Pokemon fans rejoice as The Pokemon Company has announced a brand new Pokemon Presents Presentation is due to air on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. The event has promised "35 minutes of Pokemon news and updates!" leading to, as you'd expect, rampant speculation running wild on the internet.
While nothing has been confirmed, as we like to do at DualShockers, here are five of our best predictions for the upcoming showcase.
5 Pokemon Sleep, Cafe Mix, And Unite Take Up Half Of The Presentation
Let's get this one out of the way first. The Pokemon Company has a lot of games -- some of them are adored by hardcore fans; others are more niche. While fans will undoubtedly be hoping for news on more significant mainline Pokemon titles, as is always the case, the mobile titles are likely to take up a fair portion of the showcase.
With Pokemon Sleep just launching worldwide, you can bet there will be some news on an update here. Pokemon Unite has just broken the two-year mark, so updates here are to be expected, and Pokemon Cafe Mix seems all but assured of getting its scheduled slot in the showcase.
4 Pokemon Stadium 2 Confirmed As This Month's N64 Nintendo Switch Online Offering
Pokémon Stadium 2 is a Nintendo 64 classic. It improved upon everything that the first game had, sprinkling in the world of Johto, adding a bunch of fantastic new mini-games (Hitmontop Beyblade, anybody?), and retaining the ability to transfer Pokemon from your own games into Stadium.
The game's Nintendo Switch Online appearance has been in the offing for a while now, first being confirmed back in March. Expectation has grown ever stronger since the original game was released on the service in April, and this latest Pokemon Presents Presentation seems the perfect opportunity to announce the sequel's addition.
3 Detective Pikachu 2 Gets Its First Teaser, More Details On The Game
The original Detective Pikachu is considered one of the first genuinely good video game movie adaptations. Despite having some weirdly realistic Pokémon, the film was full of heart, nostalgia, and it offered fans a really good time. Although the second movie has been reportedly undergoing some difficulties, The Pokémon Company is definitely teasing something.
When it announced the upcoming presentation, a glowing neon sign replaced the usual Pokemon Presents logo, very reminiscent of the vibes seen in Detective Pikachu's Rhyme City.
The other option, of course, is that we see more of Detective Pikachu Returns, which recently got an October 2023 release date. It's likely that we'll now start entering a heavy marketing period for the game, with it just a couple of months out, and this presentation seems like the optimal time.
2 Pokémon Legends: Johto Announced
Okay, this one is more in hope than expectation, but it's about time The Pokémon Company announced its next spin-off title or remake. While many are expecting Black & White remakes, due to the fact we just had Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, we think it's time we got to venture back to Johto.
Back in the summer of 2020, The Pokémon Company held a similar presentation in which The Pokémon Company President Ishihara-san sat in front of a bunch of Gen 2 plushies, including the starters, the Legendary Beasts, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Politoed, Sudowoodo, and Ampharos. Speculation ran wild.
While initially, it was expected that Let's GO Johto would be announced, the more recent release of Legends: Arceus has some fans thinking (see: hoping) we get a game of that ilk set in Johto instead.
1 Pokemon Scarlet & Violet DLC Deep Dive, August and October Release Dates Announced
Now for the banker. It's pretty clear we'll get a better look into Pokemon Scarlet & Violet's upcoming pair of DLC - The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk. While we've seen some of the story beats and some of the new and returning Pokemon, it's likely that The Pokemon Company is going to start pushing this content hard.
It's been confirmed that there will be three brand new Legendary Pokemon, Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti, alongside 230 returning Pokémon, so you can bet these expansions will be pretty meaty.
With a Fall 2023 and a Winter 2023 release date announced for the two parts, we'd expect late August/early September for The Teal Mask and late October/early November for The Indigo Disk.