I know that I have expressed frustration, and I’ve seen people express frustration as well at the unique cards that are featured in the game as we saw them first released.
I think that at this point my frustration has actually moved to something more like anger? I don’t know if that is too extreme but I kind of feel decently upset that some of the best art we may have ever seen in the TCG is being relegated to some mobile game.
I know you can get “proxies” of these cards, but that really isn’t the point. Pokemon is spending money to commission these amazing pieces of art, and I feel like the ratio of incredible looking cards in Pocket is higher to that in the actual paper game.
I don’t think there is neccesarrily something that can be done about this as much as I am just venting, but I feel quite bitter about the resources being put into that game vs the actual TCG.
I also want to be clear, I am not saying we aren’t getting amazing cards in the TCG. Heck as a Clefairy collector I just had one of the nicest releases in the history of the game with the current set. It’s more that seeing some of these cards and I knowing that even in the best case scenario it’s just a picture on my phone screen is pretty annoying to me.
Just from a monetary stand point I’m really surprised we have not had an IRL “TCG Pocket” set like we did with Pokemon Go. The hype alone around it would be massive.
The sad reality is many of these cards will never see physical releases as that may cause many players to quit (and stop spending real money) on TCG Pocket. Unique cards and art that can’t be obtained anywhere else is likely a huge selling point for the mobile game.
Yes, this is a major part of why I’m upset. By the nature of what it is these things are only going into TCG Pocket and it is a shame that is the case. Especially because just saving the image on our phone is almost the same thing to me <__<
I can’t imagine what’s going to happen when after maybe 10 years --or less–the servers shut down.
Hopefully people keep a more or less complete archive of the game if there are no physical releases of the cards.
I’m mad that they are shutting down proxies and won’t make physical versions, like what’s the point if your not going to make it yourself?
What I’m really mad at is how many sets they have been pumping out, I play both live and pocket and I enjoyed pocket because for a while it was simple to get cards and didn’t require any time commitment, now it feels more like a mobile game that requires a lot of commitment because of how it’s starting to power scale and increase the amount of sets and rares, I still love the artwork but the moment that I think I’m getting close to finishing a single set three more pop up.
I would rather have these artworks exist in some form than not at all - even if they’re purely digital. And, ultimately, I try not to get mad about things I can’t control. It’s too exhausting otherwise.
Just to provide a counterpoint, they can only make so many cards. If the cards from Pocket end up in sets, that replaces another unique art that would have been made. They would also eat into the hype cycles, because if a card was revealed in pocket, it would not be as exciting to see them revealed in physical sets.
But not printing pocket cards at all is a huge miss. There’s no reason they couldn’t sell them as Pokemon Center singles or reward players who play the game by sending them physical copies- that will keep pocket going forever
Pokémon Go made an estimated $796.6 million USD in 2024 (not including their web shop sales). It has 20 million active weekly players.
I have noticed PokéFans are very siloed & unaware of what or how other parts of the brand are doing. “Pokémon Go is dead / unplayed / forgotten” is one common one.
Pokemon Go got me into Pokemon (and the cards) again!
To the OP, yeah it’s sort of a tease to see these beautiful cards and not be able to have them in hand, especially with texture. Same thing with those unprinted samples (like that Suicune…).
Upside is that we keep getting spoiled with the art from the physical card releases.
Once I have them in game, I just print them out on nice paper. There’s a guy I know with that good JP stock. Might submit to CGC.
Seriously tho, I see it as an added bonus. If we want to include the art in our species or artist collections, we can, but it’s not paper TCG, so we might not consider it. The great thing about being a collector is that we can set our goals and limits wherever the bloody heck we like! We don’t have to accept, or meet anyone else’s expectations or standards.
TPCI is probably keeping irl physical card prints in their back pocket (sorry, couldn’t help myself) for when popularity/population of Pocket stagnates or begins to show signs of waning, as unlikely as that is at the moment. They need to overcome this chaotic market with their existing releases and the upcoming 30th anniversary releases next year before they even think about doing anything Pocket-related irl, imo. And this is coming from a very heavy Pocket player, lol.
My personal take is that Pocket was to be a super streamlined, simple app meant to capture any small percentage of players that would eventually end up checking out and spending money on the physical TCG - jumping in as either a collector/hobbyist or actually adding to the population of active TCG players - and that if the app itself were to become extremely successful, that success - no matter how big - would still be secondary to TPCI now hooking people into the TCG via two completely different avenues.
Keeping certain artwork exclusive to the digital medium certainly helps achieve the goal of maintaining people’s addiction to and engagement with the TCG so that it’s harder to go throughout your day without interacting with a Pokemon ‘card’ in some capacity.
And that’s not even getting into how much companies know about people Wailord-ing in mobile games…the money spent on gacha/rng-driven games honestly makes one’s head spin. It only takes a handful of regularly-spending whales to make a mobile game that is easy to maintain very, very much worth it.
PoGo got me into Pokémon full stop and Pocket got me into collecting.
As someone very new to collecting cards, the OP comes across very much as gatekeeping to me. Terms such as “relegated to” really drive home that vibe as well unfortunately.
Might submit to CGC. 