It’s been three years since Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and it’s about time for the new generation of games to released. So during the Pokemon Presents stream over the weekend, The Pokemon Company did just that, by revealing the name of the 10th generation of games – Winds and Waves. There’s a catch though, as these games are not releasing at the end of this year.
Instead, the 10th generation will be releasing in 2027 instead, breaking the three-year cycle (or four, depending on the way you count them) of each generation. This makes the ninth-generation, consisting of Scarlet and Violet, the longest generation of the franchise to date. No specific window beyond the year yet, but by tradition, it should be sometime in November.
Despite being a long way away still, the trailer for the next generation of Pokemon still shows a lot of what to expect. To start, the new region doesn’t yet have a name, but it looks to be heavily inspired by Southeast Asia. There’s the tropical looking climate and the accompanying jungles, multiple coastal islands, mangrove swamps, and even a paddy field.
Finally, the trailer shows an underwater component to the games’ open world, indicative of Southeast Asia’s diving tourism industry. Though naturally this also brings back flashbacks to a certain infamous review of a certain third-gen remake.
Finally, we have the 10th-generation starters. Representing the Grass type is Browt, officially classified as a Bean Chick. Then there’s the Fire type Pombon, because it’s a Pomeranian. And finally, there’s the Water type Gecqua, which gives off the vibe like it could have a final form that’s a cross between Froakie’s and Sobble’s. As an aside, there’s also a Mr Windychu and Ms Wavychu as generation-specific Pikachu variants.
As mentioned earlier, the Pokemon Winds and Waves trailer only mentions a 2027 release window. Worth mentioning though that it’s going to be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2. Which is probably for the better in terms of sheer performance. Though we’ll have to wait and see if there’s any positive changes to the classic gameplay formula.
(Source: Pokemon [1], [2])
