It’s a sad day for fans of pocket monsters. Why? Today, The Pokemon Company announced that its Pokemon TV app, which is available on numerous platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, is shutting down. The app will be unable to be downloaded by the end of today, and by the end of March, it’ll be shut down completely. The goal of this app was to give access to hundreds of episodes of the beloved anime series while also giving fans livestreams of certain competitions, such as for their trading card game. Here is the full statement that The Pokemon Company gave on the matter:
“Thank you to all our fans who have enjoyed Pokémon TV over the years. The Pokémon TV app and website will sunset and the service will end on March 28, 2024. Beginning on January 8, 2024, fans will no longer be able to download the Pokémon TV app from the App Store, Google Play, Roku Channel Store, Amazon Appstore, Nintendo eShop, and Pokemon.com.
However, those who already had the app downloaded on their devices prior to January 8, 2024, will still be able to watch available content until the app fully sunsets on March 28, 2024.”
They didn’t explain why the app is shutting down, which is a curious thing. It’s possibly because people weren’t using it enough or that they’re hoping to “rebrand” their app to do something new. Only time will tell. They did provide a link on their site to where you can watch episodes without the app and promise more updates in the future.
The timing of this is really interesting because it’s only been about a year since the main anime ended in Japan, closing out the adventures of Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. Just as important is that they’ve started their newest anime, Pokemon Horizons, and it will be coming to the US soon. So perhaps they’re shutting down the app to get people to go to places like Netflix to watch the new series and partake in the ending of the older one.
Either way, The Pokemon Company will have its hands full going forward. The popular franchise didn’t have the easiest year in 2022 and 2023 despite record sales of their titles and anticipation for Gen 9. The massive bug issues that came with the most recent game, and its DLC, have given fans pause, and they’re hoping this isn’t a trend that will continue as time goes on.
