Pokemon Presents Was Under Marketed Due To 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.

RELATED: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Starter Names Revealed

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 more promotion. That will, over time, almost certainly be made up through word of mouth within the Pokemon fan community, though, and through the rest of 2022 as marketing for Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet picks up.

While the material impact of The Pokemon Company’s decision is entirely intangible, from a human perspective the meaning of the decision has to be respected. If all the decision does is convey The Pokemon Company’s sentiment over ongoing world events tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that’s more than enough justification. The Pokemon Company’s heart is in the right place.

Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet will assuredly be fine, going forward. Today’s announcement, while understated, did everything it needed to do to inform Pokemon fans about what the games are and when they can expect them to arrive. More information is certain to arrive in the months to come, hopefully when world events are less sensitive.

MORE: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s New Fire Starter Breaks a Series Long Tradition