Nintendo of America Reveals Timeframe for Pokemon Switch's Release

Earlier this month, Nintendo shocked the gaming world when it announced that Game Freak was developing a "core series" Pokemon RPG for the Nintendo Switch. The upcoming game will be the first main Pokemon game released for a console in its 20 year history.

During the announcement, The Pokemon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara warned fans they could be in for a lengthy wait, as the next games wouldn't be released for "a year or longer." Many took that to mean that we wouldn't see the Pokemon game until 2019, as that would allow The Pokemon Company to release up to two more sets of games for the Nintendo 3DS before permanently moving on to its next console.

However, in a new interview with VentureBeat, Nintendo of America corporate communications director Charlie Scibetta gave fans hope that we could still see the Pokemon Switch game in 2018. When asked about Nintendo's plans for the Switch for the next couple of years, Scibatta responded that "We've announced a nice lineup through this year, and next year we have some big games coming with Metroid 4. 2018 will be around Metroid, Kirby, Yoshi, new Pokemon game has been announced."

Things can always change of course, but it sounds like Nintendo is relying on Pokemon as a big part of their Switch plans next year. That means we could start finding about the game either in late 2017 or early 2018 if the Pokemon Company sticks to its traditional timeline of releasing new games in the fall.

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