What The Pokémon Presents Teaches Us

There was a lot of hype this morning heading into today’s Pokémon Presents broadcast.

For the uninitiated: from time-to-time, The Pokémon Company releases a flurry of news through a pre-recorded broadcast called Pokémon Presents. This is where they share announcements, game reveals, and updates related to Pokémon games, products, and media.

Each Pokémon Presents represents a huge opportunity: the chance something huge is coming from The Pokémon Company.

Perhaps the most coveted Pokémon Presents news is a reveal of the next mainline Pokémon game, like when the Scarlet & Violet games were finally shared with the world on February 27, 2022.

Yes, that was a Pokémon Day announcement and was expected based on Pokémon’s typical 3-year game cycle.

The reality is that most Pokémon Presents updates end up falling far short of whatever lofty expectations fans have built up in their head. In the end, we typically get nothing more than a series of content updates to the growing variety of Pokémon’s mobile games.

And so, we shouldn’t be surprised that’s all today’s announcement was: mobile updates. Oh, and a bit more of a look at Pokémon Legends Z-A.

But, here’s the thing: The Pokémon Presents announcement don’t matter.

Sure, they mean a lot to all us hardcore Pokémon nerds. But, the market simply doesn’t care. The market is HOT right now. And the Pokémon Presents, whether good or bad, wasn’t going to change a thing.

At best, the announcements from a Pokémon Presents give us a clue to how much people might be engaging with the brand in the future. And the more Pokémon fans there are in the world, the more likely we see growing demand for the TCG as well.

But, in the end, the market responds more to changing supply than anything else, and the news shared in any presentation like this is unlikely to change whatever supply trajectory The Pokémon Company is already on.

I guess all I’m trying to say is that, as a hardcore fan, I always want to get so much more out of these announcements, and I am almost always disappointed.

Hell: I delayed today’s newsletter thinking I’d have some exciting news to write about!

As always,

Thanks so much for reading the TCG Buyers Club newsletter. My name’s Grey, and I’m on a mission to make collecting and investing in Pokémon simple.

Cheers 🍻

P.S. Even when there’s big news from a Pokémon Presents it often flies under the radar! For example: the Pokémon TCG Pocket announcement was HUGE! But so few in the hobby seemed to care… Maybe I’m just bitter because my video talking about the Pokémon TCG Pocket announcement is one of my all-time worst performers 😅