Pokemon Switch Rumors Heat Up Because of Inadvertent Sharing of Fake Tweet by Pokemon Employees

Pokemon fans, pull out your tin foil hats. It's conspiracy theory time!Last week, someone [...]

Pokemon fans, pull out your tin foil hats. It's conspiracy theory time!

Last week, someone photoshopped an old Pokemon tweet announcing a Pokemon Direct (which usually signals the announcement of a new game) to make it look like there was announcement taking place today, February 26th, 2018. The fake tweet made the rounds on the Internet, even though it was an obvious Photoshop job, because people desperately want to believe that Nintendo is going to announce a Pokemon game for the Nintendo Switch at any moment.

Apparently, the tweet was convincing enough to trick a couple of Pokemon Company employees. Mitsuhiro Arita and Aya Matsui, an illustrator for the Pokemon Company and the head writer of Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon respectively, both retweeted the fake tweet over the weekend. Both later took the tweets down, but the internet has preserved their tweets here and here.

Usually, the revelation that a tweet is (very obviously) fake is enough to stamp out any rumors for at least a couple of days. But now, Pokemon fans are latching onto the retweets by Pokemon Company employees as proof that an announcement is about to happen. The reasoning: both Arita and Matsui probably have some knowledge of what's planned for the Pokemon franchise, so their retweeting of the fake tweet is just proof that they both think that an announcement is coming soon.

Of course, that logic is a reach, even for those who think that we're going to get a Pokemon Switch game this year. While there's plenty of evidence that the Pokemon Company is gearing up for something soon (the anime recently entered a new season and seems to be moving at a quicker pace; and Nintendo has signalled that they hope the Pokemon game comes out this year,) let's not take two people falling for an Internet prank as proof that we're going to get a Pokemon Switch announcement this week.

Pokemon Day is tomorrow, and many Pokemon fans are hoping that something will get announced as part of the celebration. While the Pokemon Company likely has something planned, don't expect any big announcements...even if some Pokemon Company employees were tricked by a bad Photoshop job.

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