Rather than give Pokémon fans a period of respite before delivering a new adventure, it appears Game Freak is already gearing up to announce Sword and Shield‘s successor.
At least, that’s what many believe to be the case, thanks to an announcement earlier this week. The series developer confirmed through Nintendo that a Pokémon Direct – miniature streams that usually reveal games and/or DLC – will be held tomorrow, January 9th, though declined to offer any further details beyond an approximate runtime of 20 minutes. Naturally, Pokémon fans have been endlessly speculating as to what it is, exactly, that’ll be revealed on the stream, with one such candidate being new remakes.
While Game Freak has never strictly adhered to any such schedule, a gap of around five years usually sits between each pair of reimagined titles, with the most recent, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, released back in 2014 for the 3DS.
That being the case, Generation IV duo Diamond and Pearl are largely expected to be next in line for an update, with a release expected in the latter half of 2020. All speculation, of course, and some have been quick to point out that an announcement for such is far too soon, considering Sword and Shield are barely two months old.
So, what are the most plausible alternatives? Well, we know that cloud-based Pokémon Home, a new service intended to replace Pokémon Bank, is due imminently, but it seems unlikely that Game Freak would dedicate an entire Direct to its promotion. Filling out the remaining run time could be confirmation of Sword and Shield DLC or, at the very least, an event to introduce several currently unobtainable Dynamax Pokémon.
Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long for answers. Tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct airs at 6:30 am PT/9:30 am ET/2:30 pm GMT.
