Pokémon Champions’ director vows to keep turn-based battles as single-player is ruled out

15,000 screaming fans. The world’s best Pokémon players. Thousands of eyes around the world. This is what Pokémon Champions was made for.

As I sit across from Masaaki Hoshino, the director of Pokémon Champions, he’s watching the tournament on his phone before our interview begins. His love for competitive Pokémon is unquestionable. As passionate as he is about talking about Pokémon Champions, I get the sense he’d prefer to be sitting in the crowd watching the action.

The 2026 Pokémon World Championships were the coming-out party for the mobile and Nintendo Switch competitive battler. After launching earlier in the year on console and later on mobile, Pokémon Champions is the exclusive home of the Pokémon Video Game Championships.

This means that even when Pokémon Winds and Waves are released, next year’s Pokémon World Championships will be contested in Pokémon Champions. Pokémon Champions has become the place where players go to experience traditional Pokémon battling.

Earlier this month, the game director of Champions, Kazumasa Iwao, suggested it was developed partially for players who have “been enjoying the existing style of Pokémon battle for decades,” as the core RPGs changed battle styles in recent years. This sentiment was shared by Shigeki Morimoto, Game Freak‘s long-time battle director and the architect of the Pokémon battle system.

I ask Hoshino for his thoughts on Pokémon Champions’ role in maintaining this legacy for players.

“Personally, I love Pokémon battles, and part of the reason why I joined The Pokémon Company is for Pokémon battles,” he tells me. “I would love to keep turn-based battles around like forever, regardless of other Pokémon battle styles out there. From that standpoint, I believe that as long as Pokémon Champions is around, turn-based battles will be kind of preserved and will continue forever.”

Pokémon Champions isn’t just aimed at long-time players, however. Hoshino says he’s keen to bring a newer generation of Pokémon fans to this style of battling, as well as fans who have enjoyed the core RPGs but have never dabbled with the more hardcore elements. He tells me this is part of why only a select number of Pokémon are available in the game.

“Especially with the mobile launch, there’s an influx of a lot of first-time players,” he explains. “I don’t want to make Champions too daunting for these new players. So some of the Pokémon are being selected based on ease of use.

“Going forward, of course there might be some more advanced Pokémon being added, but that will probably be a little later. But even within this limited roster and the current regulation, as we can see in the Pokémon World Championships, there are a lot of people who are coming up with new metas, and right now I feel that it is a pretty good meta environment at the moment.”

“Personally, I love Pokémon battles… I would love to keep turn-based battles around like forever, regardless of other Pokémon battle styles out there.”

While half the battle is getting new players to try Pokémon Champions, the other side of that coin is introducing the complicated mechanics of high-level Pokémon to them in a way that doesn’t overwhelm them.

When asked if he thought the game’s tutorial was doing enough, Hoshino concedes that while it could do more for new players, refining it is a balancing act.

“In terms of the tutorial, the longer it becomes, the more likely someone is to drop out in the middle of it,” he explains. “So we don’t necessarily want to lengthen the tutorial. That being said, the in-game assist probably could be better than it is right now. So someone who is new would be able to have a little more support when they actually battle.”

For some players, however, there will always be a desire for more in-depth single-player battle content. While Pokémon Champions is an online-only game outside of some tutorials, there have been many fans asking for a return to Pokémon Stadium-like offline modes.

Hoshino cites Pokémon Stadium as a big inspiration for Pokémon Champions, but doesn’t see single-player content in the game’s future at the moment. “For the time being, we probably won’t be adding additional modes similar to Pokémon Stadium,” Hoshino answers.

“The reason is if you start adding a lot of single-player modes, that kind of moves people away from the PvP, and that actually increases the match time, which makes it a little more difficult for a PvP game. So at least while more people are increasingly playing, I want to focus on PvP for the time being.”

“For the time being, we probably won’t be adding additional modes similar to Pokémon Stadium… at least while more people are increasingly playing, I want to focus on PvP for the time being.”

When I first spoke to Hoshino in February, he discussed his dream vision for the future of Pokémon Champions, where all of the series gimmicks like Z Moves, Mega Evolution, Gigantamax, and more, all existed together. At the time, it was a pipe dream for a potential future of the game. As more Mega Evolution Pokémon are added, including Mega Absol Z, Mega Lucario Z, and more, when are fans likely to see the next battle gimmick coming to the game?

“For the time being, we’ll probably stick to Mega Evolution, but definitely want to add more in the future,” he tells me. “Especially because there’s a lot of people who, through this Pokémon, are seeing some Mega Pokémon for the first time, so they would probably still be more comfortable with the Mega environment at the moment. Not saying that these additional kinds of gimmicks will not be added later.

“But in terms of whether they will, if the new gimmick comes in, whether it will replace it or it’ll be in parallel; we still need some trial and error there, depending on how difficult it is. So undecided, but under consideration.”

If the 2026 Pokémon World Championships were a test case for Pokémon Champions, then it passed flawlessly. From a spectator perspective, the game is a huge improvement on last year’s use of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and from an accessibility perspective, it’s never been easier for players to jump into competitive Pokémon.

While the future of Pokémon Champions seemingly won’t include the kind of single-player content that plenty in the audience are hoping to see at some point, Hoshino’s focus on making the best possible venue for Pokémon battles is unwavering.

You need only listen to the reaction from the live audience when new Pokémon were announced to be coming to the game at the conclusion of the World Championships to know that the passion for the game, and competitive Pokémon overall, is as strong as ever.