Pokémon Champions feels more like the launch of a customer service than an actual game

When a game launch feels more like a new customer service Patch Notes is a weekly newsletter bringing you the best of Polygon, sent on Fridays and published on the site on Sundays. You can subscribe here. I am in the UK, where the streaming service HBO Max has only just launched. Great! I finally get to watch The Pitt! Bingeing the first season in one breathless week was riveting. But now we've rolled into the weekly release of season two and nobody knows what's going on. The first episode was released on a Thursday. The second, late on a Friday night. As I write this on a Friday morning, the third episode has just gone up. Confusion reigns. And where are the Hobbit movies I want to watch with the kids? In the UK, HBO Max has one Peter Jackson Tolkien trilogy, but not the other. It's mildly annoying. But I expect wobbles like this from a new service launch. They'll untangle the rights and flesh the archive out over time; they'll iron out the random scheduling. I'm an early adopter, that's how it goes. It bugs me, but doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the movies or shows when I get to them. When the entertainment is the service, though, things are different. I thought about this duri

Apr 12, 2026 → Apr 12, 2026