The first Pokemon Presents of 2023 will air later today, bringing with it around 20 minutes of exciting updates related to Pokemon.
A Pokemon Presents stream is scheduled to stream this afternoon to celebrate 'Pokemon Day' as well as dropping related news. This year's Pokemon Day is particularly special as it marks 27 years since the original Pokemon Red and Pokemon Green released in Japan.
Already confirmed is a Pokemon Scarlet and Violet update set to come before month's end. Fans are still awaiting Pokemon Home integration to arrive, so there's a chance this long-awaited feature may be discussed in the Pokemon Presents February 2023 livestream.
This presentation just three weeks after the Nintendo's own February Direct, which was rather light on Pokemon news. Now that the Pokemon Presents stream is almost here, in retrospect this makes a lot of sense.
Pokemon Presents February 2023: start time and how to watch
The Pokemon Presents February 2023 presentation will air today on Monday, February 27 and will kick off at 2pm GMT / 9am ET / 6am PT. The event will last for about 20 minutes and will be available to watch on-demand after it has ended.
You can watch the Pokemon Presents livestream on the official Pokemon YouTube channel. There isn’t currently a direct link to the stream, but we’ll be sure to update this once it becomes available.
We've also embedded the stream below, so you can watch along right here if you’d like.
Pokemon Presents February 2023: what to expect
While nothing has been announced ahead of time., some things have been teased and we can make some safe guesses based on the history of the series.
Classic Pokemon games on Nintendo Switch Online
The video included in the Pokemon Presents announcement tweet shows a bunch of generation one Pokemon like Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur as they swirl around the screen. It closes with the Game Boy rendition of the Pokemon theme heard in the original games Pokemon Red and Blue.
This is interesting timing considering Nintendo announced that Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles have joined the Nintendo Switch Online service during the last Nintendo Direct, with the game lineups shockingly devoid of any Pokemon titles (bar Pokemon Trading Card Game). Could this mean Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow could be making their way across? We could even get Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald too, since those are all in the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance library. Personally, I want the Pokemon Pinball games, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
One more piece of info that could support this is that a Famiboards member noticed that Nintendo had removed the “Pokemon cannot be transferred to these games” disclaimer for the Pokemon Stadium section of the N64 game lineup. So we might see Pokemon Stadium drop too with Game Boy transfer compatibility.
New Pokemon games or DLC
If you ignore 2015 and 2020, there has been a new mainline Pokemon title released every single year since 2012. Hell, there were two last year with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Even then, the Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC took the place of a mainline entry in 2020, with the sizeable The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra expansions. So It’s safe to assume that we could see Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC announced during this presentation.
Sequels to Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! focusing on the Johto region – seen in Gold and Silver – have also been speculated about for a long time; perhaps we could see them make an appearance.
Pokemon Home for Scarlet and Violet
Pokemon players were disappointed to hear that Pokemon Home integration – which will let players import classic Pokemon to Scarlet and Violet – won’t be a part of this month's update. Perhaps this was intentionally left out of the announcement to be kept as a surprise for the Pokemon Presents presentation? We’ll find out today, but Nintendo of Europe has at least confirmed Pokemon Home is set to arrive some time in "spring 2023" so time is running out.
