Pokémon Switch Hinted for 2018 Release

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A Nintendo of Europe survey posted on Reddit asks what games you’re likely to buy in the next 12 months. The last entry lists the Pokémon RPG for the Nintendo Switch! This is more evidence that Game Freak is indeed looking to launch Generation VIII before the year’s end and also that Nintendo is taking stock of player interest for the title.

The caveat here is that this is not an official release date by any means and could be subject to change. However, it is telling that Nintendo is willing to list it alongside other titles launching in 2018!

Is this sooner than you had anticipated? Do you have a Nintendo Switch yet or are you planning to buy one when the next Pokémon game launches?

Via: My Nintendo News

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666 thoughts on “Pokémon Switch Hinted for 2018 Release”

  4. Ferroose (open to suggestions)
    Big Horn Pkm
    Steel/Ice
    Stamina/Sturdy HA: Intimidate

    HP: 140
    Atk: 50
    Def: 120
    SpAtk: 45
    SpDef: 110
    Speed: 30

    A massive stocky built caribou Pokémon with a rusty brown body, a thick body and massive sturdy hooves and a bulbous nose with a long beard. It’s most prominent feature is the impressive rack of antlers atop its head, a metallic white material with numerous spikes.

    Fury Attack
    Stomp
    Stockpile
    Swallow
    Scary Face
    Ice Shard
    Horn Attack
    Iron Defense
    Icicle Spear
    Smart Strike
    Hail
    Metal Sound
    Automize
    Avalanche
    Heavy Slam
    Metal Burst

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  5. I coloured all of my fakemon designs I did lately. Any thoughts? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/519264f769dbc97beb50fefabb4b37e66053c618240d28b8654e4dd64ec87f12.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/055867e6a11d15c19daec184caaae82f001d0e5dd6139a265219a5983fab6324.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/354ff563ec1e259c9c336f26d7211df91ba05c6bf7f254b910ba43c65c847539.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/feb223438550c69cc63d7409a0721a6f4c19b379f913bb5f2e89c2f1fb67e6af.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15dbc17c7f278c537140058a2ce3075ce60198c6085d9cc84f0b5628539fa8e2.jpg

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  6. I’d easily place the upcoming Pokemon game as a Late 2018 to Early 2019 title. GameFreak should take as much time as they need to deliver a proper title.

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  7. Fun fact: One of Vegeta’s alternate colors for DBFZ is the coloring he had when he was first revealed in DBZ. The brown/orange/dark blue coloring I mean.
    Second fun fact: apparently those colors were chosen because Toei didn’t know he should have had the white and blue with black hair. Toriyama had to go to them after it aired and toll them that they got the colors wrong. That’s why once him and Nappa made it to earth he was in the traditional colors

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  9. I have a head canon that the reason Pokemon player characters can know what their opponents are going to throw out next is because they have a 6th sense type of ability. An ability that is only known to be born in a child once in a while. Not everyone can obtain this ability. Thus why you’re character is the only one in each game that can see what’ll happen next.

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      • I could work around that. The cups contain the life energy of pokemon Brawlyanoy defeated, maybe I could make it so if you drink the water from it you’ll get stronger.

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    • Looks like it goes

      -Odd beaked long legged rat
      -Jeraboa
      -Giant fluffy cappybara carrying a cup in its tail

      I’d say fix the mouth to look more like a Muzzle in Volake. Also change the first two’s feet to be smaller so it doesn’t look like a Jeraboa as much. Fix up Acuap’s tail to look less like the piece of a misshapen toy on it. Probably change it to Water/Fighting second stage and have it hold the cup in its tail like the last stage and give it something along the lines of boxing gloves or fists. Make Brawlyanoy Bipedial and or have it stand up at least and make it as if it can be both. Probably make it a bit less shaggy unless your going for a Samurott style which probably make the hair more in sync instead of all over the place. It’s arms should be burlier and more like a Fighting type. Maybe have the cup become part of its tail? Idk just looks kinda odd and sort of like a vine holding it

      So again not your best, but not your worst idea or the worst thing I’ve seen

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  13. A little bit disappointed and concerned about this news. I don’t want the game(s) to be a rushed product just so they can have a major seller for this year’s Christmas rush. Because from what it sounded like at E3 last year, Game Freak was just beginning to start the project. Unless the Pokemon Company President didn’t want to make people assume that it would be out last year. For all we know, Game Freak could of been given development kits as early as 2015 and started the project or drafted concepts for it in 2016. At least that’s what I hope.

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        • But now they have decent experience in making HD 3d models. The jump from gen 7 to gen 8 won’t be as big as the jump from gen 5 to 6. They have the technological know how now so it’s less of an issue.

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          • Not necessarily. It’s been found that the Pokemon models are all compressed hd models for the most part with very high polygon count. That’s actually part of the reason the 3ds games were so wonky in the battles when entering double battles or doing something special like Z moves. They are too high res for the 3ds to properly use. They may make some modifications to them tho so I’ll give you that. That said I’d say the models we see in SM/USUM will likely be the same more or less as the ones we see in whatever the next game is

          • No. They’re using the 3D Pokémon models they already have with new textures and shading and possibly new animations. Those models are future proofed as hell and that contributes to why the 3DS games run poorly when more pressure is applied to it.

    • I’m not sure where you get that they just started the game when they announced it existed. GF always starts their new project almost immediately after they finish older ones. So the latest they’d have started on this would be towards the end of 2016. That said I think they’ve been working on this for much longer than people think they have. The idea that it’s being rushed is a little silly. I don’t think they’d rush something like this. I believe that they got the Switch dev kits right form the get go and that they’ve been working o the Switch game from the beginning in the background. Sure gen 7 might have been their main focus for much of the last few years, but the Switch game has probably been on their minds for almost the same amount of time too. GF are typically on the ground floor with Nintendo and considering this is their first main console game I don’t think Nintendo would leave them with no info on it until it got launched. That’d be irresponsible considering the Switch is the only console they could possibly go to after gen 7 ends.

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      • It’s just from what I’ve read in news articles such as Masuda in 2016 saying they’d wait to see when the Switch is released to see if Pokemon can benefit from it, and the Pokemon Company President’s wording of his statement at E3 2017. Maybe they’re just being super secret about their project. I don’t know. But I just hope that the Switch game(s) will be the best that it can be.

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        • I’d imagine that was all PR talk. Of course they weren’t going to say anything. Especially the Masuda part. At that point I think it was before e3 so they hadn’t even announced it yet in any capacity. He wouldn’t have wanted to spill the beans then anyway. Also some people may use the argument of Ishihara once saying he didn’t think the Switch would be a success, but his opinion doesn’t really matter all that much. He’s in charge of TPC not GF. He might not have thought it would be successful, but GF higher ups may have thought otherwise. Also again it doesn’t really matter what either of them thought about the Switch. It’s not like they’d have any other console to make the Pokemon game son. I highly doubt they would have ever put a 3rd gen on the 3ds. In the end it could happen this year or next, but I doubt we’ll get to the fall of 2019. There’s just not enough for them to stretch to get there. I’d say an early 2019 release would be fine. Whether that mean winter or spring. Either is good.

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    • Here’s my take:
      Reportedly they began developing “stars” for the Switch toward the later half of 2016. A reliable source had been sure about that. However, it must have been scrapped not long after Nov 2016. Gamefreak was then divided, as we know, with the less experienced team being sent to develop the mistake USUM.

      So what was the rest of Gamefreak doing? They probably began immediate conceptualization of a new generation on the Switch rather than just a SM port that Stars was supposed to be. We also know they were hiring new developers who were familiar with Switch software. This was reported I think as early as March 2017, maybe even earlier. So it’s possible that around that time (mid 2017) that they began actually developing the game and updating 3D models and stuff. If Gen 8 really is going to come out this year, that puts the game at maybe a year to a year and a half of being in development

      Personally, that seems rather tight to me..there’s got to be a lot of work put into just updating sprites and character models for this new, more powerful console. But we also don’t know how much actual work they put into Stars, provided it was even real to begin with.

      Now DON’T take this as fact. This is simply me trying to piece together the several rumors /facts that we’ve had over the past year.

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  14. and speaking on the subject of water, i learnt something interesting today

    Mooses are apparently very capable swimmers, so much that even calves swim with ease

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  15. XY: Revealed January, released October
    SM: Revealed February, released February
    Switch:???

    Zeraora still hasn’t been revealed and revealing a Gen 7 mon after a new Gen isn’t the best marketing, it’ll probably be the February CoroCoro reveal because February usually has big movie news

    As Butters said the 22nd anniversary is in March

    E3 is only 3 months later (compared to the 4 months between SuMo and E3 and 5 between XY and E3) and E3 is where we got our first large info dumps on SuMo outside of starters, legendaries, and the Japanese reveals of Komala and Rockruff.

    XY and SuMo reveal to release was 9 months

    Hence I think it’s going to be a March reveal, and we’ll get starters revealed before a drought leading up to E3. If there’s a new type or gimmick it might be hyped for E3 but I doubt it since Alolans, Z-Moves and Megas were revealed outwith E3. We might get a Sylveon style mystery where they leave a mons details vague as a surprise.

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    • I’ve already revealed the starters in an earlier article tho?

      grass/electric scarecrow
      water/ice japanese water dragon
      fire/fairy unicorn

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    • Given the rumors plus the prediction from that analyst I’d March is a pretty good bet. I could see them revealing Zeraora next month and then a March reveal for the new game. Also according to my source on Twitter that I have no reason to doubt they apparently are gearing up for something big. They said it could just be Zeraora, but it may also very well be a gen 8 Pokemon. Only time will tell, but I’m certain that next month we’ll get something and that’ll give us a better idea of what’s to come.

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  18. Ok I’m really tired of hearing people act like this game could possibly come out this year and not be an unfinished rushed mess so here’s so quotes for y’all

    Sources below

    “The Pokémon series has transitioned between platforms before, perhaps, most significantly, between the single-screen Game Boy family of systems to the dual-screen Nintendo DS. But, with Nintendo Switch, that transition perhaps isn’t as straightforward.” – Junichi Masuda

    “I told Nintendo that Switch wouldn’t be a success before it went on sale because I thought that, in the age of the smartphone, no one would carry around a game console. It’s obvious I was wrong.” – Tsunekazu Ishihara, Pokemon Company CEO (also wow what the hell is wrong with you. Your whole company exists because of handheld gaming)

    “Gamefreak has begun developing a core RPG Pokemon title on Nintendo Switch” – Tsunekazu Ishihara

    ““Pokemon has been about being portable, but now there is the Switch, which is a portable home console, so it has a bigger screen and higher specs than we’re used to,” Ishihara said, as translated by NeoGAF user StreetsAhead. “Apart from main games, we make stuff like Pokkén [Tournament] and [Pokémon Mystery] Dungeon, so I am thinking we should make games that suit the Switch, but at this time I cannot confirm any projects.”

    On top of this, you have to consider that it takes a LONG time to develop Pokemon games.
    Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire : November 21, 2002
    Pokemon Diamond and Peal: September 28, 2006

    Now consider that Nintendo has only started giving out Switch dev kits around August of 2015
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-10-16-nintendo-now-handing-out-nx-console-developer-kits-report

    Going off the fact that The Pokemon Company and Game Freak have only been looking into the switch since around its reveal and reaction, they have to be early or half way AT THE MOST into development. new gens take around 3 years to develop so Spring 2019 is the best bet.

    Sources:

    http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/09/06/the-pokemon-company-ceo-thought-switch-would-fail-hints-at-pokemon-switch-ideas

    https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/24/14729774/pokemon-nintendo-switch

    https://www.nintendo-insider.com/junichi-masuda-talks-about-the-future-for-pokemon-on-nintendo-switch/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oA4bpmbbaI

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    • It was also 4 years between gens 4 and 5. And the graphical leap wasn’t even that big from Gameboy to DS. Think how much more work they have to put in based on the power of the switch compared to the power of the 3DS. Granted gen 3 to 4 made a huge change to the entire series with the physical/special split, but I still think that pales in comparison to what they are facing now.

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          • I know. My issue is I don’t have the money to buy what I know will be the inferior version in not too long. I already regret buying a WiiU. I’m really quite poor.

          • The Wii U was garbage. Regardless of whether the Switch gets a “better” version I’d say you should still save up for one. It’s such a great system. League better than the Wii U. You won’t be disappointed I can tell you that

          • Well I mean at least start saving up. You don’t need to spend it super quickly. Start slowly saving and maybe when once you have enough they’ll announce a new version or at least a discounted normal version.

          • I guess if they have a super good bundle I’ll consider it. Saving is hard when I don’t have much coming in and most if not all goes on bills.

          • To piggyback on this thread: the only reason I own a Wii U currently is for backwards compatibility with Wii games. But honestly Nintendo is making me wanna double-dip for all the Wii U ports, but I need a job for that haha

    • Idk why you’re letting this bother you so much. Having a healthy debate is one thing, but at some point you just gotta stop and agree to disagree. We’ll eventually see what happens. You have your “proof” and other people have their “proof”. It’s not something to get all angry about. We could argue on for hours, but at the end of the day we just don’t know right now. The people at GF and TPC say stuff all the time and sometime they use words and phrases that are relatively ambiguous. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes that’s just how it is. Using PR statements is an argument for and against in my opinion. On one hand they may very well be stating the truth and specifics. On the other hand they may just eb saying some stuff when in fact they’re really just trying to hide the truth as they aren’t ready to announce anything yet. It’s hard to say for sure, but taking anything they say at face value is a dangerous game to play.

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      • I think your right

        Probably best if I sign off for the nght and clear my head and try to stop being such an a$$hole to Star (I feel the two of us have been at ends for a while because I defend myself too much over the dumbest sh*t)

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      • WHAT PROOF IS THERE???

        This is literally from Game Freak. This is what we know. There is no sense arguing with what they are saying.

        It isn’t PR statements either. There isn’t a reason for them to say it isn’t coming soon if it is. They want money and they want hype.

        Can we stop being so naive and just understand that based on everything we know that it’s most likely isn’t coming this year

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        • I’m just not convinced they could develop it so fast without seriously cutting corners; something like keeping models from USUM instead of updating them, making it look more like a continuation of gen 7 rather something new and game changing for the franchise. THAT would be a f*cking nightmare.

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        • There is no proof one way or the other that’s why I put it in quotes. You literally just told me down below that it was a “fact” that the game isn’t coming out this year so you’re contradicting yourself. Stop acting like your opinion is solely the “right” one. I’d say we should stop here. I’d prefer not to argue with you anymore. It’s not good for either of us and we are fighting over something that has no real info out there anyway. It’s best to just wait and see.

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          • What the f*ck do you mean no proof. I made an entire fucking post full of proof.

            If you knew the tiniest bit about game dev you would know that it takes a long fucking time to make a game especially when you have a relatively small team working on unfamiliar hardware

            Oh and what do you know, they’re hiring for a new project.

            This isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of looking at what we know and understanding that there probably won’t be a game this year. That’s what it’s looking like

          • I think the whole point here is that why does it matter if some people think it’s coming out this year. It doesn’t hurt you if it does or doesn’t, let people speculate and have fun. And if it doesn’t come this year then those people will just have to get over it. It really isn’t something to get so bent out of shape about.

          • Because it’s ridiculous to think that? Like does it matter? No, but it drives me crazy that people just want to ignore the fact that if it released this year it would be rushed and terrible

          • I just don’t see the need to get so bent out of shape about it, to the point of literally having to find sources to quiet people down about something they’re looking forward to. It just seems like a crazy power trip to me.

          • Because I’m tired of hearing people continue to say it’s happening this year. It’s ridiculous. Yet people still try to argue with it so ya know I don’t know why I bothered

          • Ok first of all I’ve been saying this entire time that I think they’ve been developing the game for a while now and I’ve even said that regardless of when the game comes out. Second using quotes of them saying that they have started making the game is not proof towards your argument. The quote from Ishihara can be taken as both past and present. If you take it literally at face value then he’s literally saying that they waited until that very moment and then started working on the game.As if they timed it up perfectly. He doesn’t need to specifically say when they started making the game for ti to have begun production. Hardware is only unfamiliar until you start working on it. By your logic they’ll still be unfamiliar with it by the end of 2019 since they only made on game on it. Anyway……I’m tired of arguing. We should just agree to disagree and move on…..

          • There’s nothing to disagree on. Look at what they said. Look at the timeline of things. The earliest they could’ve started working in it was 2016 most likely after Sun and Moon went gold. That’s a tiny amount of time.

          • Didn’t it take like 2 or 3 years to develop X&Y? That was a case where they were unfamiliar with the software as well.

      • I said exactly this way earlier and no one listened. Exactly. But thank you for restating it now that people seem willing to listen to logic .

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    • Rainbow Rocket was really boring. There, I said it. The entire “boss battles,” which were the only good part, literally could’ve just been in a Pokemon World Tournament, which would have provided endless hours of more content.

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        • BW and B2W2 are the best games… or at least it seems that way since XY was Crap and SM and USUM weren’t good enough to make up for it.

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        • Gamefreak isn’t prioritizing concise storytelling any more, so don’t expect them to make a story of similar proportions anytime soon. They’re more focused on turning pokemon into a handholding, accessible franchise that lets cutscenes tell us every little secret about the game instead of letting us discover for ourselves.

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  20. I honestly want a game where I really feel excited to play and explore. I love almost all the Pokemon games and certainly am always excited to play, but in recent year I definitely feel the fatigue of knowing too much before going in. I hate myself as I kind of live for leaks, but at the same time I wouldn’t mind going in relatively blind. One thing I always like to go into the games with is knowledge of the dex. The problems with that is then I never have any surprises to find when encountering a new Pokemon……*sigh*….my life haha

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    • I might try and go blind this time around, which will be super difficult, but I think I can do it! I would genuinely looove to be surprised by a Pokémon design for once!

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    • I just want something like Black and White was. I remember being SO excited for those games. And you know what made those great? They lived up to the hype. Gamefreak needs to make a game again that 1) They market well and 2) That lives up to that Marketing hype.

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      • They need to go back to doing silhouette reveals. I always loved when they teased us with a silhouette and then did the reveal. It may not be the most meaningful way of promotion, but it’s fun to speculate based on a silhouette haha

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          • Yeah that’d be fun. It’s a good time waster for them too as they don’t need to outright show them right away.

        • I just hope that leaks don’t ruin what the silhouettes are if they do that approach again. In this day and age, we get leaks for everything now. Oh and speaking of leaks, your source on Twitter, do they have credentials? Or is it just word of mouth? Can you link me to the Twitter account? Or do they like to stay anonymous? If so, it’s no problem.

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          • Sorry I’d prefer to keep them a secret since they’ve reached out to me through dms as well as just open tweets. I will say that they were the one that translated the final starter forms concept art from 2016. Also while other than that really they don’t have anything particularly credible to their name, but they are very earnest and I see no reason to doubt them. They’ve been open with mean and I trust then. I have a pretty good eye for trust worthy people so take that as you will. Either way eventually we’ll see what happens

      • I would love another black and white great story and pretty likable characters. The gym leaders actually helped for a change too lol would also love a dex of nothing but new Pokémon again! That was easily my favorite part about black and white

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  22. I want them to bring back Black Tower/White Treehollow in some forma again. I loved how it was till challenging, but wasn’t as annoying as the BF or battle tree. Also you could use it to level up your Pokemon. Was quite useful when trying to get my team to lvl 100. Plus there was an actually tangible prize at the end! Loved Black tower

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    • I loved Black Tower in Black 2. It was a great feature. I loved how you were able to gain EXP. from the battles. I think it was one of the best ways for training Pokemon to Level 100 in any Pokemon game. Second being the VS. Seeker from FRLG/DPPt, Third being the PokeNav in RSE/ORAS and Fourth being the Battle Chateau in XY. An unpopular opinion but I felt that the PokeGear from GSC/HGSS was a little limited because the trainers would call you randomly and in GSC, you could only register 10.

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      • Yeah I’d agree with you there. Also the Pokegear felt like something you couldn’t really control. All your ever get is calls from Joey talking about his crappy top percentage Rattata haha

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