@Pyoro_ND – a leaker who has started becoming prominent only recently, thanks to accurate leaks for a number of titles – has been teasing out quite a few of those aforementioned rumours, having recently claimed that a new mainline 2D Mario game will be announced at the Direct. In addition to that, the leaker has seemingly dropped hints for a couple more announcements.

Courtesy of a tweet that contains a Detective Pikachu GIF, @Pyoro_ND has sparked speculation that Detective Pikachu 2 might finally get its official reveal. The game was confirmed to be in development as far back as 2019, and though there have been next to no updates on it since then, reports last year suggested that the game was “nearing release”.

Meanwhile, the leaker has dropped a separate tweet in another tweet, simply saying, “Everybody 1-2-Pikmin!” Though it might be referring to the recently-announced Everybody 1-2-Switch! and the upcoming Pikmin 4 (the latter of which is confirmed to be making an appearance at the Direct, with the former also likely to do so), it might instead be teasing a remastered launch for Pikmin 1 and 2. Pikmin 3 Deluxe is, of course, already available on the Switch.

Of course, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt for now, as is the case with any leak, especially ones that are this vague, though with the Direct coming up in just a few hours, at least we won’t be in the dark for too long.

There’s also a chance that the recently-announced Persona 3 Reload also gets confirmed for the Nintendo Switch, given the fact that Switch listings for the RPG remake have been spotted on retailer websites a few times now.

Good morning. pic.twitter.com/gAWq0zkpbI

— Pyoro (@Pyoro_X) June 20, 2023

Everybody 1-2-Pikmin!

— Pyoro (@Pyoro_X) June 20, 2023

As per the LinkedIn page of Jonathan Murphy, who’s a senior game programmer at Creatures Inc, the Detective Pikachu sequel is “nearing release” (screencap below). The fact that he explicitly calls it Detective Pikachu 2 is also notable, because of course, that this will be a full-fledged sequel to the 3DS original was never actually officially confirmed by The Pokemon Company or Nintendo.

As for when the game will actually release, or when it will be formally unveiled, that remains to be seen. Earlier this year, job listings did indicate that development on the project was very much still ongoing, so at the very least, it’s good to get continued reassurances that it hasn’t been completely forgotten about.

It seems like it is. As spotted and translated by VGC, on a recruitment page on the website of the game’s developer Creatures Inc., a programmer referred to simply as “KT” mentions that he is working on “the sequel to Detective Pikachu“, and that his work involves “programming the drawing area, while also creating a system in the Environment Development Office that will serve as the foundation for future game production in general.”

Back when Detective Pikachu 2 – or whatever it ends up being called – was first announced, it was confirmed that it would conclude the story of the first game, which ended on a cliffhanger- though there isn’t much else that’s known about the game yet. Hopefully we’ll begin hearing more about it in an official capacity sooner rather than later, because given the current situation, you wouldn’t be blamed for having forgotten that this was even a thing.

The Pokemon Company have, out of nowhere, announced that they will be sharing new Pokemon news tomorrow with a “Pokemon Presents” broadcast. It will air at 6 AM Pacific Time, and as per the description of the Japanese broadcast on YouTube, will be roughly 11 minutes long, and share information on several things, including Pokemon Sword and Shield’s expansions.

The first of those two expansions, The Isle of Armor, is launching tomorrow, so we can expect new promotion for that – probably a trailer – while new details might also be announced for the second expansion, The Crown Tundra, which is set to release this Autumn.

What else can we expect beyond that? Well, that’s all guesswork right now. A new Detective Pikachu game was announced for the Switch a year ago, as was a new mobile Pokemon title that is being developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studio (the developers of Call of Duty Mobile)- so we could hear something about those. Updates on Pokemon Sleep and Pokemon Home might also be incoming.

Is there also a possibility of an entirely new Pokemon game? It’s unlikely, but who knows? At least we don’t have to wait long to find out- stay tuned to GamingBolt, and we’ll bring you all the updates from the broadcast tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1272877200505782273

When it comes to the two franchises, there’s really no question about which one is bigger between Sonic and Pokemon. While Sonic still enjoys a strong following, Pokemon is one of the largest media IPs in the world, and is one of the few franchises that manage to have at least one entry on a yearly basis and still be massively successful. But, as today will show, that doesn’t necessarily equate to every facet of entertainment.

As reported via BoxOfficeReport, the Sonic the Hedgehog film has now passed Detective Pikachu at the domestic US box office. Sonic is now at $145.81 million, vs the $141.11 million that Detective Pikachu ended at. Considering how Sonic still has time at the box office, too, it will likely demolish that going forward.

Detective Pikachu‘s overall worldwide box office is still ahead, but that’s largely because Sonic has not opened in China, which has evolved into a huge film market. But even still, who would have thought the blue hedgehog could muster such a feat in this day and age.

Sonic The Hedgehog grossed an estimated $2.58M this weekend. Total gross stands at $145.81M.

The film has now passed the $144.11M total domestic gross of Detective Pikachu.#SonicMovie #SonicTheHedgehog #BoxOffice @ParamountPics @SonicMovie

— BoxOfficeReport.com (@BORReport) March 15, 2020

3DS’ Detective Pikachu was a surprisingly good game, and the movie based on the game, which released recently, was surprisingly good as well. The Pokemon Company clearly sees value in that brand, and is looking to expand it even further.

At the recent Pokemon Press Conference, The Pokemon Company announced a new Detective Pikachu game for the Nintendo Switch- the exact nature of the game is a bit of a mystery though, and The Pokémon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara was particularly vague about it. We know that it’s going to conclude the 3DS game’s story (which ended on a bit of a cliffhanger), but whether it’s a full-fledged sequel, or an expanded re-release is unknown as of yet.

In related Pokemon news, the next mainline RPG sequels, Pokemon Sword and Shield, will be receiving an information blowout next week, when a 15 minute-long Pokemon Direct is aired on June 5. Read more on that through here.

https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1133539944691933184

This year, Pokemon will get its first live action movie with the upcoming Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, the adaptation of the Nintendo 3DS game of the same name. With the movie just a little over a month away from release, we’ve received a brand new trailer for it courtesy of Ryan Reynolds, who plays Pikachu in it.

This trailer shows us the “screen test” for the various Pokemon who “auditioned” to be in the movie. It’s basically just an excuse for us to be shown the Pokemon and how they are in the movie’s grotesque but weirdly captivating realistic take on the creatures—among other Pokemon, we see Jigglypuff, Flareon, Aipom, and Charizard.

You can see the trailer for yourself below. Based on how fun this and previous trailers as well have looked, I think it might be reasonable to assume that this will end up being the first video game movie that is actually good.

When Detective Pikachu, the game, was first announced, a joke went viral on the internet that basically called for popular comic actor Danny DeVito to voice the eponymous character. While the final game did not have DeVito voicing him, Detective Pikachu still, amusingly enough, sounded suspiciously like him.

When the movie based on the game was announced, those hopes were renewed. The final movie has Ryan Reynolds, of Deadpool fame, voicing the character, which is almost as good, but as it turns out, very serious thought was in fact given to bringing Danny DeVito on board for the project.

According to Detective Pikachu producer Cale Boyter, “We definitely thought about it and how it might inform the spirit of it. Danny is incredible by the way. I am a huge fan of Danny DeVito.”

Speaking to Game Informer, he also talked about how they did screen tests with sound bites of different actors recorded over Pikachu, including, yes, DeVito.

“It was really very funny, so I couldn’t speak to all the reasons why it wasn’t Danny DeVito cast. I love Danny and some point maybe after the movie comes about, we can share those early tests. It’s absolutely hilarious.” He added that “the spirit of Danny DeVito… is still inside Pikachu”, which is probably the most motivationally inspirational thing I have heard all week.

Detective Pikachu, the movie, is due out later this year. Assuming the movie is successful, it might kick off a Pokemon Cinematic Universe—in addition to the sequel that we already know is coming.

Should the upcoming Detective Pikachu movie do well—which, given how great the trailers have been, and how well they have been received as well, it seems likely it will—then there may be follow-ups. And we’re not just talking about a Detective Pikachu 2, which we already know is in the works either—apparently, Detective Pikachu’s presumed success could kick off a whole Pokemon Cinematic Universe, equivalent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

“[Pokémon is] such a rich universe. There are so many ways you can go inside of it. We’re trying to get the first movie right, and then once we’ve done that, we’ll see where we go from there, but absolutely. There are a lot of opportunities,” producer Ali Mendes said while speaking with IGN.

If you think about it, he is right—you can have a movie like Detective Pikachu, a movie about a trainer wanting to be a Pokemon master, one about rangers, something following the Mystery Dungeon games, something for the evil teams, maybe something to follow the Legendary and Mythical Pokemon—there’s a lot of potential, over 800 Pokemon to draw from, and 22 years of mythology and lore. 

I hope, if for no other reason than that I do want to see a Pokemon Cinematic Universe, that Detective Pikachu does do well. It helps that it looks great, too, so it is probably likely to do well anyway. 

As we were promised, so it has happened. Today, we have received the second full trailer for the upcoming Detective Pikachu movie, and it looks like, more than even the first trailer for the movie suggested, this one will be fully and totally embracing the insanity and absurdity of the idea of its core conceit, which is over the top even for how outlandish Pokemon as a concept usually is.

The new trailer shows off a lot of new Pokemon, including Mewtwo, the big bad from the original games, and who it appears may be the villain in this movie as well. We also see a lot of great new footage with some funny jokes that all manage to land, including one very pained “Pika Pika” from Ryan Reynolds (who is voicing Pikachu) after he gets pounced upon by a very vicious and scaly looking Charizard.

There’s a lot of Pokemon to spot in this trailer—how many can you find? Pokemon: Detective Pikachu launches on May 10.