During today’s Pokémon Presents, The Pokémon Company finally revealed the very leaked games Pokémon Winds and Waves. The games are set in a very aquatic region, revealing swamps, oceans and marinas, with what’s clearly a hugely improved engine to boot.
Announced only for the Switch 2 (inevitably disappointing a lot of people, but also perhaps necessary if Game Freak is to escape the continued criticism of its crummy graphics), the next pair of mainline games won’t be coming out until 2027. That means it will have been an unprecedented five years between two main Pokémon games for the first time in the series’ 30-year history.
What we saw in this reveal trailer showed us a much wetter world than we’re used to in the franchise, and very clearly the ability to go underwater as part of play. How else are we going to reach those Krabby?
That’s likely a big part of why this will be on Switch 2 only, given the water effects would have an original Switch emitting smoke and then burning down your house. Beyond that, we’ve been told very little about what will make this game distinct, especially as the only new monsters we’ve seen are the three new starters.
The announcement of 2027 is a huge surprise, given these games were originally expected to appear in 2025. It seemed a given they’d be holiday 2026 releases, not least to give the Switch 2 another Christmas bump, but the ambiguous “2027” means they could still be as much as 22 months away if they stick to their usual time of year.
This at least means we can now begin the process of gathering all the droplets of information that will appear, especially the gradual announcement of all the new pocket monsters to meet in Gen X.
