactions. The fact that it isn't being developed in-house (Tencent and TiMi Studios are taking over those duties ) doesn't help dissuade my concerns.
The trailer for the game did get me though, opening up with a sort of montage showing kids playing and trading Pokémon through the years. Those were such simpler times, weren't they?
As it stands, Pokémon UNITE has no set release date. Instead, the trailer simply states that the game is "Now in development", which could mean anything. When it does finally drop, Pokémon UNITE will be cross-playable on Nintendo Switch, IOS, and Android.
