Will We Ever Get an Official Pokemon Fan Convention?

By Christian Hoffer

The Pokemon franchise continues to grow and many fans are wondering if a large convention similar to Star Wars Celebration or BlizzCon is on the horizon. The Pokemon World Championships just took place over in London this weekend, bringing together thousands of Pokemon fans for the first time in three years. While the Pokemon World Championships featured exclusive events such as the premiere of Pokemon: The Arceus Chronicles and the debut of the new Pokemon Cyclizar, its focus was mostly on hosting the world championship tournaments for various Pokemon games. 

While the Pokemon World Championships is a compelling event to attend, even for casual Pokemon fans, it's not necessarily geared towards people who are "just" fans of the franchise. So, ComicBook.com asked The Pokemon Company International's EU Director of Marketing whether an even larger fan-focused convention was in the works. "It's something we've always been considering," Murphy said. "And it's an ongoing conversation internally. What's been interesting about this World Championships in particular is it feels like it's the closest we've been to a slightly broader event, which is really appealing to a wider range of Pokémon fans.  So I think after this event, there'll be a lot of discussions internally as to where do we go next." 

In the meantime, The Pokemon Company will continue to use the Pokemon World Championships as a way to highlight competitive Pokemon play, while looking for spots where it can expand to appeal to more casual fans. "It's a process of evolution," Murphy told ComicBook.com when asked about the balance between crafting a competitive event with an event that attracts the wider fanbase. "The World Championships is at its core a competition. And it was invite only for those folks that have been actively participating in our organized play program and progressing through the season to become the key players that would come to a World Championships finals." 

"What we've been doing in recent years, and this year is by far the best example of it to date, is expanding beyond that core of the competition," Murphy continued. "We're trying to add in many more activities that the more casual Pokémon fan can enjoy. We had the Worlds Square outside, which is really aimed at kids and families, not necessarily participators in the competition. Kids could come along and enjoy and do the face painting, print their own unique trading card, customized bandanas, free water bottles, free cookies, and bubble tea, and things like that." So that's all really us, putting some effort to give something back to the fans. We enjoy what Pokemon is and what it stands for. But really, our ambitions is to do more and more of that and just have many more things which are just for the casual fan who is not necessarily participating in the competition."

When asked if there was a specific area The Pokemon Company was looking to grow, Murphy said that they were looking to grow in multiple directions as once. "We talked earlier on about trying to make it more accessible to a wider range at Pokemon fans, I think that's a clear area," Murphy said. "But as a brand and as a property, we're just growing, developing in all sorts of different directions at once. For this Worlds in particular, we had our first ever exclusive premiere of an animated special, which is going to air on Netflix from September 23rd. And that's something we haven't really done in Worlds before. So all of a sudden, animation has become a whole new pillar to the Pokemon World Championships. That's just one example of how we can really move this in any direction we like. And I think that's definitely one of the most exciting things to come out of this London event. I'm looking forward to being able to go back to HQ and have those discussions about what else can we do. It feels like we can almost add anything to Worlds, and it would be really well received by all our amazing fans." 

It seems like a Pokemon fan-focused convention is a serious possibility. In the meantime, players should start making plans to visit Yokohama, Japan for the 2023 Pokemon World Championships.

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