Over the last few days, fans have been discussing a series of posts that claim knowledge on the next major Pokémon games. While false rumors on major games are a dime a dozen, some of these rumors may hold water and hint that the next major Pokémon release will be on the Switch and involve Pokémon Go somehow.
On Tuesday, anonymous users on 4Chan uploaded what is supposedly the names and logos for the next games: Pokémon Let’s Go! Pikachu Edition and Pokémon Let’s Go! Eevee Edition. The logo has a trademark symbol in the lower-right corner, but it doesn’t have a matching registered trademark filing. This, along with the logo’s unfinished/hand-drawn appearance, does not necessarily rule out the logo’s legitimacy.
Combined with some more 4Chan speculation from late March, it would imply that these games would be remakes of Pokémon Yellow, the third entry in the first generation of Pokémon games. In that game, the player’s starting Pokémon was a Pikachu, while their rival started out with an Eevee (another fan favorite most known for having a huge variety of potential evolutions).
Another interesting discovery is that the websites “pokemonletsgopikachu.com” and “pokemonletsgoeevee.com” have been registered by CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. This is the same company that acts as a tech contact for the official website for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. However, these claimed websites don’t name Nintendo, Game Freak, or The Pokémon Company, unlike the Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon websites.
Game Freak confirmed to Kotaku back in 2016 that they were planning to find a way to connect the main games to Pokémon Go:
In addition, in Game Informer’s 2017 interview with Pokémon series director/producer/composer Junichi Masuda and Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon director Shigeru Ohmori, they both mentioned the Switch being suitable for playing outside as well as indoors, which could be seen as another link to Pokémon Go-style gameplay:
While all of this is very interesting (assuming it’s true, of course), one aspect of these leaks that’s somewhat confusing is that fans were expecting a release of a “core” title (such as Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, etc.) which Game Freak said was coming last year. A remake doesn’t seem like the kind of game fans were expecting from that announcement, and if this is indeed for the Switch, wouldn’t there be a big graphical or mechanical change? The leaks don’t seem to indicate that.
This game is (allegedly) going to release sometime this Fall. Of course, all of this is rumor so far, so all this speculation could be wrong.