By The Verge | Created at 2025-03-20 16:24:07 | Updated at 2025-04-05 07:20:04
2 weeks ago
Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
Mobile card games like Pokémon TCG Pocket and Marvel Snap have proven that folks are willing to fork over real money for digital collectibles if they’re presented in just the right way, and now, Bandai Namco wants to get in on the action.
During this year’s Digimon Con livestream presentation, Bandai Namco announced that it is developing Digimon Alysion, a new free-to-play digital trading card game for iOS and Android. Like other games in the genre, Digimon Alysion will allow players to build and play with decks depicting characters from different parts of the franchise. But in addition to card battles, Alysion will also seemingly feature an in-depth story mode, and give you the ability to raise Tamagotchi-like virtual pets.
A teaser trailer for the game introduces human protagonist Kanata Hondo, her in-game currency-inspired Digimon partner Gemmon, as well as a variety of other Digimon from the franchise’s past. Bandai Namco have yet to share a release window for Alysion, but a closed beta is supposed to be launching in the coming months.
