Pokémon Unite will not be playable for 10 hours on Tuesday

Pokémon Unite announced on Twitter today that its server will be down for maintenance for 10 hours on Tuesday, September 21. The outage will begin at 2:00 PM PT and last until midnight (5:00 PM – 3:00 AM ET). Because Pokémon Unite’s players rely on this online server, the game will be completely unplayable during this timespan. The downtime will be in preparation for the game’s mobile launch the following day.

Pokémon Unite is the franchise’s first entry into the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre. Players embody Pokémon and join up with other players to defeat an opposing team and score points in their goals. Whoever has the most points after the clock runs out, wins. There are multiple Pokémon available for players to pick to use in battle, such as Charizard, Garchomp, Snorlax, Venusaur, Pikachu, and many others. Each has a diverse set of abilities and attacks, with plenty more releasing in the future.

Until Wednesday’s mobile launch, Pokémon Unite has only been available on the Nintendo Switch. However, the game is already incredibly popular, having just reached 9 million downloads on the Switch alone. This success of Unite on the Switch has poised it for a successful mobile launch.

Indeed, over five million people have pre-registered for the mobile release, for both Apple and Android, on September 22. In addition, pre-ordering the mobile version allows players to access an exclusive Holowear costume for Pikachu.