It feels like such a long time since we had any big Pokémon news. Back in February we had our last chunk of information about this year’s Switch game, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, but since then all has been tremendously quiet. Could tomorrow’s extra-long Pokémon Presents be about to give us something new to chew on?
Starting at 9 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 22, we were actually informed of this Pokémon Presents all the way back in May—rather strange, as these pre-recorded streams are usually announced just a few days ahead. But instead of a build-up to some big reveal, there’s been silence since. Now, the Spearow-eyed Joe Merrick of Serebii has spotted that due to a slip-up by the official Korean Pokémon YouTube channel, we know that this edition will be a lengthy 24 minutes.
But 24 minutes of what? A big part of why things feel so quiet right now is that, at any point over the last fifteen years, this would be the point in the three-yearly cycle where we’d be inundated with reveals of an all-new generation of pocket monsters, building up to the fall release of the big, new, mainline Pokémon game. Except, for reasons never announced, that’s not happened—we’re experiencing our first four-year gap in the franchise in ages. (God, I hope it’s just four years.) And while Z-A is looking intriguing, and we’ll definitely get a good look at it again tomorrow, one thing it isn’t going to do is add any new Pokémon to the roster.
So could this Presents be hiding some sort of tease for Gen X? I wish I could believe that, but I have my doubts. If there is going to be a new mainline game next year, all of history suggests it won’t be until around October, and starting reveals over a year early seems unlikely. Still, it’d be good!
What’s more likely is we’ll get updates for the array of Pokémon games already out there, including Unite, TCG Pocket, Sleep and the rest, as well as reveals for perhaps a couple of new mobile apps and games, and maybe a new multiplayer game. Oh, and something about Horizons season 2, perhaps. Perhaps more on the new season of the wonderful stop-motion Concierge.
The stream will start tomorrow, July 22, at 9 a.m. EDT, via the official YouTube channel. And intriguingly, if you tune into the Japanese channel an hour earlier, there’s apparently going to be an hour of DJ Pikachu Live? I have no idea. But it could well be promoting a surprise reveal of a DJ-based game in the main event.
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