Everything Announced At February’s Pokemon Presents

Pokemon Day went full swing on February 27. As the tradition of The Pokemon Company, they’ve put together many announcements about all the exciting developments and updates coming to new and existing games. The 25-minute livestream wasn’t precisely the blockbuster hit some people predicted. We instead got a more laidback stream, so to speak—Pokemon Presents were always a subdued reel of news compared to the Nintendo Directs we’re used to.

Without further ado, here’s an assembled breakdown of what was touched on during the Pokemon Presents livestream.

Pokemon World Championship 2023

The presentation started with announcing the dates for the Pokemon World Championship. After its appearance in London last year, the event will take place in Japan for the first time. Gamers can compete in the Pokemon trading card game, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Pokemon GO, and Pokemon Unite from August 11 to 13 in Pacifico Yokohama.

A key art for the event was also revealed. Drawn in a Japanese style, the art features Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s starters—Fuecoco, Quaxly, and Sprigatito—alongside Pikachu.

Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic

Longtime fans of the Pokemon TCG online games will be pleased to hear that The Pokemon Company announced a new version of the original Pokemon Trading Card Game’s Base Set. What we mean by this is that The Pokemon Company will be re-releasing their original Pokemon TCG—aka the original lineup of cards—through a deluxe package designed to be the all-in-one way to play the card game.

The company plans to reveal more details at the World Championships, but they’ve shown us a taste of what’s to come through a teaser of what the set will look like in the broadcast. Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic is expected to release sometime in late 2023; the price has not yet been announced.

Pokemon Concierge

This is one I certainly didn’t expect. We’re getting a stop-motion animated series called Pokemon Concierge, which will be released on Netflix. There’s not much information about the series yet, but it’s slated to expand on the Pokemon universe.

The show takes place at a Pokemon resort where viewers will follow the story of Haru and the many Pokemon that’ll be visiting. Along with her trusty partner, Psyduck, we’ll be in for an original story that looks like it’ll be relatively bright and light-hearted. Fingers crossed that the story will be as good as it looks.

Zacian is Coming to Pokemon Unite

The best boi in Pokemon Sword is officially coming to Pokemon Unite! You may recall that Zacian is the legendary Pokemon with a sword in its mouth. The new fighter will have the Sovereign Sword special attack to overwhelm opponents.

Pokemon Unite has recently passed 100 million downloads, so it makes sense that the Pokemon Company is continuing its support for the MOBA thanks to the large playerbase. On top of this, there’s a Boss Rush event where you can pick up a gold Zacian boost emblem. To redeem the boost emblem, simply use the gift code ‘POKEMONDAY’ to unlock it.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Starters Are Now in Pokemon Cafe ReMix

The cutesy Pokemon game—Pokemon Cafe ReMix—is getting a DLC based on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s three starters. That’s right, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly are coming to the game. However, be sure to get them before they go away since they’ll only be hanging around until March 16. The three Pokemon will also apparently appear alongside a Paldea-inspired dish.

A special outfit for Greninja will also be made available for everyone to redeem to celebrate Pokemon Day. The chef outfit will surely help you deliver more goods to the vast array of customers in the cafe!

Pokemon Masters EX Gets Six Champions

Six new Pokemon trainers are appearing via a rally in Pokemon Masters EX. You have Stephen from Ruby and Sapphire, Cynthia from Diamond and Pearl, Diantha from X and Y, Iris and Alder from Black and White, and Lance from Red and Blue. All of the champions will be available to partner up with.

Besides that, several announcements regarding the mobile game were made, including events for Hop and Zapdos (March 2 to April 9), Marnie and Moltres (February 28 to April 9), and Bede and Articuno (March 4 to April 9). Bonuses are also heading to Pokemon Masters EX, such as the chance to redeem 3,000 for free and scout up to 100 sync pairs.

Pokemon Sleep is Official

I honestly thought Pokemon Sleep was some kind of prank that—while it sounds nice—won’t become a reality. Boy, did The Pokemon Company prove me wrong when they re-revealed Pokemon Sleep during the livestream. And with a release window of summer 2023 to boot!

Pokemon Sleep got a full-length trailer in the broadcast (it was arguably one of the longest segments in the showcase). It’s a mobile game/app that will track your sleeping patterns and show you the different sleep styles of the Pokemon you encounter. And, of course, it’ll reward you for a good night’s sleep. The app will measure, analyze, and record your sleep. By doing so, Pokemon who tend to sleep the same way as you will appear in the game.

According to the trailer, Pokemon Sleep aims to turn sleeping into entertainment. By waking up, you can affect the gameplay as you can see a variety of Pokemon every morning, depending on how sporadic your sleep schedule is. It sounds like a great way to experiment with the different styles of “snoozing” you can do. Best of all, it encourages players to do so and research the different sleep cycles of various Pokemon.

Pokemon Plus Has Evolved Into Pokemon Go Plus+

The Pokemon Go Plus accessory also made an appearance—remember that knickknack? Now, instead of being only used in Pokemon Go, you can use it in Pokemon Sleep when the game releases. Oh, and it’s known as the Pokemon Go Plus+ now, which is like an upgraded version of Pokemon Go Plus.

 The small, Pokeball-shaped device is the perfect gadget to tuck under your pillow at night or carry in a bag in the morning for automatic Pokemon catching in Pokemon Go. It’ll be available for everyone on July 21, 2023. The Plus+ also contains a Pikachu who can sing you lullabies as you sleep and becomes friendlier the more you sleep together. It’s an exciting function, but what caught my eye is that you can use the pocketable device for two games. If you’re an avid player of Pokemon Go (and Pokemon Sleep soon), the Pokemon Go Plus+ is a must-buy.

Updates for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

A lot about what we’re getting in Scarlet and Violet in the post-game has been revealed. First off, we’ll be getting Paradox Pokemon. Two have been revealed so far: Walking Wake and Iron Leaves. Walking Wake is essentially the pre-historic form of Suicune that’ll appear in Scarlet. Meanwhile, Iron Leaves is a futuristic relative of Virizion, who’ll be in Violet.

An update has already been rolled out where you can get the two Paradox Pokemon through Tera Raids. It’s worth noting that Walking Wake and Iron Leaves can only be caught for a limited time; you have only until March 12 to capture them.

Upcoming Expansions for Scarlet and Violet

Then, for the livestream’s final trailer, The Pokemon Company showed viewers the upcoming DLC expansion for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. Part 1 of the expansion is called “The Teal Mask,” which will release in fall of 2023. The second part, “The Indigo Disk,” is slated to come out in winter 2023.

For The Teal Mask DLC, you’ll visit the island of Kitakami in the form of a school trip. Then after The Indigo Disk is unlocked, you’ll become an exchange student at Blueberry Academy. As of today, you can now pre-order The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero in the Nintendo eShop. However, if you still don’t have the base game, I recommend holding out for a possible copy that bundles the DLCs together. Since Nintendo gave that treatment to Pokemon Sword and Shield when they released The Isle of Armor and The Crown of Tundra, they’ll likely repeat this with Scarlet and Violet.

News Roundup

This February’s Pokemon Presents was slightly more lowkey than I expected. While we did get all manner of announcements from the TCG, Pokemon games, and television series, I would’ve liked to see them talk about their older titles. As you know, Nintendo recently released a library of Game Boy and Game Boy Advanced games for their Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. If The Pokemon Company were to get in on this and add their older Pokemon games to NSO, it’d make the livestream more exciting. Heck,  if they added it to the Switch separately with a small price for each game (like the virtual console), they’d be printing money by the truckload. Oh well—one can only dream, I suppose.