Two new Pokémon games launched today on Facebook Gaming

Today, Facebook Gaming launched two exclusive Pokémon games: Pokémon Tower Battle and Pokémon Medallion Battle. The first is available worldwide, while the latter is only currently available in the Philippines.

Mindless Pokémon fun — These are not your classic catch-’em-all Pokémon adventures; not by far.

Pokémon Tower Battle is a two-player game not unlike Tetris: stack falling Pokémon and hope for the best. You can play with friends online, and there’s a global leaderboard to compete with, too. Pokémon Medallion Battle is a card battle game where players can collect cards, win gym badges, and fill up a Pokédex. Variety reports that new Pokémon will be released every month.

Experiencing Pokémon in digital form? — Tsunekazu Ishihara, Pokémon Company’s CEO, says releasing the games on Facebook Gaming “will allow people all over the world to experience Pokémon in digital form.” The games will definitely reach different audiences on Facebook than they would elsewhere, but they’re not exactly the first “digital” Pokémon releases.

Small, steady growth — Facebook Gaming doesn’t exactly hold a huge portion of the online game streaming market, but it did see a small increase in usage in 2019. But the company is looking to change that a little bit at a time. Facebook also acquired cloud-gaming company PlayGiga last week for an estimated $78 million.