Pokémon Presents February 2023 Recap

We’re wrapping up February and eyeing the start of spring, which is always an exciting time of year. What is even more exciting though, is that we have news about the Pokémon franchise, including the most recent games, trading cards, and more. Tsunekazu Ishihara, the president, and CEO of The Pokémon Company hosted a Pokémon Presents event on February 27th, 2023 and we have your full recap of what got announced. Let’s take a look at new card info, DLC for Scarlet and Violet, and much more!

New DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was announced, officially titled “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero.” The DLC will arrive in two parts, with the first part set to release in Fall 2023. Part 1: The Teal Mask, has you visiting the land of Kitakami on a school trip. Part 2: The Indigo Disk will see you become an exchange student at Blueberry Academy and is slated for winter 2023. Legendary Pokémon Ogerpon, and Terapagos, make their debut in this DLC and will be accompanied by Pokémon familiar to players that haven’t shown up in Paldea thus far.

The DLC pack will be available for purchase on the Nintendo eShop today. This is another DLC approach that follows Sword and Shield doing away with the release of a new game+ edition of mainline series games. I think it’s a great move and is certainly better than buying the same again just to have a little more content. If you purchase the DLC today, you’ll get the New Uniform Set to give your character some new outfits, as well as a code that allows you to claim a special Hisuian Zoroark for your in-game team.

You can now connect your Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games to Pokémon GO, adding Postcards from the mobile game to your Switch title. Later this year, you’ll be able to send Pokémon from the new games to Pokémon Home to use on your mobile adventures. There is also a new accessory coming to Pokémon GO, the Pokémon GO Plus +.

On top of special research capabilities, you’ll be able to use the device to automatically spin PokéStops and throw Poké Balls at Pokémon. Pokémon GO Plus + is scheduled to release on July 14, 2023, and can interface with another long-awaited game that got some of the spotlight in the Pokémon Presents event.

Pokémon Sleep is a new game we’ve known about for a while that is finally coming to mobile devices. In this game, you work together with Professor Neroli and Snorlax to research the way Pokémon sleep. To do so, all you need to do is get a good night’s sleep. You leave your phone by your pillow and essentially get categorized into a type of sleeper, which then impacts the Pokémon you have in the game. The game is set to launch in Summer 2023.

You can use the Pokémon GO Plus + accessory as a sleep accessory as well. With the device, you can even have Pikachu sing lullabies to you, which is either really cool or kind of bothersome depending on how you like to sleep. For alarm clock functionality, Pikachu can also wake you up. The official game release even says “the more sleep you get together, the friendlier this Pikachu will become—you can even unlock new alarm sounds as your bond grows.”

The 2023 Pokémon World Championships are set for August 11–13, 2023, at the PACIFICO Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan. You’ll be able to live stream the event as always, including action from battles in Scarlet and Violet, UNITE, and the Trading Card Game.

A few other highlights worth noting:

Pokémon Concierge is a Netflix series that utilizes groundbreaking stop-motion animation to tell a new story from within the world of Pokémon – no release date is available yet
Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic, a premium Pokémon TCG set, is a deluxe version of the TCG setup for players looking to improve their equipment for the card game

Celebrate 3.5 years of Pokémon Masters EX with a variety of bonuses and new master sync pairs starting this week
Legendary Pokémon Zacian joins Pokémon UNITE, as well as the promise of more additional creatures coming to the game this year
Pokémon Café ReMix is adding Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly, and you can snag a cool chef Grininja outfit now through March 16 by logging into the game

We hope this recap caught you up on all things Pokémon! Let us know what your favorite announcement was in the comments! You can watch the entire presentation below