There’s a Nintendo Direct happening this week. But instead of it being all about Nintendo’s plans for the first half of 2020, it’ll completely focus on Pokémon.
That’s right, on Jan. 9, there will be a roughly 20-minute presentation all about Game Freak’s uber-popular franchise and what’s coming next for the series.
Set to start streaming at 8:30am CT on the official Nintendo YouTube channels across each region and other sources like Twitch, this will likely be a broadcast centered around more content for Sword and Shield, as well as a few surprises. There are several projects that we know are in the works at both Game Freak and Niantic, but we won’t actually know the subject until the stream begins.
The last time we had a dedicated Pokémon Direct like this was in June when we got a lot of information regarding Sword and Shield prior to E3 2019. There’s almost no way Nintendo would announce whatever the next mainline game is and pull the attention away from the recently released titles for longer than necessary, but there are a few other things that could be mentioned.
A sequel to the Detective Pikachu game is in development and we haven’t heard much about dormant side games like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Ranger, or even more obscure titles like Pokémon Conquest in quite some time. Bringing back one of those series for the Nintendo Switch could tide over Pokémon fans until the team is ready to show off whatever comes next.
It’s unlikely that another Let’s Go! game or the rumored Diamond and Pearl remakes will be shown off during this presentation, but there’s always a chance, even if it’s small. It would make the most sense for this presentation to simply focus on Sword and Shield before transitioning over to talk more about Pokémon Home and maybe even Pokémon Sleep.
You can watch the Direct on any of the Nintendo YouTube or Twitch accounts live at 8:30am CT on Jan. 9. And if you can’t catch it live, you can always watch it once it’s posted to those YouTube accounts immediately after the end of the stream.
