Pokemon Super Bowl Commercial Was a Missed Opportunity [Video]

Don't get me wrong, I loved everything about the Pokemon commercial shown during the Super Bowl, but I'm pretty sure the franchise just passed up their best opportunity to announce Pokemon Go!.

When I first saw the Super Bowl commercial on YouTube a few days prior to the big game, I got chills. When I saw the football team in the commercial hit the "Like No One Ever Was" slogan as they left the locker room, I could hear the original Pokemon theme song in my head. I love football, but I really watched this year's Super Bowl for the Pokemon commercial. "Pokemon is a phase; you'll grow out of it in a few years," my father told 8-year-old me. Sorry, Dad. You lost that battle.

That said, many people speculated that the commercial that actually aired during the Super Bowl would contain an extra bit at the end, announcing a release date for Pokemon Go!, an augmented reality game where you can use an app on your phone to discover and catch Pokemon in the real world (and promptly end my time as a responsible, functioning adult). It kinda made sense: Pokemon Go! is scheduled for release sometime in 2016, and if you're going to pay well over a million dollars for a 30-second commercial, why not throw in an epic announcement, too? Even the music at the end of the commercial cuts off suddenly enough that one could suspect there would be more to the commercial than what was originally posted to YouTube.

There wasn't.

Pokemon, you're awesome. But you definitely could've announced Pokemon Go! at the end of your ad, or at least mentioned something about the 3DS re-release of Red, Blue, and Yellow. Now, I'm sure the Pokemon franchise will have no trouble making a commercial or promotional material that will officially announce a release date for Go!, but there were over 100 million people watching the Super Bowl. A separate announcement for Pokemon Go! won't reach nearly as many people as quickly as that commercial did.

Maybe the game isn't done yet, and Pokemon Corporate doesn't want to get fans' hopes up. Maybe they felt they'd shelled out too much money already for the commercial and didn't want to pay for an extra 3 seconds.

Deciding to not focus on a particular Pokemon game for the commercial and focusing on training as a whole is admirable, but I still think this commercial was a missed opportunity.

You can watch the Super Bowl commercial and a trailer for Pokemon Go! (which will maybe someday be released) below.