https://youtu.be/o5afasEAiN0

If you haven’t watched the Pokémon Direct yet, I’d encourage you to watch it for all of the details revealed. I believe this is the longest Pokémon Direct we’ve seen so far and it sure had a lot to cover. Let’s go over some of the highlights from the Expansion Pass section of the Direct (check these links for details on the new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon or Pokémon Home).

First, this new Expansion Pass is a single Expansion Pass despite there being a “Pokémon Sword Expansion Pass” and “Pokémon Shield Expansion Pass”. You don’t need to purchase both if you own both games. The Expansion Pass is $29.99 and will feature 2 main sets of extra content. The first set includes a completely new area called The Isle of Armor and will launch by the end of June 2020. It will feature new Pokémon and also have 100 Pokémon from previous games added to the game. The second set also has a new area called the Crown Tundra. Again, this will feature a new explorable region, new Pokémon to catch and 100 more Pokémon from previous games to collect (it will be available in ‘Fall 2020’). This will bring the total catchable/tradable Pokémon count in Sword/Shield up to 600. Please note: you don’t need to purchase the Expansion Pass to get access to those 200 Pokémon from previous games. You can simply trade to receive those as you would with previous generations of Pokémon games. Those 200 Pokémon are not behind a paywall with this Expansion Pass so please don’t get that idea.

I’m pretty excited that The Pokémon Company is committed to adding more content to these base games and I hope it continues into 2021. I wouldn’t mind seeing another Expansion Pass that further adds the ability to bring all 900+ Pokémon into these games. Would be fun to have every Pokémon in Sword/Shield some day.