Pokémon has revealed a new online client for its trading card game (TCG) called “Live” with a quick teaser trailer.
As a refresher the games has had an online client since 2012 called “Pokémon Trading Card Game Online” or PTCGO for short.
That same client has gone through many revisions since then, but is still in use with many problems that community has had to wrestle with. We covered some of these problems back in October 2018 which you can read here.
A replacement for PTCGO has been near the top of the list for many players of the game, especially as official Pokémon events were moved online due to the pandemic.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Live – PTCG Live are we’re going to call it – is now that official revamp of the system.
There’s a lot packed into just 30 seconds so we slowed it down to catch some details.
The first big change, of course, is the graphics. PTCGO has been rightfully maligned for looking ancient with an outdated UI, simple designs and an overall aesthetic that shows its age. PTCG Live simply looks much newer in comparison.
Also a massive improvement here is separate layouts for PC / Mac and mobile. PTCGO only worked on a tiny number of mobile devices and it was a simple port of the desktop version.
The player avatars on the left side of the screen are animated which is a small detail, but a massive change over PTCGO which had little to no actual animation, but rather particle effects on holographic cards and simple looped images played for attacks.
Most of the trailer is shown in a battle but for a brief moment we get a look at the rest of the game. We see menu sections titled “Home”, “Decks”, “Profile”, “Shop” and maybe most worryingly “Battle Pass”.
The Battle Pass constant payment system has worked its way into most games so it looks like this trading card game will be no different.
Also in these menu we see three currencies. One of these currencies – the gold coins – already exist in PTCGO. These cannot be bought with real money and must be earned by playing the game against real people. Coins can be used to buy more cards and are part of a paid toll system in trading.
PTCG Live was actually revealed early due to product images, but remained unannounced until now.
