Pokémon TCG Live is the next iteration of Pokémon’s online platform for its massively successful card game. But the global release has almost been delayed for a full year as the developers continue to work on improving the beta based on player feedback.
Right now, the closed beta has been rolling out slowly to new countries as TPC and the devs expand its testing with more players—with the current goal being to have it globally available by the end of 2022. And thanks to feedback from a survey in August, the current limited beta is going to be seeing some changes starting today with a visual update.
According to the survey, players in the beta had positive responses to things like the formatting of the crafting, daily quests, and battle pass content along with things like general gameplay. But other key areas such as matchmaking, the frequency of bugs, and more were received negatively.
Most complaints centered around the pace of receiving progression rewards, navigating card collections, and visual aspects of the game such as the art style, avatars, board design, and overall UI layout. Some of these issues are going to be resolved in today’s update and the devs will be working on additional changes for future updates.
“We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us—they are critical to the development of Pokémon TCG Live,” the TCG Live team said. “We’ve identified and prioritized all the issues described, and your feedback helps us continue adjusting and iterating on the many ways we can optimize the experience for all players.”
Today’s update includes the previously showcased visuals and board layout changes, with a new design allowing for a more dynamic background to display “visualizations” for various Energy types when Pokémon are played.
The team has also implemented an immediate change to the battle pass based on internal data reviews. Now, players can receive more in-game currency in earlier tiers because the most common practice was for players to use rewards to craft competitive decks instead of grinding for those same cards in the battle pass. This was done in hopes of creating a more diverse crafting experience that players can enjoy while experimenting with deck building.
Originally, this limited beta was supposed to begin rolling out in late 2021 after being revealed last September. But it was delayed in early November to a 2022 release and has since only been rolling out to a few new countries every few months.
The developers are still being cautious with how widely available this beta is during this period of critical feedback and reworking, but there is hope for others who want to try out the new Pokémon TCG platform.
Over the next several weeks, TCG Live will be made available in multiple new regions and the team wants to have the limited beta available worldwide by the end of 2022. That is not a confirmed deadline, but it is at least good news for anyone wanting to try the game out—while also pointing to a full release likely not happening until mid to late 2023 at this pace.
Published: Oct 11, 2022 03:46 pm