Microsoft Revealed Its Own Pokemon-Esque Game, Aniimo, During The Xbox Games Showcase

Everyone’s getting in on the creature collection action lately. Of course, there’s Palworld. And then HoYoverse teased a game set in the Honkai: Star Rail universe, even featuring characters from the action RPG. There’s also the new Digimon game announced during Summer Game Fest. And now, we have Xbox throwing its hat in the ring with Pawprint Studio’s creature collection game, Aniimo.

A free-to-play game, Aniimo has players collecting magical creatures that can be used in combat in an open world. New abilities can be unlocked for the creatures using the “Twining” mechanic.

Based on the trailer, the game will be adorable. But, based on what we see of the game’s mechanics in that trailer – and the fact that the game is F2P – the concern is that players will be doing gacha rolls to get their hands on these adorable critters rather than capturing them. It’d make sense. Money does have to be made somehow.

The other point made by Reddit is that the trailer is pretty reminiscent of the DokeV trailer. And, yeah. It really is. Although I have to say, the character design in Aniimo is a bit more appealing to me, despite both being adorable. All that said, it may not matter much. We haven’t heard much from DokeV, and a launch date has never been set, while Aniimo is expected sometime in 2026.