Pokémon Champions - Interview with Masaaki Hoshino

07-09-2026 14:00 UTC by Joe Merrick (Serebii).

At the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, we were invited to a roundtable discussion with Development Director and Game Producer of Pokémon Champions, Masaaki Hoshino. Having previously met Mr. Hoshino several times over the past few years and knowing how passionate he is about the traditional Pokémon battles, it was a great chance to hear about some of the development processes and thoughts of the game two months on from its mobile launch.

If you're unfamiliar with roundtable interviews, they are interviews where a number of journalists are in a room and each one can ask a question, but typically only one based on timings.

Mr. Hoshino's familiarity with battles has been known for many years. During Pokémon's 20th anniversary, he revealed in a video celebrating it on the official YouTube channel that, during his time at Bandai Namco, he set up a small Pokémon battle club to battle with his co-workers to the point of having an Abra of every Nature with Synchronize, as well over 100 Ditto for competitive Pokémon breeding. This eventually led to his work in Pokkén Tournement, and then his move to The Pokémon Company later on. Towards the end of the roundtable, he was asked about his thoughts on Pokémon Champions being designed to preserve the concept of Pokémon battles and why it's important to maintain it after 30 years.

"I love Pokémon battles and one of the reasons I joined The Pokémon Company was for Pokémon battles and I would love to keep turn-based battles around forever, regardless of what other Pokémon battles are out there. From that standpoint, I believe as long as Pokémon Champions is around, turn-based battles will be around and preserved forever."

Reflecting on the launch

To start the interview off, Mr. Hoshino was asked how he felt about the game's launch going on from the mobile launch and the community's reaction to it.

"Since the mobile launch, a lot of people are playing, a lot more than I thought from a lot of different countries and I'm very happy about that."

Following up from that, he was asked what impact of how he goes about deciding which Pokémon to add both at launch and over time and if the decisions are made based on impact of the meta.

"Especially with the mobile launch there's an influx of first time players and I don't want to make the game too challenging for those new players so some of the Pokémon are being selected based on ease of use and based on that, going forward, some more advanced Pokémon may be added but that will be a little bit later, but even with this limited roster and the current regulation, as we can see at the World Championships there are a lot of people coming up with new metas and I believe it's a good meta environment at the moment."

Regarding entry for new players

Mr. Hoshino was also asked about how significant it was for Pokémon Champions to release in the 30th anniversary and how the mechanics make it more approachable for new players. His answer followed on from a lot of the online discourse where Pokémon Champions makes it so much easier to train a Pokémon and he feels this is a big part of what is helping new players to compete.

"The 30th anniversary is quite significant and I worked hard with my team to release Champions in this year. In terms of new players, until now the most time consuming part of Pokémon battles was the training which takes a lot of time and so in Champions it's significantly shorter that allows for more trial and error which allows for new players to quickly try different parties and compete in a competitive environment"

Another reporter followers up asking if he felt the tutorials were enough to onboard new players into the game. Mr. Hoshino responded that there was a possible risk of if tutorials were too long, it'd turn off new players.

In terms of the tutorial, the longer it becomes, the more likely it is for someone to drop out in the middle of the tutorial so we don't want to lengthen, but that being said the in-game assist probably could be better than it is right now so it's something I am considering adding more to so someone that is new can have some more support when they battle.

Future Mechanic Plans

Another reporter asked about any future plans to incorporate other mechanics, with a later one following up about adding more into the game such as Z-Moves leading into all battle gimmicks being included in the future. This has been something teased in the past, such as the reveal trailer showcasing a Mega Charizard X against a Terastallized Dondozo of the Water-type but is currently not being seen in the game. He responded saying at present the plan is to stick with Mega Evolutions while new people are coming in and so the situation is undecided but under consideration for the future.

"I definitely want to add more in the future, especially if there are a lot of people who through Pokémon World Championships are seeing Mega Evolutions for the first time and might be interested in starting to play, and then they would probably be more comfortable with the Mega environment at the moment. I'm not saying that these battle gimmicks will not be added later, but in terms of whether they will, if the gimmicks comes in, if it will replace or be in parallel, we still need to trial and error based on how difficult it is, so undecided but under consideration"

Roster Ranch

One question asked by a reporter was in regards to the recruit system, asking if there was any plans to add a system that would allow for players to recruit Pokémon they've been unable to find in the roster to address the cases where players can't get a specific Pokémon they are looking for.

This was answered in a way where the current system is fine for now but suggested that Pokémon HOME is an option for players who are struggling to get a specific Pokémon.

"For the time being, I think the current system is fine in what's available but of course there is connectivity with Pokémon HOME. If you play Pokémon GO or other Pokémon titles hopefully they would have the opportunity to bring the Pokémon over"

Different Modes

Another reporter, who asked a similar question to what I originally planned, asked Mr. Hoshino if there were any plans to implement modes such as Single Battle 6 VS 6 and other modes into the game including Multi Battle. Mr. Hoshino said that at the time there are no plans for any additional modes as with the influx of new players into the game, it could end up daunting and confusing for the general player.

Single Player

When time came for me to ask a question, one thing that came to my mind was the lack of a single player mode and I was curious as to the mindset of the lack of inclusion and if there was any thought and plans on bringing any single player content akin to the Gym Leader Castle in Pokémon Stadium and other similar modes in all of Pokémon Champions' ancestors.

The answer was somewhat succinct. While a single player option could prove tantalising to players, at the present time it presents a risk at dragging players away from the online play which can increase wait times while trying to find a match with other players so it is not planned for now.

"The reason is if you start adding PvE modes, that moves people away from the PvP and that increases the match time which makes it a little more difficult for a PvP game, so at least while there are more people who are increasingly playing, our focus is on PvP for the time being"

The final question was a reflection of how Pokémon battles are now compared to the past and if there are any differences from how it is now and back in Pokémon Yellow.

"The history of Pokémon battles is also the history of the hardware it is played on and a lot of these restrictions have gone away, but with Pokémon Champions in particular, because it's available on Switch and mobile, one of the things that has changed is that a lot of the battle processing happens on the server side which is a bit different from previous games. That was more difficult to develop, but also where I needed to use a lot of creativity to get Pokémon Champions to where it is right now."

All in all, it was great to hear Mr. Hoshino's thoughts on the game. I could sit and ask questions for hours but our time was up and we managed to get some good insight into some of the decisions behind various modes not being in the game, and future plans. Pokémon Champions has started off incredibly strong, bringing triple the viewership of the Pokémon World Championships finals in 2026 compared to 2025, and is about to enter its third regulation where it is bringing Z-Mega Evolutions.

Transport and accommodation at event provided by The Pokémon Company International as part of overall Pokémon World Championships & PokémonXP coverage
Real-time translation provided by The Pokémon Company International