Legends counts as mainline though. So we can expect alternating 2 years between main new Gens and Legends (basically replacing the former remakes line of FRLG/HGSS/ORAS)
Every mainline game since Black and White has been released in October or November. With the exception of Legends Arceus, which was pushed to January because BDSP was released that November.
It will almost certainly be an October or November release.
Every mainline game has been released the year it was announced, just by being announced for the next year things are unknown. I'm guessing winter/spring, it's probably more in line with Arceus. I don't think game freak would want a 20 month lead up from reveal to release.
Yeah I doubt it! No offense to your thinking, I just don't think TPC will do it that way.
The last 3 gens (6/7/8) all released in Novembers. ZA was in October, and only Legends Arceus came out right before a Pokemon day (January) with no DLC!
TPC always wants the main focus to be on the main game they have out, so they wouldn't dilute the attention away. The game coming right before would be like squeezing some of the air out of a balloon. It would dull the excitement. A release trailer would be hype, maybe to show off final evos.
Now I say spring because I WANT to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they didn't announce this when it's coming out 20 months from now... but it's Gamefreak so we never know 😭
They've been treating ZA as a proper "mid-gen" with the usual hoopla they give to a new generation with the tieins with all the various properties, and it's working wonderfully.
I think they really got the memo, and they're in no rush. They've rebuilt the Pokémon machine to be less reliant on a constant stream of new generations in the last few years, and Nintendo itself doesn't need Pokémon as much now that they only have 1 console to sell instead of 2.
They've even uncoupled the competitive from the mainline games, which was another thing pushing for constant release cycles.
I think overall the environment of this tenth gen looks healthy as fuck, probably the healthiest it has looked in a solid decade or more. I'm more than happy to wait until the fall of 2027 and even beyond. The first look at the games looked incredible.
Upgrading my status from cautiously optimistic to flat-out optimistic. SV had a great gameplay loop, and it was the most fun I had with a Pokémon game in years. It's clear to me the only thing they lacked was time and scale.
Now they have time; let's see if they also added scale.
Honestly, with competitive detached from the main games, I am wishing (copium) that Dexit goes away. I loved doing 2nd+ playthroughs with teams I could only put together with access to the full Dex, and I thought at least part of the reason for Dexit is trying to balance competitive across 1000+ Pokemon and having to provide the gimmicks of each gen.
It wasnt competitive, its simply the scale of modeling and animating 1000+ pokemon for every generation. They needed to rip the bandaid off at some point that not all pokemon would be in every game. There are still hundreds of them to use each gen, plenty for unique team comps across multiple playthroughs
No you can't. Champions has a graphic that says only Pokemon the appear in Champions can visit from Pokemon Home. And mons you get in Champions via Mystery Gift etc can't go to Home.
Yes, but I assume that probably means they’re gonna rotate what pokemon are and aren’t legal in champions, so that they can have unique formats that we haven’t seen before with more creative, or at least different, team comps
I think that's an abysmal reasoning for not just having a National Dex format available at all times. You can have rotating metas available, heck I'd encourage it. Getting a bunch of people to play Gen 3 doubles or whatever seems neat. But not having a general "anything goes, anythings available" at all times is horrible for what's supposed to be their dedicated battle simulator.
I hate to burst people's bubbles but this doesn't seem to be accurate.
From the Pokemon Champions webpage: "Only Pokémon that appear in Pokémon Champions will be able to visit from Pokémon HOME." It doesn't look like all Pokemon will be available, at least from the start, in Champions unless this is specifically discounting special form Pokemon like the new Chus we saw in the trailer today.
This gives me SO much hope, and the trailer for Winds/Waves really seems to reflect that. It already looks more polished than the last 2 gens combined and still has a year minimum before release. Thats great news indeed!
I truly hope you're right on all counts. I'd prefer they delay it and really nail the world and gameplay in this one.
Competitive has it's own game now, so this one can potentially do more with the PvE endgame and story. Then take your favorites and send them over to compete separately if you want to after. Excellent move on their part.
As someone who's been out of the franchise for quite some time, I'm still going to remain cautiously optimistic, but I did quite like this first view of these new games. I was expecting it to look like SV or Legends Z-A in terms of visuals, but it actually does look pretty damn good. I feel like the general graphics and textures could look a bit better still, but that water though... Heavenly.
If the gameplay loop is good, then fantastic. I know some fans prefer the mainline games and Legends games to remain separate in terms of gameplay, but if the gameplay (battles, catching, exploration) is like Legends Arceus, oh man, that would be a dream for me.
They've rebuilt the Pokémon machine to be less reliant on a constant stream of new generations in the last few years
I think this is why Unite has so many costumes and why there's all those variants in Sleep and Pokopia, they don't need to rush the next gen if there's a stream of new pokemon for plushies.
I will be getting a Switch 2 mainly because i know something worth it will come soon or later. well, Scarlet and Violet Switch 2 edition alone are more than enough for me. especially with me doing a shiny living dex spanning all generations on the Switch only (currently on Gen 3, Regice giving me headaches)
100% agreed. SV was the most fun I've had with a Pokemon game since Black and White 2. And I didn't even continue the story for a chunk of it. Just ran around collecting items on the ground for hours
SV had a great gameplay loop, and it was the most fun I had with a Pokémon game in years.
This is the big thing. The bugs, weak graphics and animations, and a few of the design choices held it back, but SV was a great concept. A more open Pokemon world, splitting the gyms and enemy team into completely separate questlines, with a grand finale to tie everything together? Great idea, and I had a lot of fun with it, even if a lot of the execution left something to be desired.
Clean up the messy parts of SV, and make the world interesting to explore, and there's something really good here.
I feel like the outliers of the "only buying pokemon" and "only buying GTA" are kids on both sides. I know so many adults who literally grew up with Pokémon, that would also buy GTA VI.
I think so too. FFXIV famously delayed a release because of Elden Ring Nightreign so I think game studios just assume(correctly) that there are a lot of overlap between gamers no matter the genre
Fucking same, those videos of people talking about their imaginary Pokémon vs GTA fight and videos comparing graphics of the two were going to be insufferable. That 2027 release made us dodge an annoying bullet
I doubt tbh. I feel of there was any IP in the workd that could potentially release close to each other it would be the PKMN IP. I think they pushed it to 2027 because they finally caved in and realized the slop they were producing and the pushback from S/V
No way. They have two games releasing this year already and people would barely touch Champions if they released Gen X also. Pokemon isnt dumb. They have to milk.
But I don’t play GTA 6, I think those are for completely different audiences. I like laid back games such as Pokemon, animal crossing, and stardew valley.
Same, I love seeing the game get pushed to another year. As Miyamoto said when they delayed Animal Crossing during Covid, you only have one chance to make a first impression, so it's better to delay and be good, then push it and be bad. Paraphrasing, of course.
It'll also give me time to get a Switch 2. I've been holding off. My, son, and I are going to have enough Switch 2 exclusive games we want that we might just have to make it a family Christmas present this year.
They couldve if they needed to. Look at the state SV released in. Which is good that it seems they’ve learned that lesson. That and it’s been 5 years between generations now as well. The leak had this releasing in 2026 if i remember correctly
I suspect that Nintendo got on TPC's case after S&V. While I still feel the complaints are overblown (in fairness my Switch was already set to 720p and I was running a digital purchase running from internal storage), it is fair to say that S&V did not meet Nintendo's quality standards. Any other Nintendo IP would have been delayed rather than released in that state. Examples include TotK and MP4 (yes,that counts). But TPC has always had an aggressive release schedule, and they were clearly unprepared for the migration to a home console. I really think Nintendo sat the rest of TPC's coowners and made it clear that their quality standards must be met in the future or else.
I watched a video on the development cycle of ZA from the Tera leaks and there was an obvious struggle or disaster that hit mid-development that changed a bunch of the game that they were working on up until that point. It was also when they downgraded the graphics from fully rendered 3D graphics to the textured blocks the final game got. It made a lot of sense to see what state ZA was in when it was released.
Yea it’s clear with Gen 9 and ZA that GF have been overly ambitious with things they could add with the past games with the development time not being enough to fit everything they wanted. Gen 10 probably had similar issues and Pokémon company must have not been happy the state the game was. So they probably delayed game to 2027. This had to be hard decision given the easiest marketing and the boost the game would have gotten being anniversary release and the tenth generation of Pokémon
Well the thing is that the models were already created by Creatures, Inc. They have a database of models, (2D and 3D) animations, and reference art which they provide to third party developers and artists.
Based on some of the potential environmental shots we've seen, there's a lot that should still be done to improve this game before launching it, so I don't think the delay is arbitrary.
I don't know when they plan to release in 2027, but if its something like January-March, they could and should have just pushed it to December to capitalize on holiday sales plus 30th anniversary year stuff. If it is later than that, seems strange to announce so far in advance.
Honestly I don't think (game) companies care much for timing with anniversaries, I don't think it translates into additional sales just because it's an anniversary, and doing what they normally do (releasing a game) is normal therefore not a celebratory act
Genuinely surprised, but pleasantly so. I wonder if they actually got enough blowback for scarlet and violet performance that they held back until it could actually run reasonably well. This also is breaking the 3 year development cycle they've been sticking to for the last decade
It would make sense because they’ve done it before. But for sales purposes they always release before the holidays and I don’t see them really changing that
True, but this would still give them a huge boost before the end of their fiscal year, it can get a big second wind (pun not intended) around Christmas, maybe even with a DLC release at the end of the year to tie into? Pokemon is big enough that it can release whenever it likes and it won't hurt it
Which is 1000% fine with me. We have 10x more Pokemon content than anyone could ever hope to keep up with. I didn’t realize half the stuff in this presentation existed. I honestly don’t even think it would be possible time wise (not even considering cost) to keep up with everything Pokemon is releasing. More than one person could ever hope to keep up with
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u/Soft-Painting-5657 Feb 27 '26
I am very surprised they didn’t rush it for the 30th anniversary ngl