Get ready to grab an extra large pinch of Poke salt, because it’s time to head back down to the old Pokemon Gen 8 rumour mill.
Before we dive in, let’s look at what we know to be true: Nintendo and GameFreak have both confirmed that the next “core” Pokemon games will release for Nintendo Switch in 2019.
That’s it. That’s what we actually know for sure. Okay, let’s move on.
Recent rumblings on the internet actually suggest that the next generation of Pokemon games will be revealed next week. February 26, to be exact.
This comes from muguwus on Twitter, who recently cryptically shared a single Tweet saying “Pokemon soon.” While I’m not usually inclined to believe the word of some random Twitterer (Tweeter?), it’s worth noting that this user pretty much predicted the entire Nintendo Direct from last week one day before it happened.
Seriously, they got everything right – including the Link’s Awakening reveal, which I don’t think any of us actually saw coming. With that in mind, I’d say this is a pretty legit source.
I should also point out that February 27 is the anniversary of the original Pokemon games’ launch in Japan back in 1996, so it’d make sense to announce the future of the franchise around this time.
We now move on to slightly murkier waters, ones which seem to think that the Gen 8 games will be known as Pokemon King and Queen. How was this conclusion reached? Honestly, I think it’s a bit of a stretch.
This all started from fan speculation based on a seemingly innocent Tweet from GameFreak’s Junichi Masuda, who shared an image of a Weedle he’d caught in Pokemon GO.
Take a look at it below. Seems fairly run of the mill, right?
Not so. According to the fans, this Tweet is actually a very cryptic tease that contains clues for the next Pokemon games. The CP of Weedle is at 199, which corresponds to the Pokedex number for Slowking
Meanwhile, the weight (4.16) refers to Vespiquen. The length (.33m) refers to Nidoran, which evolves into Nidoking. Based on this, they seem to think the next games will be called Pokemon King and Queen.
No, I don’t really buy it either. The one part I do think might hold some truth is the idea that the game will be revealed on February 26 because of the 226 candies in the screenshot, but that’s only because it seems to have been validated by the aforementioned leaker and the Pokemon anniversary.
Whatever the future of Pokemon is called or looks like, I do think it’s a safe shout that we’ll be finding out next week. Just don’t go out and bet the farm on the games being called King and Queen.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.