Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass Trailer Released

Nintendo and Game Freak are kicking off the new year in style, unveiling a massive announcement for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield first thing Thursday morning. What some assumed would be a run-of-the-mill Pokemon Direct turned into a reveal of the first ever DLC expansion in the history of the franchise. The Galar Region will be getting two major add-ons later this year, complete with new storylines, Pokemon, trainers, and areas to explore. The Isle of Armor expansion will be arriving in June of this year, while The Crown Tundra expansion launches in the fall.

Following the Direct, Pokemon released the full trailer for the two expansions online, allowing players to check out all the new additions in great detail. You can check out the whole trailer in the video above!

Each of these expansions will be available to Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, adding significant pieces of land to the Galar Region. Fortunately for players, these expansions won't be like the updated versions of Pokemon games from the past, as they will allow you to continue your progress from the main story.

The expansion pass, which includes both Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra, is now available for preorder on the Nintendo eShop and costs $29.99 for both expansions. However, if you want the expansion for both Sword and Shield, you'll need to buy two, because they're sold specifically to the individual games.

While the first of these expansions is still a few months away, there will be an important update available for both Sword and Shield on Thursday afternoon. This free update will introduce two of the trainers from The Isle of Armor, one will appear in Sword while the other appears in Shield. Additionally, this update will add the Galarian Slowpoke to the game, which can be caught as soon as you find it. However, you won't be able to evolve the Slowpoke until you actually head to the Isle of Armor over the summer.

What do you think of the first look at Pokemon's big expansion? Are you looking forward to checking out all of the new Galar Region Pokemon? Let us know in the comments!