Pokémon Scarlet and Violet getting two-part expansion in 2023

Pokémon Scarlet and VioletThe company will be able to expand fully. Area Zero: The Secret Treasure, The Pokémon Company announced during today’s Pokémon Presents livestream. Hold your Rapidashes, though: It’s not coming out until later in the year.

The DLC will be broken into two sections: The Teal Mask is planned to release fall 2023 on Nintendo Switch and the Indigo disk, which is planned for winter 2023.

Pokémon games have always been exercises in iteration. Pokémon Red BlueThey were then followed by Pokémon Yellow; Pokémon Gold SilverThey were then followed by Pokémon Crystal. In other words, the idea of iterating became a sequel to its original form (see: Pokémon Ultra Sun Ultra Moon, Pokémon Black 2 White 2). For 2019’s Pokémon Sword Shield — the first mainline games to release on Nintendo Switch — developer GameFreak did away with the idea of subsequent entries, instead opting to support the game with a duo of expansions: The Isle of Armor Crown Tundra.

Both The Isle of Armor Crown TundraThey were magnets to the kind of controversy that seems minor, but ends up becoming a whole thing. Pokémon Sword Shield did not launch with every Pokémon in the Pokédex; each expansion expanded the game’s Pokédex by quite a bit, leaving a pay-to-win aftertaste for many fans.

Pokémon Scarlet Violet similarly did not launch with every Pokémon, featuring a scant 400 at its November 2022 launch. Today’s cinematic trailer showed off two new Pokémon — presumably legendaries, neither of whom were named — but did not showcase any notable legacy additions to Scarlet Violet’s Pokédex.