The Pokemon community had eyes on Friday after a Detective Pikachu tease earlier in the week promised a surprise today, but unfortunately for those who were looking forward to something perhaps about a sequel to the Detective Pikachu movie or another game in the series, neither of those wishes came true. Instead, the Detective Pikachu preview of things to come amounted to just a merch giveaway and nothing more. What’s worse, the merch drop isn’t even something that many Detective Pikachu fans are going to be able to enjoy since it’s apparently only limited to one region.
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The tease in question came from the Japanese Pokemon account on Twitter which perhaps should’ve been a giveaway that this wasn’t going to be some groundbreaking Detective Pikachu news, but in defense of those who thought it might lead to more than it did, the tweet billed the announcement as “exciting news” timed to celebrate the anniversary of Detective Pikachu Returns. The teaser culminated in a merch giveaway of prizes including a Detective Pikachu plush, a figure featuring the talking Pikachu himself and a Galarian Darmanitan, and a couple of collectible cards.
Not a bad deal for Detective Pikachu fans, but not one that many people are going to get to enjoy anyway. The giveaway is only limited to 100 people who win it through Twitter and is further limited to only Pokemon fans in Japan, though the merch included in this merch sweepstakes thankfully can just be purchased online if you’re big on what’s included below.
The Pokemon Detective Pikachu movie from 2019 released to middling reviews from critics with a slightly higher score from Pokemon fans, but despite a lukewarm reception, people have still been asking for news on a potential Detective Pikachu 2ย to see what a live-action/hybrid sequel could offer. There’s been pretty much no word about that sequel, however, with some of the more recent statements about the idea indicating that there’s very little happening in the way of another Detective Pikachu movie, so that being the result of this tease was always a longshot.
Theย Detective Pikachu Returns game fared even worse with critics and audiences alike when it released last year, so it was unlikely that we’d be getting DLC or anything like that either. So, Pokemon fans probably weren’t too sure what they’d get, but a 100-person merch giveaway limited to one region probably wasn’t the expectation either.
