A brand new Pokémon Legends recreation is coming to the “Nintendo Swap household of programs” in 2025. Pokémon Legends: Z-A, introduced Tuesday with a quick teaser trailer, is an “formidable new entry” into the collection that can launch concurrently worldwide. It’s additionally gasoline for the fireplace {that a} new Nintendo Swap console is coming subsequent 12 months.
The primary Pokémon Legends recreation, Arceus, launched in 2022. Arceus was new floor for the franchise: the primary open-world recreation within the collection, one thing for which followers had lengthy clamored. The Pokémon Firm supplied little in the way in which of particulars on Z-A, which is able to happen in Lumiose Metropolis of the Kalos area, the France-inspired setting launched in Pokémon X and Y. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, “an city redevelopment plan is underway to form town into a spot that belongs to each individuals and Pokémon.”
Wording across the recreation’s launch, particularly that it’ll come to Nintendo “programs,” has already caught the attention of some followers. Whereas that would check with variations on the Swap—the Swap Lite, the OLED mannequin—stories earlier this month counsel that the Swap successor is anticipated in 2025. VGC stories that the delay might be a push to offer Nintendo time to line up “stronger first-party software program.”
Anticipation for a brand new Nintendo console couldn’t be larger. It’s been practically seven years for the reason that firm launched the Swap and greater than two for the reason that OLED model dropped. All of the extra purpose for followers to take a position about when the following system may come. Following Tuesday’s Z-A announcement, “Swap 2”—the title generally given to the (presumably) forthcoming console—started trending on X with followers posting “I can care about Pokémon once more” and “The Swap 2 must be subsequent 12 months as a result of I simply know they don’t need us enjoying the brand new Pokémon recreation in 30 [frames per second].”
The brand new Swap’s existence is hardly a secret lately; throughout GDC’s 2024 state-of-the-industry survey, 8 % of polled builders stated they have been engaged on video games for its successor. It’s not a query of if the Swap 2 exists; it’s when Nintendo will lastly announce it.