Pokemon Presents Was Under-Marketed Due to Ukraine Conflict

gamerant.com:

Sunday morning The Pokemon Company officially unveiled the next main-series releases in the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. Many Pokemon fans were caught off-guard by the announcement, however. Either they weren't aware there was a Pokemon Presents event at all, or they didn't realize it was going to be such a big deal. There's a good reason for that, however. The Pokemon Company has confirmed it reduced promotion of the event due to the ongoing Ukraine conflict.

The decision was officially confirmed by The Pokemon Company's public relations team, according to Axios reporter Stephen Totilo. The team explained that it wanted to be «sensitive to major world events happening at this time and those impacted.» With that in mind, it reduced advertising surrounding the event with the idea in mind that fans would be able to participate in the event if they chose to, rather than making it focus for the industry and potentially take away from more important news.

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Some fans may question why The Pokemon Company would decide to go through with the event at all. A response to that question was also offered, though without specifics. The Pokemon Company says that the Pokemon Presents event was «pre-scheduled» and unable to be postponed. February 27 is known to be Pokemon Day across the world, the date that Pocket Monsters: Red and Green were originally launched in Japan in 1996. The Pokemon Company had certainly been planning around today announcements for some time.

It's clear that The Pokemon Company's efforts to minimize promotion did significantly impact the reach of today's Pokemon Presents event. It won't be as remotely well-covered as it would have been with