Bulbacast: Episode 24 - 25th Anniversary Pokemon Day Predictions

Australian clothing brand BlackMilk has announced the company will be releasing a new range of Pokémon clothing, with the line to go on sale this March 2nd.

The Pokémon Company International has recruited a new Director of Digital Consumer Engagement, Narbeh Minasians. Narbeh joins TPCI after more than a decade at Nickelodeon Animation, where he has spent the last four and a half year working as the Director of Nickelodeon's online social content and marketing. Narbeh is also a Director of The BRIC Foundation, an organisation which works to increase representation of women and people of underrepresented groups in the Entertainment, Gaming, Media, and Tech industries.

As a tie-in with the western release of the Shining Fates Pokémon TCG expansion, Shiny Toxtricity are for a limited time being distributed to players in select countries through codes available in retail stores. The distribution is on right now, and will continue through to March 18th.

Fletchling has been announced to be the featured Pokémon for the March 2021 Pokémon GO Community Day event. This Community Day event will be held on 6 March from 11am to 5pm in all time zones. During the time period of the event Fletchling will be appearing more frequently in the wild and will be more likely to be encountered as a Shiny Pokémon. Fletchinder that evolve into Talonflame from 11am to 7pm in all time zones on 6 March will know the Community Day exclusive move Incinerate.

The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) has released the new ruleset for competitive battles. These Series 9 rules will be standard for all competitions, including Ranked Battles, Players Cup events, and the Championship series, taking effect as of May 1st, 2021. These Series 9 rules are the same as the Series 7 rules, where "restricted" Pokémon (most Legendary Pokémon and all Mythical Pokémon) were not permitted to battle.

Earlier this week, it was announced that a casual competition would be running in Pokémon Sword and Shield between 4:00 p.m. PST February 25, 2021 and 3:59 p.m. PST February 28, 2021, the Global Challenge Winter. The casual competition will allow trainers to battle with teams including one Legendary Pokémon out of a set of Legendaries not normally allowed in online competitions.

Opposuits, a novelty suit company based in The Netherlands, unveiled earlier this week its upcoming licensed collaboration with The Pokémon Company. The suit features first generation starter Pokémon Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander, alongside franchise mascot Pikachu, and includes a jacket, pants, and matching tie.

In a statement provided to multiple media organisations, McDonalds responded to the ongoing shortages of Pokémon 25th Anniversary Happy Meal Toys and Cards, and confirmed they are working with supply chain partners to restock these items. Their official statement stopped short however of directly acknowledging the ongoing flagrant scalping of these product on online auction sites such as eBay.

In a blog posted this week, Niantic CEO John Hanke has announced the launch of the Black Developers Initiative (BDI), as an extension of their existing Beyond Reality Initiative. The Black Developers Initiative will provide special funding for new projects from Black game development teams for the Niantic platform. Teams who are approved for BDI will receive five months of funding to develop a real-world augmented reality game, as well as direct mentorship and development support from the Niantic team themselves.

The Pokémon Company International has revealed their plans for a range of events and activities for this year's Pokémon Day on February 27th, and for the week leading up to the day.

The real test for anyone wanting to catch these Pokémon cards and toys won't just be how far and wide you're willing to travel across the land. In a sad addition to the list of why we can't have nice things, the rollout of these Happy Meals has been marred by reports of scalpers and overzealous adult collectors snapping up all available stock.

Citing guidelines set by the World Health Organization, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and other national health authorities, The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) have announced they will be pushing the 2020 Pokémon World Championships back to 2022. The event will still be hosted in London, UK as originally planned.

It's seemingly taken about four months for anyone outside Japan to really take notice (to be fair, it was 2020), but Ambrella, the Japanese-based developers of a number of Pokémon spin-off titles, was fully merged into Creatures, Inc. on October 16th, 2020.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has reached another price record, the third in only a handful of months, with a complete collection of the original Base Set selling for $666,000 United States Dollars on Goldin Auctions. The set had been professionally graded, and awarded a "PSA GEM-MT 10", or "virtually perfect", condition.

According to several reports in the Japanese media, Kawamatsu Kazuki, a 23 year-old unemployed Japanese man from the Minami ward of Nagoya, was recently arrested under Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act for alledgedly generating and selling hacked Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield, including both shiny Pokémon and Pokémon intended for competitive play. Under Japanese law, it is an offense to offer services to bypass technical limitation measures in software, including modifying the save data of video games.

Joining in on Pokémon's 25th anniversary celebrations, clothing brand Levi's is releasing a special collection inspired by the classic first season of the Pokémon anime.

The Pokémon Company International today announced the launch of Top Deck Academy, a new weekly video series designed to help players of all ages to improve their skills at the Pokémon Training Card Game.

The Pokémon Company International has announced that New Pokémon Snap will launch worldwide on April 30. Digital pre-orders for the game are now available via Nintendo eShop.

The Pokémon GO team have announced two upcoming events for Pokémon GO for mid-January and early February. Hoenn will feature as part of the Countdown to Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto, while Roselia will be the featured Pokémon for February's Community Day.