Pokemon Duel to Shut Down in October

The Pokemon Duel mobile game will be shuttering in October. Earlier today, the Pokemon Company announced that it would shutter most features of the Pokemon Duel mobile game beginning on October 31st. Because of the announcement, players will no longer be able to purchase any of the game's premium Diamonds currency nor purchase the game's Player Pass subscription. In addition, players can now purchase figures with Gems, Time Boosters take half the time to open, and material received from boosts are greatly increased.

Pokemon Duel launched in 2016 in Japan and had a worldwide launch in 2017. The game was a digital remake of the Pokemon Figure Trading Game, with players attempting to capture an opponent's goal point before the other player. Players deployed Pokemon from their bench from one of two locations and collected new figures by either purchasing booster packs or purchasing individual figures from a marketplace.

While Pokemon Duel was based on the Pokemon Figure Trading Game, it gradually introduced new mechanics like Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, as well as new Pokemon from Pokemon Sun and Moon. As of March 2019, the game had reached over 40 million downloads. In February 2019, Pokemon Duel introduced a Player Pass that allowed players to pick out certain figures.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of the announcement is that Pokemon Duel will never wrap up its single player storyline. Although the game diligently released new updates on a regular basis, its Single Player mode stalled out about halfway through its planned plot.

Pokemon Duel players can request refunds on their existing Diamonds and still enjoy the game's full functionality for a few more months.