Jan25

The Pokémon Company issues brief public statement in response to recent online discussions of potential IP infringement by developers of Palworld

The Pokémon Company have released a brief public statement in response to inquiries they have receive relating to potential intellectual property infringement by another game developer. Though the statement names no names, it quite clearly refers to Palworld, the so-called "Pokémon with Guns" game, which has been in the news recently both for its strong initial sales, the public statements of the studio's CEO in support of generative AI, and the similarities many of the game's "Pals" have to different kinds of Pokémon.
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Nov15

Pokémon Trainer Club to receive maintenance for security updates on Nov. 16th - Pokémon GO, TCG Live, and UNITE to log all players out during downtime

On November 16th, starting at 9:00am (PST) / 5:00pm (UTC), the Pokémon Trainer Club will be undergoing maintance for important updates to authentication security. As a result of this maintance, all players of the Pokémon TCG Live and Pokémon UNITE will be logged out, as will any players of Pokémon GO who use their Pokémon Trainer Club to login.
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Aug4

Pokémon Presents announced for August 8th - 35 minute broadcast to stream on YouTube from 6am PDT / 2pm BST / 10pm JST

After a week of rumours, The Pokémon Company have confirmed that a Pokémon Presents will be broadcast live on YouTube this coming Tuesday, August 8rd. As of writing, no details have been given about what fans can expect from the 35 minute broadcast, though it seems reasonable to expect that it will go into some detail regarding the upcoming The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, including a release date for The Teal Mask, and possibly also for The Indigo Disk.
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Jun18

Celebrating 50k Bulbapedia articles with our favourite wiki pages!

Documenting every facet of this gargantuan IP is a task perhaps only the most dedicated and/or foolhardy would embark on, yet that's exactly what our Bulbapedia team and thousands of selfless contributors have done over eighteen long years! With Pokémon now encompassing nine generations of main series games along with dozens of spin-offs, mobile games, movies, anime and manga series, merchandise and much more, the wiki itself has grown in tandem - we recently hit a whopping 50,000 articles! To celebrate, we've compiled a list from across the Bulbagarden team of our favourite wiki articles. Read on for an eclectic collection of articles detailing some of the most obscure corners of the Pokémon franchise!
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Apr20

Ever wondered what Game Freak did before Pokémon? Game Freak's 1994 classic Pulseman released this week for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack

Earlier this week, four games for the Sega Genesis were added to the list of games available on the Nintendo Switch to buyers of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack bundle. One of these games is Pulseman, a game developed by Game Freak which originally released in Japan in July 1994, roughly one and a half years before the Japanese release of Pokémon Red & Green.
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Mar6

Pokémon recognised by NPD as Global Top Toy Property of the Year for 2022 at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair

The massive success of the Pokémon franchise has been recognised once again by NPD, with The Pokémon Company International receiving multiple awards last month at Spielwarenmesse, the Nuremberg International Toy Fair. In addition to winning Global Top Toy Property of the Year, Pokémon also won the Europe’s Top Gaining Property Total Toys and Europe’s Top Gaining Property Games & Puzzles awards.
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Feb21

20 minute long Pokémon Presents presentation to be streamed on Pokémon Day, February 27th, from 6:00am (PST) / 2:00pm GMT / 11:00pm JST

As expected, the Pokémon Company has confirmed that a Pokémon Presents video will premiere on the official Pokémon YouTube channel this Pokémon Day, February 27th, at 6:00am (PST) / 2:00pm GMT / 11:00pm JST. The video will be approximately 20 minutes in length, which is 6 minutes longer than the presentation in 2022. The media alert states that "Fans can look forward to around 20 minutes of Pokémon news and join in the conversation online with #PokemonDay.", however it stops short of giving any specifics about what kinds of announcements we can expect.
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Nov15

Legends Arceus picks up nomination for Best Role Playing game for The Game Awards 2022

It's a little over 3 weeks out from the broadcast of The Game Awards 2022, and the nominees for the event have finally been announced. Only one Pokémon title was nominated for an award this year, with Pokémon Legends: Arceus picking up a nomination for Best Role Playing. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first Pokémon core series game to secure a Game Awards nomination since Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire in 2014.
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Aug30

3DS and Wii U receive firmware updates, removing the ability to use eShop cards to add funds on those systems

As announced back in February of this year, the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShops are progressively closing down new sales, with users unable to purchase new games from March 27th, 2023. Today, firmware updates were released for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, removing the ability for players to add funds to their Nintendo eShop account via Wii U and 3DS using Nintendo eShop cards. The ability to add funds using a credit card was removed back in March of this year.
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Feb25

Hikaru Takahashi revealed as final cast member of PokéDoko, TV Tokyo's new Pokémon variety show starting April 3rd

On February 25, the final member of TV Tokyo's new Pokémon variety show, "Pokémon to doko iku?!" (Where do we go with Pokémon?!), or PokéDoko, was revealed. Popular actress, model, and variety entertainer, and new Pokémon fan Hikaru Takahashi (髙橋ひかる) will join the crew of PokéDoko as a "PokéRookie". PokéDoko will be airing on TV Tokyo every Sunday at 8:00am JST, starting April 3rd.
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Feb24

Pokémon's Official Japanese Twitter confirms 14 minute Pokémon Presents for Pokémon Day

The official Japanese language Twitter account for The Pokémon Company has confirmed that a Pokémon Presents video will premiere on the official Pokémon YouTube channel this Pokémon Day, February 27th, at 11pm JST (6am PST). The video will be approximately 14 minutes in length. The tweet states the video will deliver "the latest information", however it stops short of giving any specifics about what kinds of announcements we can expect.
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Feb24

Three new Poké Lids installed in Japan's Shiga Prefecture for Ninja Day holiday

To commemorate the Japanese holiday of "Ninja Day", which is held on February 22, three new Poké Lids were installed this week in Shiga Prefecture. Poké Lids are manhole covers that are installed in different locations across Japan, where "manhole-spotting" is a hobby held by some. These Poké Lids were originally designed covers help drive tourism, both local and foreign, to these areas, and also act as PokéStops for the Pokémon GO mobile game.
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Oct6

New partnership formed between The Pokémon Company and Universal Studios Japan - Pokémon attractions to feature in the theme park from 2022

Universal Studios Japan and The Pokémon Company have today jointly announced the formation of a new, long-term creative partnership for theme park experiences. While no specific dates were given, the partnership is promised to deliver its first new theme park experiences at Universal Studios Japan starting from some time in 2022.
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Jul1

Sound symbolism in Brazilian Portuguese Pokémon names: Evidence for cross-linguistic similarities and differences

Every year, a substantial amount of academic research is published about, or with some connection to, the Pokémon franchise and/or fandom. While occasionally some of this research breaks through to the fandom and/or to mainstream news, much of this research sadly goes underreported, and unread by the wider community of Pokémon fans. We here at Bulbagarden think it's about time that changed. Our second featured article for this series uses made-up Pokémon names to explore the sensitivity of Brazilian Portuguese speakers to sound symbolic associations. As you may be aware, Nintendo recently released a game in Brazilian Portuguese for the very first time, leading to a growing fan movement to encourage Nintendo to release more games in Brazilian Portuguese. It's our hope that, in featuring this work, we might be able to help that cause by keeping the issue alive in the linguistics community.
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