Way back in September of 2021 The Pokemon Company announced their intentions of retiring the long-running and quite popular Pokemon TCG Online iPad app in favor of a completely revamped experience they called Pokemon TCG Live. With the original digital game being more than a decade old by that point it seemed like the time was right for a refresh, and it seemed like Pokemon TCG Live was poised to bring in a lot of new features while still maintaining the legacy of the physical card game that it was based on. It also helped that The Pokemon Company had built a way for players of the old game to transfer most of their key progress into the new game, as outlined here. Losing years of progress is not the best way to get a good start in a brand new game.

Early last year Pokemon TCG Live began soft-launching in select countries, and slowly rolled out into a full scale soft launch throughout the year. That means that many of us have already been playing this new game for quite some time now, which might make today’s news a little lackluster. The Pokemon Company is now ready to officially launch Pokemon TCG Live globally this coming June 8th, and on that day you’ll be able to play the brand new expansion Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved in the game as well.

That’s not all, though. While typically new games will have pre-registration rewards for players leading up to a game’s launch, due to the weirdness of this being a game that’s already available to everybody, you can actually earn rewards for the global launch by simply logging into the game between today and June 6th. These rewards will be “special customization accessories, including a coin, card sleeves, and deck box” according to the press release.

This forthcoming official launch also means that time is up for Pokemon TCG Online, and that game will be removed from app stores on June 5th at 9am PDT, so start saying your goodbyes now and be sure to transfer your progress. Pokemon TCG Live can be downloaded on the iOS App Store, the Android Google Play Store, or on PC and Mac through the game’s website.