After they did nothing between Z-A's reveal and Z-A's...re-reveal...I assume we hear nothing until Pokemon Day 2027
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Pokémon Day 2026 - Pokemon Winds and Waves coming 2027! Champions April 2026
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
I'm cautiously optimistic. I believe we will get an update showing the legendaries, the region and the box art in June. Then, no new mons until Worlds, when the gimmick would be revealed as well.
My main reason to think this way is I'm one of those who expect Gen X release in the first half of 2027, so the news cycle shouldn't be that off from the usual one, unlike what happened with Z-A. Legends games, just like remakes, also tend to start the news cycle very late and they usually show less things.
Legends games also don't usually need to care to show things like super gimmicks and whatnot, as those games are mostly their own self contained thing.
I do agree we'll probably get a teaser/trailer at worlds. Similarly to the SV one, probably will show the region name, probably the cover leges (optional: their names) and tease the super gimmick (if there's one).
I am partial to the presence of a super gimmick this time. With the PvP focus moving to Champions, the games can focus on their single player aspect (+ whatever liveservicey raids we get this time) so they might not need a dedicated super mechanic and just limit to introducing new mons/forms. Somewhat supported by the complete lack of such tease in the teaser: if I am not wrong (feel free to call me out) both SwSh and SV teaser had a small tease of dynamax/terastal, but no such thing this time.
But we'll see.
I do agree we'll probably get a teaser/trailer at worlds. Similarly to the SV one, probably will show the region name, probably the cover leges (optional: their names) and tease the super gimmick (if there's one).
I am partial to the presence of a super gimmick this time. With the PvP focus moving to Champions, the games can focus on their single player aspect (+ whatever liveservicey raids we get this time) so they might not need a dedicated super mechanic and just limit to introducing new mons/forms. Somewhat supported by the complete lack of such tease in the teaser: if I am not wrong (feel free to call me out) both SwSh and SV teaser had a small tease of dynamax/terastal, but no such thing this time.
But we'll see.
iirc those were on the second trailer and not the first?
however i think the reason there probably will be a super mechanic is that the jp logo once again has a pretty unique design on it. I think if they were to drop the super mechanic theyd probably stop doing design flourishes like that, such as how pla and za do something else on their designs for their aesthetic/cover legends
The little flourish on the title logo isn't always the super mechanic, Sword and Shield have the Galar League logo not the Dynamax logo.
L:A's battle system was defined by the Style mechanic. Altering moves to dictate power and turn order is hella gimmicky.
Z-A had Plus moves that also dictated power and additional effects like duration, size, reach, etc. & with the different battle system it's not like it needed it. It also had Mega Evolution but for the sake of this conversation I assume you mean new mechanics.
Even if Champions made them go "we dont have to care about competitive in a real game ever again ever we're deleting it sayonara you battle-loving shits"* you can just look at these games and realize they love making extra battle mechanics. I would be shocked if WiWa didn't have it.
*Which I doubt, since adding generational-tier mechanics means they can add them back into Champions to interact with everything else whiel giving you more things to grind VP for (orbuythegame) in addition to the Pokemon and moves.
Z-A had Plus moves that also dictated power and additional effects like duration, size, reach, etc. & with the different battle system it's not like it needed it. It also had Mega Evolution but for the sake of this conversation I assume you mean new mechanics.
Even if Champions made them go "we dont have to care about competitive in a real game ever again ever we're deleting it sayonara you battle-loving shits"* you can just look at these games and realize they love making extra battle mechanics. I would be shocked if WiWa didn't have it.
*Which I doubt, since adding generational-tier mechanics means they can add them back into Champions to interact with everything else whiel giving you more things to grind VP for (orbuythegame) in addition to the Pokemon and moves.
In addition to the little symbol on the Japanese logo, there's also the fact that the trailer ended with a few seconds of darkness and storm sounds. Perhaps super weather is the gimmick this time?
Pokopia hints at a weather disaster having been the inciting event.
Could reference a lot of things. Storms in general play with the games' namesake, probably the legends by extension, the tropical island theming, or just general "disaster approaching".
Remembering how the end of the SWSH trailer had the wolves reacting to a lot of rustling updrafts in the woods which...well only in the most tangential way pertains to Eternatus' entire thing at all. I mean I do think "storms" will be more relevant here but, you know. Worth mentioning.
Yeah, the first trailers for SwSh and SV had nothing hinting at their mechanics, unless you count the big ring of type symbols in Mesagoza’s main plaza as a “hint” toward Terastal (personally, while people did extrapolate from it that the mechanic could be type-based, I think that’s more just a coincidental result of “Mesagoza designer wanted a type-themed centerpiece in the big city” + “the people cutting the trailer wanted to show the game’s big city” + “Pokémon fans read deep into everything”). In fact, the first SwSh trailer even made sure to only show the player characters without their Dynamax Bands in any places where they normally would have had them.
The second trailer for SwSh showed Dynamax outright, including in a Max Raid Battle with the player using it, whereas the second trailer for SV didn’t show off Terastal, but it did end with a CG clip of a Poké Ball floating through a warping crystalline background, which I guess was hinting at Terastal (and some people did interpret it that way, although I feel like there’s probably only so many ways to interpret an end-of-trailer stinger such as that), however, to my eyes it’s a little more reminiscent of the final boss arena where you battle the AI professor.
Also I guess it’s worth noting that, hypothetically, the symbol in the logos could be related to some other significant aspect of the game if there is no central battle mechanic. I very much doubt that will be the case, but SwSh’s logos did use the Gym Challenge symbol instead of the Dynamax symbol, so the logo symbol doesn’t necessarily have to pertain to a new battle mechanic. (Though Dynamax is pretty integral to the Gym Challenge, of course.)
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I think it’s more like to release in the first half of 2027, so we’ll definitely get a trailer before Pokemon day imo. I can see another trailer in June or so that just has some minor new footage, then a bigger trailer in maybe September (or later) with the legends. And then have the marketing cycle really heat up with Pokemon day.
I feel like releasing at the same time next year that pokopia did this year, so like a week after pokemon day, is making the most sense to me if they are doing the first half of the year. they could also release it before pokemon day to technically release in the "30th anniversary year" but I don't think that is likely lol
the speculation that maybe they just got spooked by GTA 6 releasing in November somewhat makes sense to me. a lot of different devs across different genres are apparently getting spooked by it and trying to force their games to not release near it.
the gen 10 game trailer just felt like a completely normal new gen is announced coming later this year trailer except they put 2027 instead of 2026 at the end
the speculation that maybe they just got spooked by GTA 6 releasing in November somewhat makes sense to me. a lot of different devs across different genres are apparently getting spooked by it and trying to force their games to not release near it.
I think the big difference is that Z-A reveal showed no gameplay and was effectively a "the game is in development" trailer
the gen 10 game trailer just felt like a completely normal new gen is announced coming later this year trailer except they put 2027 instead of 2026 at the end
I understand that GTA is an extreme outlier that simply doesn't operate under the normal rules of the game industry but I honestly really doubt this. There's probably not that much audience overlap despite both franchises being super mainstream and they aren't even sharing a system. The only compelling reason why they'd go out of their way to miss the 30th anniversary year is because they want to assure fans that a SV repeat will not be happening. February/super early March still doesn't feel meaningful enough to me on that score, although we already have an extra year to start with so who knows
If Gen 5 was so good why is there no Gen 5 2--
I doubt we will go over a year without any news again. The first ZA trailer was pretty much just a "Hey this exists!" with no look into the game itself (Likely due to the development not being at a presentable state at the time). With Winds and Waves we already have a look into what the game looks like, the protagonists and the starters. I think somewhere around July - June would make sense for more news
Also I feel like this year's game might just be Pokopia. Its pretty explicitly set in Kanto, has a few mons from every region and is a Switch 2 exclusive. Its not a mainline title but imo it is filling the role of a celebratory anniversary game. All this to say, I don't really see 2027 Winds and Waves as them missing the 30th anniversary
I also think its a little silly to say GTA has anything to do with the release date because the overlap between people who play Pokémon and people who play GTA is probably like. 7 guys.
Also I feel like this year's game might just be Pokopia. Its pretty explicitly set in Kanto, has a few mons from every region and is a Switch 2 exclusive. Its not a mainline title but imo it is filling the role of a celebratory anniversary game. All this to say, I don't really see 2027 Winds and Waves as them missing the 30th anniversary
I also think its a little silly to say GTA has anything to do with the release date because the overlap between people who play Pokémon and people who play GTA is probably like. 7 guys.
Pokémon is also popular enough that it is one of the few video games that could afford to launch at the same time as GTA6. "Buy both for Christmas" is a legitimate and reasonable decision for a parent (or hell, anyone) to come to.
The delay is very clearly so Game Freak can polish WiWa and thus avoid being bullied for a third time in a row for their game looking and running like ass.
The delay is very clearly so Game Freak can polish WiWa and thus avoid being bullied for a third time in a row for their game looking and running like ass.
I wouldn't be shocked if the delay is strictly just due to release schedules of other departments needing time to catch up.
ZA DLC was only a few months ago and we're so behind on expansions that add all the new megas and shit for ZA TCG, pokopia just came out, and champions is around the corner with multiple seasons before any kind of gen 10 expansion.
We also know from the tera leak that SV hemorrhaged their budget with the DLC so maybe they're trying to push out a bigger game with no DLC this time (good?).
ZA DLC was only a few months ago and we're so behind on expansions that add all the new megas and shit for ZA TCG, pokopia just came out, and champions is around the corner with multiple seasons before any kind of gen 10 expansion.
We also know from the tera leak that SV hemorrhaged their budget with the DLC so maybe they're trying to push out a bigger game with no DLC this time (good?).
That’s a valid theory. Back then, three years aren’t too big of a deal for other departments to catch up, especially during Pokémania between the first and second generations. However, adding in DLCs, and without slowing down, suddenly the other departments wonder how could they catch up with all the new additions all of a sudden. This could have caused a friction between GF and other departments.
We can only hope Gen 10 is the new norm on release cycles so that other departments can remain steady with the higher amount of new Pokémon designs.
For the record the TCG is probably going to be done with Z-A before the year is even done. There likely won't be every mega represented since they're only releasing like 4 of them and we're already going to get DLC-focused sets next up. And otherwise the TCG's never had much problem "keeping pace"; this last gen was the one where it was offset by a few months but that really didn't matter long term when they're also doing "filler" sets like with Owner's Pokemon anyway.
The TCG can be efficient when it wants to. The anime is just doing its own thing that occasionally dips into the "relevant" game. Merchandise can go unimpeded....
I really don't think there's any huge incentive to "catch up" to anything. I think they delayed it because they felt they needed it for development reasons, likely for polish reasons; everything else will always just march to that drum no matter the circumstances.
The TCG can be efficient when it wants to. The anime is just doing its own thing that occasionally dips into the "relevant" game. Merchandise can go unimpeded....
I really don't think there's any huge incentive to "catch up" to anything. I think they delayed it because they felt they needed it for development reasons, likely for polish reasons; everything else will always just march to that drum no matter the circumstances.
I'm also expecting WiWa to release in the first half of 2027 for the reasons people have already mentioned, but also because they've shown the starters already. The "hype cycle" for Gen 10 has already began and I don't see them keeping up this marketing campaign for two whole years.
I only read second-hand that SV had a $3M budget, what else was known?
I can’t remember the exact figures but apparently the DLC went way over budget.
I don’t think it’s really wise to take any sort of second-hand “reporting” about budgets from leakers, who are usually filtered through Centro, as being worthy of any credibility. That’s how we end up in the situation we had last month where we got tons of clickbait misinformation articles going around about how Pokémon spent “more” on its Super Bowl ad than it did on Z-A, where, even if that were true, which we don’t actually know that it was, the lack of crucial context on all fronts (Super Bowl ads are always some of the biggest expenditures in advertising, the SB Pokémon ad was for the brand as a whole rather than a single game, the leaked budget for Z-A was seemingly an early estimate and thus likely didn’t include marketing costs and other later expenses, and on and on) cleared the road for a parade of journalistic malpractice and illiteracy.
Case in point: the out-of-context leaked budget for Z-A was approximately $13 million. Given you’ve heard second-hand that SV had a budget of $3 million… does that not seem incredibly implausible on the face of it? That the big, new generation flagship titles were $10 million cheaper than Z-A? That’s why we can’t really take this kind of information for much unless it comes directly from a reputable source that presents it in the proper context.
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It's also difficult to imagine that there weren't other factors to budgeting we're not privvy to, or that they expanded it over time.