We already know that Pokemon 8 is due out this year. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have both reiterated this multiple times. However, the announcement may be coming as early as next week, according to a leaker who has a history of leaking Nintendo related things mostly accurately.

NintendoSoup points out that Twitter user @muguwus, who previously managed to leak the entire contents of the Nintendo Direct broadcast last week with almost total accuracy (see images below to see their tweets that did so), has now taken to pointing out that a Pokemon announcement is coming “soon”.

So why next week? Next week is “Pokemon Day”, the colloquial name used for February 27, which marks the release of Pokemon Red and Green in Japan in 1996. The Pokemon Company has used the day to make new announcements previously—Pokemon Sun and Moon were originally announced on this day, for example. Thus, there is the expectation that Pokemon 8 might be announced next week, too.

If it is, it would only serve to add to the already ridiculously swollen Nintendo Switch lineup for 2019–but in the end, nothing has the power that Pokemon does, so I think even with everything else, we all could do with our first look at the first mainline console games in the Pokemon franchise.

https://twitter.com/muguwus/status/1098097825768980480

At this point, there is probably no Nintendo Switch exclusive anticipated more than Pokemon 8, which is due to launch later this year. A lot of people are simply excited to see what the first true mainline Pokemon game for a home console will look like.

You would expect that, given their experience working around the hardware limits of the much weaker and more constrained Nintendo 3DS, Game Freak would know how to work with the Switch with ease, particularly given its developer friendly design. However, speaking to Japanese outlet Dime, The Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara admitted that development for Nintendo’s hybrid had been harder than the developers had expected.

He specifically pointed out having to make a game in HD, as well as one that is cognizant of the Switch’s multiple use cases (that is, portable and console modes alike) resulted in unique challenges. To be fair, I can see the problem here—but I hope that Game Freak got their training wheels experience with the just released (and very good) Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, and that Pokemon 8 will be technically ambitious and impressive as a result.

For now, we have no other information on the upcoming game. However, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company should take the wraps off of it in the coming months, so we’ll know what we are looking at soon enough.

Nintendo usually doesn’t like to announce games that are too far off. Presumably, the debacles surrounding The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, which were both announced years before they eventually released, have taught them to be more cautious, and the company chooses to only announce games that are releasing in the near future now.

Nevertheless, it seems like Nintendo does break that rule every now and then. For instance, last year, Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon 8 at E3, and neither game is out yet (and won’t be until next year). So how, then, does the company choose when to announce a game? Is there a hard and fast rule? Or is it on a case by case basis?

Well, the answer is both, according to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. Speaking to IGN in an interview, he said that while Nintendo usually likes to announce games that are near release, they do realize that some cases merit an earlier announcement, and are willing to do that in those situations.

“Broadly speaking, we like to talk about games that are closer. Typically, for example, at E3, we’ll focus on content maybe extending into the first or second calendar quarter following E3. That is typically our horizon,” he said. “We believe that works because it’s close enough that the fans can be excited and look forward to it. And when we do have an exception and do something different, we’re doing it for very specific reasons.

“Maybe we have two experiences within a particular franchise, and we know that one might be maybe a nontraditional representation of that franchise. Or maybe then it’s important for us to frame that the more traditional visualization of that franchise is coming. ‘Fans, don’t worry, but here’s something different to tide you over in the meantime.’ So that’s how we think about it, and how we approach our consumer communication. We want to be near-end. We want to deliver news when it’s most meaningful. We don’t want to be so far out that the consumer either loses interest, or worse, gets frustrated.”

It’s clear that the backlash to Metroid Prime Federation Force, the first Metroid game announced in years at the time, and a very clear departure from what the series was about, with no proper Metroid game in sight for the future, really shook Nintendo, and the company realizes the value of reassuring fans where necessary as a result. Now if only some other companies would learn that lesson…

Pokemon is finally getting an HD home console game this year with Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! That said, what we’re getting is probably very different from what people imagined they would get. People have always wanted a Pokemon home console game to get an ambitious title with a broader scope than the handheld games, where Let’s Go seems to be a bit more constrained in what it is doing, even relative to the 3DS games.

For those Pokemon fans who were hoping for a game along the lines of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a full open world reinvention of its series, Let’s Go is probably a disappointment. But with that said, it could still happen. Speaking to Eurogamer, Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda said that a more open game like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey could still end up happening.

“Well you know in general, I always want to be kind of facing new challenges and trying to you know, do new things with Pokémon. You know it’s a different matter whether players will actually enjoy that kind of playstyle, but really you know, things like setting up an AI so that you know real world Pokémon appear, or different ways to appreciate the game, I’m always kind of thinking how to approach the Pokémon series from a different aspect so, in that sense, it’s still on the cards,” he said.

I can hope here that Pokemon 8, which is currently slated to hit Nintendo Switch later next year, ends up being a game that has that kind of ambition. But at the same time, I’m not sure if I want to set myself up for that kind of expectation, followed by crushing disappointment. So I’ll just assume it won’t happen.

Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! launch on Nintendo Switch on November 16. If you want to learn more about them, make sure to check out the recent story that reveals the “Master Trainers” that will show up in the post-game.

With the true Pokemon 8 that people have been waiting for since its announcement last year due out next year, this year’s Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! should have just been a nice filler game, a comfy throwback to the series’ early days, and an attempt at simplifying the admittedly bloated nature of the recent games.

However, it’s been met with a lot of pushback from fans— an almost surprising amount. And most of the skepticism and fan outcry is over one decision, which probably epitomizes what they feel is wrong with the new game better than anything else— the decision to remove wild Pokemon battles, a mainstay of the series, and replace them with a Pokemon GO style catching mini game.

Speaking to Polygon, director Junichi Masada spoke about the team wanting to do something new and different, and the resistance that the idea faced, even internally.

“What I mean by that being like a challenge, because we’re a business now with Pokémon being so huge, being able to just rewind is difficult, because a lot of the people who are now on the team, they also grew up with Pokémon,” he said. “They have an idea of what Pokémon is supposed to be. They’ve played these games, they’ve enjoyed them themselves. Just taking for example, on Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, even the idea of getting rid of wild Pokémon battles and trying something different was obviously met with a lot of resistance at first.

“People were just like, “No. Of course. It’s Pokémon, there’s wild battles. That’s how it is.” There’s a lot of these unspoken rules that people feel [can’t change], but at the same time at Game Freak, we always want to be open to trying new things. If someone has a good idea or wants to try something out, we want to be able to actually do that. That’s just always a challenge that comes up with each project, just making sure that we don’t take anything for granted.

“It’s always just, “What do we want to do with this project? What do we want to try out this time?” We really just discuss it with the team and game and find out what the best direction is for that game. One thing I’m always saying at the beginning of a project, you’re always telling the team is when you’re making a new Pokémon, don’t make Pokémon from Pokémon. Make Pokémon from scratch. What would you do if it wasn’t a Pokémon game? How would you make the game? Always be in that mindset, is what I’m always trying to tell the team.”

For a series as formulaic as Pokemon, I can’t begrudge the team trying to do something different, if nothing else. That said, I’m not sure if different is necessarily for the better in this case. Pokemon Let’s Go looks like a cute game, and I am sure to enjoy it for what it is when it comes out later this year; but I sincerely hope that when Pokemon 8 launches next year, there are very few cues that it ends up taking from it.

Though Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are launching this year for the Switch, the true Pokemon RPG for the system, which was announced all the way back last year, is going to be launching next year. And it looks like with development on Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! mostly complete, Game Freak is now ramping up development on next year’s game.

Job listings on the Game Freak website for positions starting next month have been posted for a Planner and a Motion Designer, with the job descriptions also specifying “planning and creating specifications for a new RPG (consumer game) development project” and “experience with creating highly strategic game systems”. It’s pretty obvious what they are talking about- and given the position is for starting September, I think we can assume development on the next game is in a state of ramp-up now.

Little else is known about Pokemon 8, except that it will be more like the handheld games, and that it will be aimed at long time fans of the series. It is due out in late 2019.

The one thing that Game Freak and The Pokemon Company have been very clear about when it comes to next year’s Pokemon game, widely assumed to be a new generation, is that it will be more like the traditional handheld Pokemon games that fans have come to know and love, and less like Pokemon GO or its Switch brethren, Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! which are due out in November this year.

Speaking with Famitsu in an interview, Game Freak’s Junichu Masuda, who has directed multiple Pokemon games, including the upcoming Let’s Go games, has reiterated that the 2019 game will be a lot like handheld games. According to Nintendo Everything’s translation, Masuda said, “As for the 2019 title, we’re working with the idea that everyone will be playing on their own Switch. It’ll have the same kind of feeling as the previous games on handheld systems.”

Which is good to hear. He also hinted that Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! which, going by everything we know until now, lack any connectivity with any Pokemon game other than Pokemon GO, may be forward compatible. “There have been times where you couldn’t bring Pokemon over from previous titles – I imagine that created some bad memories. I want to try and change that, if I can,” he said.

Now, this at least makes sense- Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! mark the debut of a brand new Pokemon, presumably the first Gen 8 Pokemon- so it makes sense that they will have to have some kind of connectivity with future games. I can only hope that the connectivity is total and full, so that I can send forth my lovely Pikachu to join me on my journey through whatever new land Pokemon 2019 will take us to.

Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! launch on Nintendo Switch exclusively, on November 16 this year.