Pokemon Sword and Shields Wild Area offers “constantly connected” online multiplayer

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Pokemon Sword and Shield (opens in new tab)’s Wild Area is becoming the most exciting feature of the upcoming Switch games. Not only is it as big as two regions from Breath of the Wild (opens in new tab), but now The Pokemon Company has confirmed it will feature “constantly connected” online multiplayer, letting you interact with your fellow trainers around the globe.

Speaking during an interview with GamesRadar, producer Junichi Masuda said that’s he’s particularly excited to see what players think of the Wild Area, or more specifically the fact that it’s “constantly connected”, meaning you’ll see other players roaming around the Wild Area, camping, catching Pokemon, and battling too. 

“It’s constantly connected in the background, so you’ve got this kind of huge, really pretty open space,” explains Masuda-san, “but actually within that, it’s constantly connected in the background, so you can either see local players – if you’ve connected locally – appearing in your game, or if you’re connected online, you can see players from around the world appearing in your game.”

That basically means the Wild Area will function a little bit like the Tower in Destiny 2, in that you’ll be able to wander around with your fellow trainers, admire their character in all their personalised glory, and more. It’ll hopefully really make Galar feel alive, bringing more players actively wandering around this brand new locale. 

The Pokemon Company see players using the Wild Area as a way to tackle the gameplay from a different angle. 

“If you want to focus on the story, you can do that and go through the gym challenge,” explains Masuda. “But, if you want to challenge yourself in a different way, perhaps you can go into the wild area, search out a lot of new and rare Pokemon that will come out, and the very strong Pokemon that you can encounter. I think it’s really great that we can offer that variety this time around, in the ways you can play the game rather than being set to one kind of path.”

Pokemon Sword and Shield is out November 15, but for now why not check out all the Gen 8 Pokemon (opens in new tab) confirmed so far?