Pokémon Super Bowl 50 Ad: A 'Pokémon GO' and 'Pokémon Z' Release Date Signal? Or Is It Only for 'Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow'?

Jan 29, 2016 06:44 PM EST

The Super Bowl ad had to have cost millions, and this isn't just about the advertising space during the big game, which everyone knows is in the millions per minute.  Thanks to the power of the Internet, a lot of the Super Bowl advertisements have already been seen by millions already, and Pokémon is one of them.  It is possible that the ad that is being shown online may not be the one that is being shown during Super Bowl 50, and that at the end of the February 7th ad could be an announcement of Pokémon Z or Pokémon GO

The Super Bowl ad can be seen in all of its glory here, and has been praised on many web sites as top quality.  The ad itself is very big budget, and it has some very great effects at the end where a boy faces off with some Pokémon like Charizard, magneton, Gyarados, and Mega Lucario. 

Even though this advertisement is meant to celebrate the franchise's 20th birthday, there is no way the Pokémon or any other company would shell out this much money without advertising some kind of product.  According to the Huffington Post, the Pokémon franchise has sold 275 million video games and 21.5 billion trading cards worldwide, but the company really needs to offer something new.  So far, the only thing that is coming that is new would be Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow for the 3DS on February 27, 2016.

Fans know that there is another product coming, which would be Pokémon GO.  This would be a Pokémon journey into the mobile world of iOS and Android games, and it would allow the players to wander around in real-life locations, looking for Pokémon to train and capture.  The technology of this location-based game comes from Niantic, makers of the hit location-based game Ingress. 

Another game that Pokémon fans want to see is Pokémon Z.  Unlike Pokémon GO, there has been no official announcement of this game from the company, or even that it is under development.  Most of the hints of its development come from a new Pokémon named Zygarde, hence the "Z" title.  Also, the game is a follow-up to the immensely popular Pokémon X and Y

Is it possible that Pokémon deliberately leaked this ad, but are planning to show a different one during Super Bowl 50?  The current ad is over one minute, and the reports are that it will be cut down to about 30 seconds when it finally airs.  Perhaps the "Train On" at the end will be replaced with a release date for Pokémon GO.  How had would it be to edit that?

That certainly makes sense, doesn't it?  Otherwise, you have a Super Bowl ad that celebrates Pokémon in general, and perhaps this can create enough hype to eventually give a release date for Pokémon GO and/or Pokémon Z if the company is not ready to give a proper release date that the fans desperately want to hear.