Pokémon Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Pokémon has won April Fools’ day 2024 by announcing a Champion Tournament for Sleep.Released in July 2023, Pokémon Sleep is a sleep-tracking app that rewards users with different Pokémon, depending on the quality and length of their sleep. “Playing this game is simple: just place your smartphone by your pillow, then go to sleep,” reads an official description.However, to celebrate April Fools’ day, Pokémon has released a four-minute video, showcasing a championship tournament for the game.Featuring an arena full of screaming fans holding up signs saying “good night” and “sweet dreams”, the contest is hosted by Kenny Mattress and Chris Pillow who provide live play-by-play coverage of an “unprecedented shut-eye scrimmage”.Taking place over eight-and-a-half-hours, the Sleep tournament rewards players for speed of slumber, sleep rhythm and “all around sleep style artistry”.The contest starts with a number of Sleep players entering booths and preparing themselves for a “serious night of non-stop sleep” via lullabies, comfy pyjamas and reading an overly complex book.

Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft is the most iconic character in gaming, according to the results of a new poll from BAFTA.Ahead of the 20th BAFTA Games Awards on April 11, the organisation shared a survey to determine the most iconic gaming character of all time. Over 4,000 people from across the world took part in the survey, and now BAFTA has announced the results.Lara Croft has topped the poll, beating out Mario (who came second) and Sonic, who was voted the fourth most iconic character of all time.In a statement Shelley Blond, the original voice actor for Lara Croft said: “I had no clue when voicing the original Tomb Raider game that it would be such a global phenomenon and neither did Eidos or Core Design.

Nintendo has confirmed the release of Pokémon Legends Z-A, which is due 2025.The announcement came yesterday as part of the annual Pokémon Day celebrations and despite The Pokémon Company confirming it had several “exciting” plans, it still took fans by surprise for a number of reasons.Not only had Game Freak been hinting at a remake of Pokémon Black & White following the success of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in 2021 but Nintendo had never confirmed that Legends: Arceus was anything more than a standalone title.However, Pokémon Legends Z-A is due for release some time in 2025 and will take players back to the Parisian-inspired central city of Pokémon X & Pokémon Y.“A new adventure awaits within Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is under way to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon,” said the official description, with the trailer also hinting at the return of fan-favourite feature mega-evolutions, which haven’t been used since 2014’s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.While Arceus took players back in time to a very early version of the Sinnoh region, known as Hisui, the futuristic look of Lumiose City has fans speculating that Z-A will see them time travelling into the near future.The Pokémon set to feature in Z-A have yet to revealed, but the trailer leans heavily on generation six with Aegislash, Litleo, Pyroar, Klefki, Talonflame, Furfrou, Gogoat, Fletchling, Sylveon, Espurr, Flabébé and Hawlucha all showcased, alongside a lot of Pikachu action.

Pokémon Concierge are on the way, Netflix has confirmed.Last night (February 19), Netflix took to social media to announced that new episodes of the hit stop-motion Pokémon series are currently in production.

The Pokémon Company has released a statement promising to “investigate” any and all titles that infringe on their intellectual property rights following the release of Palworld earlier this month.Developed by Pocketpair, Palworld tasks players with using a variety of creatures known as Pals to build, fight or collect.Since it was announced, the survival game has been compared to Pokémon with creators telling NME: “We were surprised by the comparisons to be honest, especially those labeling it as ‘Pokémon with guns’. Pokémon definitely inspired us, but Palworld is far more action-orientated in comparison.”They went on to say they were more inspired by the likes of Rust, Minecraft and ARK: Survival Evolved.Earlier this week, an unofficial Pokémon mod was revealed for Palworld but footage was quickly taken down due to a Nintendo copyright strike.

Palworld has sold five million copies in three days, despite increasing concern over potential AI use in the game.The title launched in early access on January 19, and since then, it has shot up in Steam charts to the point it had more concurrent players than games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Call Of Duty.Those users don’t include the number of players who are playing the game through the Xbox Game Pass release, and neither do the five million copies sold, meaning that the actual total number of people who have downloaded the game and played it could be much higher.The conversation around Palworld, however, isn’t focused on sales. It’s instead focused on similarities that beasts in the game have to popular Pokemon characters, and the fact that the company openly released a title in early access last year named AI: Art Imposter which uses artificial intelligence in gameplay to generate images.Several posts have circulated on X (formerly Twitter) showing similarities between Pokemon creatures and Palworld creatures, with previous comments from the CEO of Pocketpair discussing AI art, and specifically how to use AI art in order to create new Pokemon, leading people to wonder if the game used the technique at all.There’s currently no confirmation as to whether or not there’s any credibility behind these claims, however.

Pokémon card will no longer be available as a result of scalpers causing “safety and security” concerns.The ‘Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat’ card is inspired by one of Vincent Van Gogh’s self portraits and was a part of the collaboration between The Van Gogh Museum and The Pokémon Company.Purchases of the special Van Gogh and Pokémon collection came with a free Van Gogh Pikachu card, however, scalpers descended on the museum once the event went live to re-sell the card for hundreds of dollars online.The Pokémon x Van Gogh collaboration was a disaster, serving as a stark reminder of human greed and lust.

trailer for the new live action Japanese drama based on the Pokémon series, PokeTsume, was posted yesterday on Twitter by its publisher. The drama will air in Japan later this month.READ MORE: A lost first-person ‘Pokémon’ game has been restoredPokeTsume, literally translating to, “pack your pocket with adventure,” follows a young woman, Madoka Akaji, played by Nanase Nishino, who grew up in the Kanto region of Japan, providing inspiration for Pokémon Gen 1’s Kanto location.

catch some Z’s! A new mobile app called “Pokémon Sleep” is under scrutiny after several behavioral addiction professionals slammed the new video game for trying to profit off of insomniacs, reported Newsweek.The app, which was released to the public in July, has already been downloaded by millions of fans. “In the world of Pokémon Sleep, Pokémon with the same sleep type as you will gather around as you catch some Zs,” reads the app’s official description.

Pokémon games.“POKÉMON GANG 4 LIFE,” read Kyrgios’ caption on the video of the process posted to Instagram. “HAD TO COOK UP SOMETHING CRAZY!!!!” Check it out below:Nick Kyrgios got a full back tattoo of Pokémon characters

K-pop boyband ENHYPEN have released a music video for ‘One and Only’, released in collaboration with Pokémon.‘One and Only’ is ENHYPEN’s new collaborative track for the ‘Pokémon Music Collective’ project. In the new music video, the members of ENHYPEN are each accompanied by Pikachu, Charizard, Charmander, Piplup, Lucario, Zoroark and Snorlax from the beloved franchise as they prepare for a special camping trip.After setting up their caravan, the boyband and their Pokémon enjoy roasting marshmallows, before taking to the skies with hot air balloons.

Nintendo has finally revealed details about the mysterious Pokémon Sleep game – with the title set for release later this year.Announced back in 2019, Pokémon Sleep was described as a sleep-tracking app that offers a “gameplay experience unlike any other.”Not much has been revealed by Nintendo since then with many assuming the title had simply been cancelled, but during today’s (February 27) Pokémon Day livestream, the studio not only confirmed the project was still in development, but went into detail about what people can expect from Pokémon Sleep.“The idea behind Pokémon Sleep is to be a game that makes you look forward to waking up in the morning,” said Takato Utsunomiya, the Pokémon Company’s chief operating officer.Set for release this summer, Sleep is “easy to play, all you have to do is get a good night’s sleep”.Rest your very best when #PokemonSleep arrives this summer! pic.twitter.com/WWlil8wB4Q— Pokémon Sleep (@PokemonSleep) February 27, 2023Set on a small island inhabited by a singular Snorlax, players will be able to attract other Pokémon by tracking their own sleep. According to the video, the mobile app will track a player’s sleep cycle and categorise it into one of three options – snoozing, dozing or slumbering – with accompanying Pokémon attached to each sleep style.“As you keep this up, you might discover some rare in-game sleep styles,” continued the video.

Ed Sheeran gave his new song ‘Celestial’ its live debut during a recent appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert – watch below.The singer-songwriter released the standalone track last month in collaboration with Pokémon. It’s set to feature in both Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which will arrive next month.“It’s been a pleasure to work with the team who have brought so much joy to millions of people around the world,” Sheeran said of the partnership at the time.

With Christmas now less than 100 days away, leading UK toy retailer Argos has announced its highly anticipated list of the top toys that are set to dominate Christmas wish lists in 2022 – and 60% are under £50.

Nintendo “gigaleak” back in 2020, which saw a vast amount of stolen data leaked onto the internet including prototype versions of classic Nintendo titles and N64 games, Nintendo has suggested it increased its security measures to prevent anything similar happening in the future.The massive data breach saw titles such as Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Yoshi’s Island and even some unreleased titles leaked onto the internet.It also reportedly contained confidential internal documentation regarding Nintendo DS, Wii and the China-exclusive iQue amongst other consoles, showing the systems’ working processes and the development processes that led to their creation and maintenance.According to Video Games Chronicle, the leak was suspected to come from iQue, the Chinese brand created to release Nintendo content, as well as BroadOn, a third-party company contracted by Nintendo to develop hardware and software for the Wii console.Until now, Nintendo had not made an official statement or response in relation to the massive leak, but on Tuesday (June 28) they referred to the incident in response to a question asked at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Japan.質問5中国ビジネスについて任天堂はIQueブランドを使っていたが、最近はテンセントと提携している。IQueが情報漏えいのもとになったのではないかという意見もある。情報漏えいのリスクマネージメントに聞きたい。— あれっくす (@NStyles) June 29, 2022Twitter user NStyles has kindly transcribed the meeting and when using the social media platform’s in-built translation feature from Japanese to English, we can garner that Nintendo was asked during the meeting where it stands on iQue, especially when it is considered that “some people believe that iQue may have been the source of information leaks”.In response, Nintendo president

Game Freak, has left to join The Pokémon Company.Masunda founded Game Freak in 1989 alongside Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori and has helped develop almost every title the studio has ever put out.He originally composed and helped program the original Pokémon games – Red & Green before taking on a more senior development role. He was director of Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire, Fire Red & Leaf Green, Diamond & Pearl, Black & White, X & Y and Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee.According to The Pokémon Company, Masuda will be the chief creative fellow at the company.“Masuda will utilise his deep understanding of the Pokémon brand to develop new services and products at The Pokémon Company, tapping into his years of experience and creative thinking,” they said in a statement confirming the hire.

Pokémon-style retro role-playing game maker, called Monster Tamer Maker.Developer Yanako RPGs is also creating an original game within the engine called Dokimon, on top of designing all the RPG maker tools as well (via PCGamesN).According to lead developer Yana, the Kickstarter was created “to assist in funding the artwork so that we can make as much high quality art as possible,” with the funds being used to develop both the game and the game maker itself.At the time of writing, the Kickstarter has reached just over 50 per cent of its £8,000 ($10,000 USD) funding goal, with 27 days to go.Dokimon will be used “as a reference point for builders” and will be “completely open-source.”Hi everyone! So I am making a Game Engine, making a game with that Game Engine, and releasing both into the public.I decided to do Kickstarter to assist in funding the artwork so that we can make as much high quality art as possible to release into the world of game developers!— Yana (@yanako_rpgs) May 13, 2022Both Dokimon and Monster Tamer Maker will feature fully fleshed out monster tamer style battling, including approximately 70 monsters, 12 elemental types, a speed priority system, statuses and abilities.Monster Tamer Maker will allow players to customise the game battle system to their preferences, making them as simple or as complex as they please. The game will also be designed to be “quick and easy to use,” with several tutorials to ease users into creating their own games.The Pokémon-inspired title allows players to choose from any colour palette of their liking too, with a goal of over 20 playable characters and 10 swappable colour palettes to choose from.

on their website.“Pokémon is the world’s leading media brand and Charizard is the GOAT of that brand. It’s an asset that Pokémon and non-Pokémon collectors know of and want to own,” Jesse Craig, director of business development for PWCC, told CNN in a statement.“This is a card where demand continues to outweigh supply,” Craig added.The card has drawn increasingly competitive bids in recent years, including one sold for $336,000 earlier this month.

The Pokémon Company has announced that as of now, you can get the legendary Pokémon Arceus and Darkrai – from Pokémon Legends: Arceus – in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl.You’ll need to own a copy of either remake as well as a copy of Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Furthermore, the games must be up to date with version 1.3.0, which was released on March 15.Getting Arceus requires you to complete the game of the same name, or at least have the main missions done.

COVID disaster relief on a rare Pokémon card.Vinath Oudomsine allegedly lied to a US government loan program set up to provide funds to businesses affected by COVID-19. He claimed he ran an entertainment services business with ten employees and a turnover of $235,000 (£179,200).

The Pokémon Company has announced that a new Pokémon Presents broadcast will air this weekend.Announced via Twitter, the publisher confirmed that the upcoming Pokémon Presents will take place on Sunday, February 27 at 2 PM GMT / 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET.The broadcast will be 14 minutes long and feature a pre-recorded video, according to the post. So far, The Pokémon Company hasn’t revealed any information about what fans can expect during the presentation.In a separate post on its website, the publisher confirmed that the presentation would coincide with the day Pokémon Red and Green (the first Pokémon game) was released on February 27, 1996.

Nintendo has announced that franchise revamp Pokémon Legends: Arceus has now reached over 6.5million players across the globe.Released last week on January 28, the newest Pokémon entry adopts a more open world-type approach to the traditional formula, and players look to be onboard with the new direction.The title even accounted for almost half of all boxed game sales in the UK the week it launched, and joined other Nintendo Switch titles to dominate the sales as a whole.“Thank you to the more than 6.5million explorers worldwide who have already embarked on an exciting new adventure in Pokémon Legends: Arceus,” wrote the official Nintendo of America Twitter.Thank you to the more than 6.5 million explorers worldwide who have already embarked on an exciting new adventure in #PokemonLegendsArceus! We hope you're loading up on more potato mochi before your next research mission! pic.twitter.com/u1MKRHkhhD— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 4, 2022Whilst the release date of the new Pokémon title means there was no major data in the most recent financial reports for Nintendo, there were some other notable milestones and statements made.Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Switch has now outsold the Wii, with a few years left on its life cycle.

Pokémon Dedenne is getting its own card in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, which NME has an exclusive reveal for.Dedenne first appeared in Gen 6, though fans of the cute Pokémon may have also spotted them in the two of the most recent titles, Pokémon Sword and Shield. Now, the adorable Pokémon is making its way to the card game.“Round and full of power! Dedenne, the Antenna Pokémon, appears in a Dede-Flash! Its main Attack requires only one Energy to use, but does the most damage when your opponent has only one Prize card remaining. A last chance flash in the pan to Confuse your opponent and steal victory,” reads the card’s summary.Aside from looking cute, Dedenne has a low-cost ability called Dede-Flash.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is released at the end of the month and according to early impressions, the game is “completely different from previous titles”.According to Famitsu, who played Arceus at a hands-on event in Japan, “It’s safe to say that this game is completely different from previous titles. The first thing that impressed me when I started playing was the exhilarating feeling of moving around freely in the vast field,” they said in comments translated by VCG.The same report discusses a boss battle against brand new Pokémon, Kleavor, which saw the player attempting to hit the creature with food to calm it down.

Pokémon speedrunner have beaten Pokémon Crystal including Red in under a day and a half.Fans of partnered Twitch streamer and YouTube content creator 360Chrism have been playing Pokémon Crystal randomiser for the last day and a half and they have already beaten Red.

Pokémon cards, with the counterfeit cards allegedly caught en route to the Netherlands.As reported by Nintendo Life, fake Pokémon cards “weighing over 7.6 tons” were intercepted by customs officials at Pudong airport in Shanghai.The boxes of counterfeit cards were shipped by a company in eastern China, and were reportedly on their way to the Netherlands when they were seized.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl will receive a day one update, mostly aimed at adding communication features to the game.The patch, which will be around 3GB in size, will add several animated scenes and movies to the game, including the opening and ending scenes.Also included in the patch is the ability to receive items via Mystery Gift, the ability to visit Ramans Park, a new area in the remakes, and it adds communication features to the Grand Underground.The Pokémon Company has also

The Pokemon Company has teamed up to turn fan-favourite Pikachu into an 11.8 inch crystal collectible.As part of the Baccarat x Pokemon collection (thanks, VGC) Japanese artist Hiroshi Fujiwara has taken a crack at the world’s most famous electric mouse and given it “imposing dimensions”.

Pokémon Go hosted its first in-person event in the UK last weekend as the Safari Zone was held in Liverpool.READ MORE: Why ‘Katamari Damacy’ might be gaming’s purest expression of comedy through playThe event, which was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020, was postponed following the pandemic.

The Pokémon Company, with a “uniquely Pokémon experience” set to arrive at the theme park in 2022.Today (October 6), a press release has revealed that Universal Studios Japan will “immerse guests into the world of Pokémon with innovative technology” from 2022.Speaking on the partnership, Tsunekazu Ishihara – president and CEO at The Pokémon Company – described an upcoming “uniquely Pokémon experience” and stated the following:“This strategic alliance with Universal Studios Japan reflects our

Pokémon interacting with the real world.Ashby’s TikTok videos have racked up millions of views by imagining a world where Pokémon are a normal part of every day life. From Machoke’s time at the arcade below to countless other adorable situations, Ashby’s TikTok account has struck a chord with Pokémon fans across the world.

Nintendo Switch, has launched today, letting you watch a range of classic Pokémon episodes for free.Although the Nintendo Switch lacks apps for most mainstream streaming services, it looks as though it’s making up for it with its own Pokémon streaming service.Pokémon TV adds a lot of new Pokémon content to your Nintendo Switch, with plenty of classic cartoon episodes, series specials and even replays of top competitive championships to watch at your leisure.The app is free to download and

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a big step for Game Freak and The Pokemon Company. It represents a departure from anything the studio has done to date and shakes up the decades-old Pokemon formula in a huge way.

Pokémon Presents live stream starts today (August 18) at 2pm BST/6am PDT/9am EST, and you can watch and find out what to expect below. The stream itself can be watched here, or you can go to The Official Pokémon YouTube channel instead.According to the Pokémon Twitter account, information and footage will be shown off for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, Pokémon Shining Pearl, and Pokémon Legends Arceus.Pokémon Legends: Arceus is currently expected to release on January 28 2022, and will feature an

Netflix is reportedly developing a new live-action Pokémon series with Joe Henderson, known for his work as co-showrunner of Lucifer.According to Variety, the unnamed project will be a live-action series in the vein of the 2019 film Detective Pikachu. Henderson is reportedly attached to write and executive produce the show.

Pokémon as their official Water Ambassador for Water Day on August 1.The water-type Eevee evolution Vaporeon is now the official mascot for Water Day, a Japanese initiative run by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.