Pokemon 25th Anniversary Celebration!

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Pikachu315111

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The Pokemon Company just released their announcement for their plans to celebrate Pokemon's 25th Anniversary (link to official website)!
(FUN FACT: The builders of this Rube Goldberg machine are Youtubers DoodleChaos and Sprice Machines)

In a press release on the Pokemon Company International website, they announced a focus on music revealing they have teamed up with Katy Perry and Universal Music Group (UMG) to create a program (titled "P25 Music") where both famous music icons and up-and-comers will be producing Pokemon-based music tracks and videos.
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(I'm kind of surprised she's not dressed liked a Pokemon character, I could totally see her dressed as Elesa)

The above press release include a few quotes:

Katy Perry:
“Pokémon has been a constant in my life from playing the original video games on my Game Boy, to trading Pokémon TCG cards at lunch, to the adventures of catching Pokémon on the street with Pokémon GO. I’ve even visited the Pokémon Café in Japan while on tour! It is an honor to be chosen to help celebrate a franchise that has given me so much joy in the last 25 years, and to be able to watch it evolve in the ways it’s provided that kind of electric joy for the kids in my life and around the world.”
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Colin Palmer, TPCI's Vice President of Marketing:
“In Katy Perry, we see a kindred spirit to Pokémon, whose world is bright, fun and uplifting. Katy is a wonderful ambassador to help us celebrate 25 years of Pokémon, and we can’t wait for music fans everywhere to experience the exciting collaborations we have planned.”
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LJ Gutierrez, UMGB's General Manager:
“We are honored to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pokémon and the significant cultural impact this beloved franchise continues to have around the world. Working together, we have developed dynamic year-round programming involving artists from across UMG’s labels — because what better way to create a global celebration than through the power of music”
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They say they have many plans in store (mentioning Pokemon animations, the video games, and mobile games including GO and Masters EX), but for now are giving us a quick glimpse of three:
  • 25 Years of Adventures: A Journey Through the Pokémon World: A yearlong program which invites fans to relive their experience through the various regions of the Pokemon world via the official website. It'll start in March covering the Galar region and then work backwards until reaching Kanto.
  • Anniversary Partners: Celebratory Programs and Merchandise: Pokemon will be teaming up with many popular brands to offer special promotions and merchandise. For promotions the line-up includes Build-A-Bear Workshop®, General Mills, Levi’s, and McDonald’s. For special merchandise some of the licensees are Jazwares, Scholastic, Mattel, Funko, PowerA, and The Wand Company.
  • Special Collections: The Pokémon Trading Card Game & Pokémon Center: And of course The Pokemon Company itself will be producing plenty of merch to be bought from the Pokemon Center website. Right now they're kicking things off with "Pokémon TCG: First Partner Pack Card Images", oversized cards of the first TCG card depicting Pikachu and all the other Starters (if I'm reading the Fact Sheet right, looks like first they'll release the collection binder in February which comes with the oversized Pikachu card. Then every month from there they'll release a pack which contains a region's three Starters oversized cards plus two normal booster packs of I'm guessing the most recent expansion. They'll start with Galar (March) and work their way back to Kanto (October). The binder and each pack is priced as 10 US dollars each, so the entire collection will cost 90 US dollars (probably over 100 is you include tax)). But that's not all, Pokemon has teamed up with skateboard maker Bear Walker to make a 25th Anniversary skateboard you can preorder starting January 19th.
And it then ends with quick bios about Pokemon, Katy Perry, and UMG. You can go to the press release yourself if you want to read them though they don't really contain anything noteworthy.
 
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Will definitely pick up the Hoenn pack!

Surely they could pick a better artist than Katy Perry, Kanye x Pokemon is my new dream collab. (Kids See Ghost Types)
 
DreamPrince said:
For the TCG starter pack, it’s kind of interesting how they are going in reverse order. Galar first, Kanto last. Nice order switch up since Kanto always seems to get first of everything.
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Not just the TCG packs, but also that "25 Years of Adventure".

I think it's most likely a marketing decision, but not a bad one. Galar is the current region so it makes sense to advertise it while it's still relevant and they have the SwSh re-release + DLC games on sale. After that final Gen 8 push it'll just be focused on celebrating the franchise, going to guess we'll likely get another round of Mythical releases probably during the month their region is being celebrated (and with them teaming up with so many brands going to guess they'll probably require us to go to locations instead of just releasing them over WiFi *grumble* ). Of course, I noticed they say this is a year long celebration yet, if they start with Galar in March, we'd be ending with Kanto is October. That leaves two months unaccounted for, so what will be done for those months or are they just going to end the celebration there?

And of course the little cynic in me wonders if they're ending on Kanto for a specific reason more than just pandering. Like obviously we're going to get a major announcement at the end of this, most likely the new games aka the next gen (for those waiting for Sinnoh remakes, I have a feeling GF doesn't feel Gen 8 is the time, also Gen 4's 20th Anniversary is 5 years away so they could be saving it as a 30th Anniversary surprise). Hopefully it's something unrelated to Kanto and they're just hoping ending on Kanto would draw in the most eyes due to nostalgia, but I wouldn't put it pass GF to do some hard Kanto pandering...

Rapti said:
also, before it's even metioned, don't expect game reveals until Pokemon Day
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Eh, I expect at the end to at least be given a CG teaser trailer and titles drop.

So time to guess the next game pair titles! Hmm, I'm going to say... Light & Shadow!
If that's too close to Sun & Moon, then instead Nature & Cyber.

DreamPrince said:
Not very family with Katy Perry, what’s wrong with her?
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Rapti said:
Her songs
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I'll admit, when I first heard it was Katy Perry hosting this song came to mind. You know, for kids!
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(I mean, I guess Alcremie and Slurpuff probably wouldn't feel too out of place...)

Gokuzbu said:
Kanye x Pokemon is my new dream collab.
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:blobastonished: Kanye? He's WAY too controversial! Like, maybe he'll be one of the artists tapped to make a song, but to host? True Katy isn't a stranger to controversy but atm she's generally well-liked.

Kanburi said:
Kinda weird there's nothing about this in JP...
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It's likely this is just for the American/International audience. Like Game Freak & The Pokemon Company was gonna do a ton of stuff anyway, and for Japan they'll probably have their own hub for all of the 25th Anniversary, this is just the American/International audience's "hub" for all the content. And each probably will have things exclusive for their own region, like if they're also going to focus on music they'll have musicians famous in Japan.
 
Maybe I'm thinking too hard, but hear me out:
They're going backwards through each mainline region starting with Galar in March, therefore Alola = April, Kalos = May, Unova = June, Sinnoh = July, Hoenn = August, Johto = September, and Kanto = October. What if the mainline game (Which has come in November for the past few years) is in a new region and November is the month of that region?
The main problem with the theory is new region tends to = new generation and this would make Generation 8 very short compared to the other generations that all lasted 3-4 years in Japan, but Game Freak has broken so many patterns in the past few years I can see a game in a new region that doesn't start a new generation. The game also probably wouldn't come out until mid-November. It's a stretch and I still think Let's Go Johto or Sinnoh remakes are more likely but I just want to point this out.
 
Nickeljorn said:
The main problem with the theory is new region tends to = new generation and this would make Generation 8 very short compared to the other generations that all lasted 3-4 years in Japan, but Game Freak has broken so many patterns in the past few years I can see a game in a new region that doesn't start a new generation. The game also probably wouldn't come out until mid-November. It's a stretch and I still think Let's Go Johto or Sinnoh remakes are more likely but I just want to point this out.
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Consider that it doesn't necessarly have to be a new game/region.

They can very well announce more DLCs, or a actual expansion, for what we know.

I do think they may definitely plan to do something in November though.
 
One small argument I see going against the idea of releasing a new game in November is that it would interfere with the celebration events. Why would anybody talk about Kalos in May if a new region is suddenly revealed at the same time?

Then again, annual releases are a thing, and we don't know what is currently in Game Freak's pipeline, so I guess it's not unreasonable to expect a new game either.
 
Codraroll said:
One small argument I see going against the idea of releasing a new game in November is that it would interfere with the celebration events. Why would anybody talk about Kalos in May if a new region is suddenly revealed at the same time?

Then again, annual releases are a thing, and we don't know what is currently in Game Freak's pipeline, so I guess it's not unreasonable to expect a new game either.
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Also Pokemon is capable of talking about multiple things at once

"While we get ready for the blahblahblah region, lets not forget the first 3D title's Kalos region and all the pokemon and sights we saw!" that kind of thing
 
Codraroll said:
One small argument I see going against the idea of releasing a new game in November is that it would interfere with the celebration events. Why would anybody talk about Kalos in May if a new region is suddenly revealed at the same time?
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A yearlong program which invites fans to relive their experience through the various regions of the Pokemon world via the official website. It'll start in March covering the Galar region and then work backwards until reaching Kanto.
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To be honest, I don't really think the "relive their experience" thing is really supposed to be that big. There's only so much you can "relive" in each region, and quite frankly, fans are doing that on pretty much a daily basis.

25 seems like a number they'd like to release a new game on, like they did for 20. Maybe we'll finally get Pokemon Sleep?
 
Y'know what? I actually don't think it'd make sense for an old-gen remake of any kind to be the 25th anniversary game.

Many big franchise anniversary celebrations, this one included make a conceited effort to give every generation of said franchise roughly equal representation, plus in this case they seem to be doing a thing where they're starting with the most recent gen and going backwards. With that in mind, if they released DPmakes this year wouldn't that kind of work against it? It would essentially be giving one generation disproportionate exposure compared to the rest, and while Platinum is good it's not Gen 1 or, say, FF7-tier impactful enough to justify a bigger podium
 
Yung Dramps said:
Y'know what? I actually don't think it'd make sense for an old-gen remake of any kind to be the 25th anniversary game.

Many big franchise anniversary celebrations, this one included make a conceited effort to give every generation of said franchise roughly equal representation, plus in this case they seem to be doing a thing where they're starting with the most recent gen and going backwards. With that in mind, if they released DPmakes this year wouldn't that kind of work against it? It would essentially be giving one generation disproportionate exposure compared to the rest, and while Platinum is good it's not Gen 1 or, say, FF7-tier impactful enough to justify a bigger podium
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time for the Fire Red/Leaf Green remake everyone has been clamoring for!
 
Yung Dramps said:
Y'know what? I actually don't think it'd make sense for an old-gen remake of any kind to be the 25th anniversary game.

Many big franchise anniversary celebrations, this one included make a conceited effort to give every generation of said franchise roughly equal representation, plus in this case they seem to be doing a thing where they're starting with the most recent gen and going backwards. With that in mind, if they released DPmakes this year wouldn't that kind of work against it? It would essentially be giving one generation disproportionate exposure compared to the rest, and while Platinum is good it's not Gen 1 or, say, FF7-tier impactful enough to justify a bigger podium
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On this it's worth noting that we had a remake cancelled almost certainly for this reason: we now know that there was a planned Pokemon Z, and the natural assumption is that it was cancelled to make sure Sun and Moon would be out for the 20th anniversary.

On the other hand, given that we know more or less for certain that there are no more DLC plans for SwSh, and that it would be highly unusual to have only two years in Galar before introducing a new generation, that leaves either "remake" or "no new games this year" by process of elimination. And it would be pretty weird to have this celebration take place and it then just be a gap year for new main series games (which we last had in 2015).

Personally I think it would be nice to have another DLC that makes every remaining Pokemon catchable in Galar including mythicals, but the physical release makes that very unlikely.

Pikachu315111 said:
I think it's most likely a marketing decision, but not a bad one. Galar is the current region so it makes sense to advertise it while it's still relevant and they have the SwSh re-release + DLC games on sale.
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If there is a new game announcement this year, it would make sense to get the Galar celebration done before its announcement aswell. No sense celebrating a region while its imminent obsolescence is fresh on everyone's minds.

Pikachu315111 said:
(and with them teaming up with so many brands going to guess they'll probably require us to go to locations instead of just releasing them over WiFi *grumble* )
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I'm more optimistic about this, for reasons not the least of which is "Nintendo has surely noticed that there's a pandemic going on".
 
Rarycaris said:
Personally I think it would be nice to have another DLC that makes every remaining Pokemon catchable in Galar including mythicals, but the physical release makes that very unlikely.
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Eh, not really. Games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Street Fighter V had special editions with all the dlc up to that point pre-packaged in only to release more later, it's a common tactic
 
25th anniversary stuff, interesting. I saw the video yesterday, it was neat and well done.

Katy Perry is not an artist I have listened to very much, but maybe that will change now if she starts making music related to Pokémon.

I really wonder what we will get in terms of new main series game(s) this year. It feels very likely that we will get something, the question is what? I wrote a list of every possible alternative I could think of, but I am not going to post it here since that would be against the forum rules. It still felt good to just write it down though, I had been thinking about it for a long time and now I have finally gotten it all out of my head. There's of course also the possible alternative that we won't get any new main series game(s) this year, but I honestly doubt it since it seems like they tend to release a new game on most big anniversaries. 2006 had D/P in Japan, 2011 had B/W internationally (nothing in Japan though) and 2016 had S/M. But even if there's nothing new for the main series, there will at least be some new spin-off games like the New Snap.

As for how they will celebrate the anniversary on the whole, I hope they'll do a better job than what they did with the 20th anniversary. I felt that it had way too much focus on Gen 1 compared to the other generations. Hopefully they can do a better job with an equal focus on all generations this time around. But even so, at least they got some things right last time, such as the mythical events and Pokémon Generations. I hope we'll get to see more stuff like that this time around. And it sort of looks like they will do a better job this time from what little we have seen so far, but I suppose it is still way too early to say.

On a personal note, I'm currently burnt out on Pokémon so I feel that I will probably and sadly not be able to enjoy the 25th anniversary all that much unless something happens that restores my interest in Pokémon again... which I doubt. But who knows? Miracles can happen.
 
Rarycaris said:
On this it's worth noting that we had a remake cancelled almost certainly for this reason: we now know that there was a planned Pokemon Z, and the natural assumption is that it was cancelled to make sure Sun and Moon would be out for the 20th anniversary.
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It's true that they had data in the back for more Kalos games, but that doesn't mean they gave it more than a moment's thought. Masuda implied that they weren't really intending on making another Kalos game after XY and that they wanted to pull the "let's surprise people again" by entirely forgoing another Kalos game and heading straight into Gen 7. He more or less deconfirmed a Pokemon Z after ORAS but no one listened.

The concept of a Pokemon Z wouldn't really so much a "remake" in the traditional sense as it is a director's cut or expanded edition of X and Y. Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum aren't considered remakes at all either, they're more enhanced editions that immediately succeeded the games they were upper versions of. Same with USUM.

Yung Dramps said:
With that in mind, if they released DPmakes this year wouldn't that kind of work against it? It would essentially be giving one generation disproportionate exposure compared to the rest, and while Platinum is good it's not Gen 1 or, say, FF7-tier impactful enough to justify a bigger podium
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This year is also DP's 15th anniversary, and while Platinum didn't sell that much Diamond and Pearl sure did, making huge waves on a massively successful platform. It wouldn't be out of line for Sinnoh remakes to be a possibility this year considering it's not only an anniversary of the franchise but also of the original games themselves. It's also a generation that hasn't really had enough exposure in the first place. I'm not saying anything is guaranteed, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility since Diamond and Pearl were among the better selling games in the franchise on one of the most successful portable consoles of all time, and it's also a big anniversary year for DP meaning if they do DP remakes this year, we effectively kill two birds with one stone here.
 
Nokocchi said:
Thousand Waves, Thousand Arrows, and a flag for two new Zygarde forms existed in Gen VI's coding. I'm pretty sure it was more than "a moment's thought"
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Don't forget the many loose ends in XY like the ghost girl and the note at the train station, also some of the XYZ anime's content like giving certain trainers Megas they did not have previously although that's a little more debateable/circumstantial. Either way it's obvious they definitely had Z planned seriously until something happened
 
Yung Dramps said:
Don't forget the many loose ends in XY like the ghost girl and the note at the train station, also some of the XYZ anime's content like giving certain trainers Megas they did not have previously although that's a little more debateable/circumstantial. Either way it's obvious they definitely had Z planned seriously until something happened
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People have got to let the ghost girl go, sometimes things are just creepy for the sake of being creepy
 
Releasing FireRed and LeafGreen again would be boring, so I propose LeafRed and FireGreen! Charizard, of course, gets a new green form, but Venusaur already has a pink flower (which is close enough to red) so it doesn't get anything new.

But seriously, I think that a remake would be celebratory enough for a 25th anniversary. Not getting a new game at all seems unlikely and it's too soon for a new generation, but anything is possible with GF (even if SnS got flack for being underbaked).
 
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