Pokémon Presents showcase: Start time and what we want to see

The Pokémon Company has announced a Pokémon Presents showcase for Friday 26th February.

The presentation will be streamed on YouTube at 3pm GMT/7am PT and run for 20 minutes, which comes one day prior to Pokémon Day on Saturday 27th February.

There’s weighted expectation on this presentation as it marks Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, with Post Malone set to perform at a virtual concert on Twitch to mark the occasion.

The rapper has also released a song to mark the anniversary available to stream now, which is a cover of Hootie and the Blowfish’s 1995 track Only Wanna Be With You. While there’s no direct Pokémon connection, it’s a nice listen at least.

Pokémon Sword and Shield players can also download a special Pikachu starting from today which knows the move Sing, using the code P25MUS1C on the Mystery Gift menu. 

What we want to see from the Pokémon Presents stream

There’s already plenty of upcoming Pokémon titles the stream could cover, ranging from MOBA Pokémon Unite, New Pokémon Snap and the whereabouts of Pokémon Sleep.

Considering this is a stream for Pokémon and not conducted by Nintendo, it’s likely there’ll be news which spreads across the entire franchise - whether the trading card game, the anime, or some other announcements to commemorate the 25th anniversary.

But could there be the announcement of a new game? Rumours have pinned hopes on Diamond and Pearl remakes, and if Nintendo’s 2021 line-up doesn’t include Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, a new Pokémon title could be a replacement of sorts in their Christmas line-up. There could be more expansions to Sword and Shield too, considering that game’s popularity is still high.

It’s important to keep expectations in check however, especially after the recent Nintendo Direct, so let’s treat this as a celebration of Pokémon’s 25th anniversary rather than an E3 conference.