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Pokémon announces new main series games for Nintendo Switch 2
Pokémon announced its 10th main series installment, arriving on the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027, with rumors suggesting a setting inspired by Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
The Pokémon franchise has officially announced that the 10th installment of its main series—defined as the core Pokémon games—will launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027. The announcement was made during a livestream celebrating the release of the first Pokémon games exactly 30 years ago. The upcoming titles, named Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves, are designed as open-world games set across a vast ocean of islands.
The new titles will introduce three new starter Pokémon, which are the initial creatures players choose at the beginning of the game. These include Browt, a Grass-type starter Pokémon; Pombon, a Fire-type starter Pokémon; and Gecqua, a Water-type starter Pokémon. While the official trailer does not explicitly confirm the setting, the games are rumored to be set in a region inspired by Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The franchise previously explored a tropical island setting in the Hawaii-inspired Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon games, which were released nearly 10 years ago.
This upcoming release follows the 2022 launch of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. When those games debuted in 2022, fans criticized the titles for feeling rushed and being rife with glitches. The performance issues of the previous generation have set a high bar for the franchise’s technical standards on Nintendo’s new hardware platform. To bridge the gap until the 2027 release, reissues of the classic games Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are available for the Switch console, priced at $20.
Why it matters
The launch of the 10th main series installment on the Nintendo Switch 2 is a critical test for the franchise, which faces pressure to improve performance standards following the reception of previous titles.