Today, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced the next mainline entries in the long-running catch-’em-all franchise: Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves. And for those hoping they’d be able to hold off on buying a Switch 2 for a bit longer, I’ve got bad news. The 10th generation of Pokémon games are ditching the original Switch.
On February 27, perhaps to avoid some confusion, the official Pokémon account tweeted out that the tropical-based Waves and Winds will only be playable on Switch 2 hardware when it launches in 2027.
“In Pokémon Winds and Waves, releasing exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2, you’ll travel across beautiful windswept islands and a vast ocean with glittering waves that ebb and flow. You’ll also team up with Pokémon to overcome challenges and even the forces of nature!”
As seen in the first trailer for the just-announced upcoming Pokémon games, Winds and Waves looks gorgeous, with higher-resolution textures and more detailed models than anything seen in the series before. That’s great, as Pokémon games have started to show their age in recent years due to Switch 1’s lack of power compared to most other consoles. Ditching that machine and focusing exclusively on Switch 2 has seemingly freed up developers at GameFreak in a big way. But that comes at a cost.
Nintendo has sold over 150 million original Switch consoles. And now, anyone who owns an OG Switch and loves Pokémon but hasn’t upgraded to the new console might be left behind. Under the tweet confirming the news that the game is Switch 2 exclusive, you’ll find plenty of people cheering this decision. But sprinkled throughout the replies are people frustrated and sad that Pokémon Winds and Waves is leaving them behind. Anecdotally, when I told some people the new game was Switch 2 only, they looked crestfallen. Sure, people have until 2027 to save up cash to buy a Switch 2, but that’s not easy or feasible for everyone.
Then again, the Switch 2 is going to let GameFreak build a truly modern-looking Pokémon game, and trying to get that to work on the old Switch would likely have been near-impossible without big compromises. So, while I do feel for folks who are going to have to buy a new console to play the next entry in their favorite series, I think in the long term this was the right call, even though I’m a bit surprised, in a good way, that GameFreak and Nintendo were willing to ditch an install base of 150+ million consoles in the process.