PokéNews (Jan. 24, Round 2): Pokémon Comaster released as Pokémon Duel in English, more
Today’s Pokémon news (Round 2!), with Pokémon Comaster released as Pokémon Duel in the west, but also…
- Pokémon TCG and toys sales
Pokémon Duel
Pokémon Comaster is a strategy board game based on the Pokémon series, where players use virtual figures of Pokémon to battle. It was released in Japan on April 12th, and almost a year later, it’s finally available in English (NB: it might not be available in all countries as of writing).
If you’re interested, you can download it from either the Play Store or the App Store:
It’s a Free 2 Play title, so you don’t have to pay anything to play (though of course, there’s the usual micro-transactions).
Here’s the system requirements:
- Android: 4.1 and up
- iOS: iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Requires 171 MB of free space.
Important note for Android devices: it looks like rooted devices may not launch the app or access certain features. Also, the game will not launch on the following devices: Sony Tablet S, Motorola Xoom MZ604, Optimus Pad L-06C, Eee Pad Transformer TF101, ICONIA TAB A200-S08G, Motorola, Photon 4G MB855, MediaPad Youth (hws7701w), Yota Phone 2 (YD201), ZenFone 2 (ZE551ML), SHARPAQUOS CRYSTAL X SG402SH.
Here’s the trailer and some screenshots:
Pokémon TCG and toys sales
Today, The Pokémon Company sent a press release to share some sales data for the Pokémon TCG and Pokémon toys in the United Kingdom. Of course, there’s a reason for that: the numbers are really good!
Here’s the data shared by the NPD Group Toys:
- Total sales in 2016: +285% (as opposed to +6% for the market as a whole)
- Total sales from October to December: +512% (as opposed to +7.7% for the market as a whole)
- Pokémon TCG during Christmas week: £1.29m in a seven-day period, (+733.7% increase on the same period last year)
Naturally, the main reasons behind those massive increases are:
- the Pokémon 20th Anniversary activities
- the success of Pokémon GO
- the success of Pokémon Sun and Moon
In the same press release, TOMY announced that they will reveal two new product lines at Toy Fair London, aimed at collectors of all ages. As for the first Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon expansion, it will be released in February.
Finally, here’s some global stats about the Pokémon franchise as a whole:
- Games: 279 million units sold worldwide
- TCG cards: 21.5 billion TCG cards to 74 countries in 11 languages
- Pokémon Championships: over 450 000 players take part in Pokémon events every year.
- Anime series: over 900 episodes.
Source: The Pokémon Company PR
