Quick summary
Apple has shared a video of Pikachu's visit to Apple Park drawing mobile gaming into focus.
While the video is a bit of fun, Apple is highlighting one of the world's biggest gaming franchises.
Pikachu has made a surprise visit to Apple Park, shared by Tim Cook having a great time around some of the iconic locations at Apple's headquarters. But within that, a subtle hint could have been dropped about the greater importances of Pikachu's visit.
Cook neatly outlines the three agenda points for the day: "Introduce the Pokémon team to John, talk gaming, and politely ask Pikachu to stay out of the pond."
Through 30 seconds of fun video, we see that what Tim Cook, John Ternus, Tsunekazu Ishihara and Pikachu get up to, yet Cook says that only two of the three agenda points where accomplished. That suggests that one agenda point is still be addressed.
So let's take a more forensic look at the video. We clearly see Pikachu meeting John Ternus with Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara, so that's a check. The two obviously bonded quickly, as Ternus throws an affectionate arm around Pikachu as the video comes to a close.
We also distinctly see that Pikachu isn't in the pond. We have a pond-adjacent Pikachu, dancing a little, but there's no evidence of contact with the water - so it's clear that Pikachu didn't enter the pond, so that's also a check.
The rest of the video is mostly Pikachu frolicking around: trying to get an Apple off the tree and failing, with Tim Cook symbolically handing Pikachu the fruit at a later juncture; Pikachu running around the Jony Ive-designed rainbow; Pikachu interrupting a working lunch.
At no point do we witness any conversation about gaming, which is ominously absent from the video, yet clearly outlined as an agenda item. That lapse could point gaming remaining on the agenda and perhaps something that will be carried over to the next meeting, perhaps on 9 September.
Sure, it's a bit of a leap, but it does raise the question of why Apple has publicly shared that it has been visited by the Pokémon Company. There are probably a huge number of visitors of equal stature to Apple Park (no disrespect to the indominable Pikachu) so why this visit, and why now?
It could be a bit of whimsical fun, but Apple isn't a whimsical company. Everything happens with calculated precision and there's no reason why this should be any different. As outlined by 9to5Mac, Apple saw a 4.5% decline in mobile gaming revenue in Q2 2026, while Apple itself has cited "headwinds in mobile gaming" as a factor affecting App Store performance.
So gaming is clearly on the agenda for Apple, but exactly what it is doing with Pokémon is unclear. There's a brief moment of Pokémon Go fun in this video and what if that's something that's still on the agenda for Apple's next big launch?
After all, the biggest problem facing folding phones is what to do with them. Perhaps Apple is lining up some exclusive experiences to support the launch of the iPhone Ultra...
