The ‘Pokémon TCG Pocket’ Trading System Is So Bad Players Are Revolting

Players of the game Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket are in revolt over its newly introduced trading system. Since its release last week, fans across Reddit, X, YouTube, and even the game’s official site all agree: Trading in Pocket is very, very bad.

Pocket, which launched last October for iOS and Android, is a free-to-play adaptation of the physical card game that digitally streamlines card-collecting and battling. Mimicking the gotta-catch-’em-all hype that dominated the ’90s and early aughts, the game’s developers frequently drop new card sets to keep players tearing open digital packs in the hopes of getting rare Pokémon. Those cards can then be used to battle either solo against AI, or online against other players. Prior to last Wednesday, the one thing missing from the game was trading, which would allow players to swap cards and fill in their decks.

Now, players are threatening to cancel premium subscriptions—a $9.99-per-month membership with additional perks like extra items and cards—in response to the newly released feature. “Shame, it was really fun for a few months,” wrote a player in a post on Reddit where they encouraged others to cancel their subscriptions. “Now it feels gross.”

“This might hit them a little harder rather than just leaving reviews,” another player wrote on the same subreddit. “They will see in real time that the trading feature is costing them money.” Another posted a screenshot of their complaint. “I did my part, also canceled [my] premium [account],” they wrote.

Trading has long been a staple of the franchise, whether it was on the original Game Boy games, or making card deals in person. Other Pokémon games make this easy. In the 2022 Switch game Pokémon Legends: Arceus, for example, you can trade locally with friends or online with a subscription. The mobile game Pokémon Go also encourages trading with nearby pals.

Since Pocket’s release, fans have been waiting for the trade mechanics, which developers had been teasing on the game’s social hub with a “coming soon” label for months. Although not all players have a problem with the system—some see it as a way to ditch dupes, for example—the response has been overwhelmingly negative. “This isn’t sustainable at all,” wrote one player.

The problem is with how the system works. Unlike other Pokémon games, where all you need is an internet connection and the creature you want to trade, Pocket relies on a system that fans complain is needlessly complex. Trades use stamina, which either refills over time or requires players to use items to replenish, as well as Trade Tokens. These tokens are harder to get; you need to earn them through special events or by destroying cards to obtain items, and some cards can’t be used unless you have multiples of them. For players without extra cards on hand, the fastest way to get new cards is to spend real money on items that will speed up the process of acquiring them.