This is going to sound like an absolutely crazy conspiracy theory, but if you’re willing to give me a moment of your time, I’m going to try and blow your mind. Like many of you, I would imagine, I would consider myself quite a big Nintendo fan overall. Yes, the company’s done a lot of scummy stuff, but I still have more fun with their exclusives than the five or six released for other platforms every console generation. Something I’ve tried for years to discover are any ways I may be able to keep track of what may be coming soon to look forward to, and I’ve been sitting in this theory for a long time… until now.
Every three or four years since 1996 we’ve seen the release of a new original Pokémon game, often referred to as a generation of Pokémon games. I have genuine reason to believe these can be examined over almost 30 years of history and every single time, this pattern I’ve found has held true. And the results may shock you. So, here’s the situation. It’s 2004, and the Nintendo DS just came out. Two years later we get the release of Diamond & Pearl in 2006. Pay attention to the length of that gap. Two years. The DS “era” of Pokémon consists of two generations, the Sinnoh and Unova games. Okay, cool, whatever.
But then you start to notice- the number of new generations for a console has been perfectly equal to the length of the calendar year gap every single time. One for the Game Boy Color (1998-99), one for the GBA (2001-02), and two for the DS, 3DS, and first Switch (two years each). The only games this hasn’t happened for were for the originals in 1996- every generation since then has had this pattern sustain.
Here is why this is significant to me. The Switch 2 launched in 2025, not 2024 like I initially expected, and the idea of the next games being the big 30th anniversary games for 2026 likely as a Switch 2 exclusive might be The Pokémon Company and Game Freak’s current worst-kept secret at this point. Let’s assume for just a second that this does happen like we’re all expecting. 2025 to 2026, alright? A one year gap, meaning that the Switch 2 would have one original generation, the 2026 games, to its name. But, if that’s the case, and Nintendo doesn’t seem to have any plans to move off of the Switch 2 anytime soon (and why would they?)… what exactly does that mean for the next set of original games after that? In, say, 2029 or 2030 or whatever?
I sat and thought about this for a while, and then it hit me. This exact situation happened with the Game Boy Advance. It was the next-gen version of its own predecessor, only for its own successor, the DS, to come out significantly earlier than some might have expected back in 2004. Nintendo would later confirm their intention was for the GBA and the DS to both be supported at the same time as each other, referring to the DS as Nintendo’s experimental third link alongside the GBA in the GameCube. Notice how the GBA and the GameCube mark the only time Nintendo has ever released a new handheld and a new console in the same year as one another excluding the Switch’s status as a hybrid console. Have you put the dots together yet? If everything I’ve said in this post holds, history says Nintendo’s next console, which would either be a Nintendo Switch 3 or something else entirely, will be released in either 2028 or 2029 and around the same time as the release of the last Switch 2 Pokémon game (not that 2025’s Pokémon Legends ZA was the first true cross-Gen game, so this game could also be like that). Furthermore, releasing something so soon after the Switch 2 could be to Nintendo’s benefit anyway, since the Switch 1 will be 11 years old in 2028 and likely be discontinued around that same time, meaning Nintendo can benefit from having another system out in the situation that the Switch 2 performs poorly during the second half of its own lifespan. When Nintendo said they wanted to avoid making some of the same mistakes with the Switch 2 that they did with the Wii U, what if this is actually what they meant the entire time? Or something along those same lines?
Even the limited time Pokémon consoles and console bundles match up perfectly with this. Most of the time these are released with a certain platform in mind- for instance, Gen 5 has DSi enhanced features but Gen 4 does not, even though they are both DS games. The correlation between each new Pokémon generation and a certain Nintendo handheld can be lined up as follows:
What do you guys think? Have I officially fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole?
Every three or four years since 1996 we’ve seen the release of a new original Pokémon game, often referred to as a generation of Pokémon games. I have genuine reason to believe these can be examined over almost 30 years of history and every single time, this pattern I’ve found has held true. And the results may shock you. So, here’s the situation. It’s 2004, and the Nintendo DS just came out. Two years later we get the release of Diamond & Pearl in 2006. Pay attention to the length of that gap. Two years. The DS “era” of Pokémon consists of two generations, the Sinnoh and Unova games. Okay, cool, whatever.
But then you start to notice- the number of new generations for a console has been perfectly equal to the length of the calendar year gap every single time. One for the Game Boy Color (1998-99), one for the GBA (2001-02), and two for the DS, 3DS, and first Switch (two years each). The only games this hasn’t happened for were for the originals in 1996- every generation since then has had this pattern sustain.
Here is why this is significant to me. The Switch 2 launched in 2025, not 2024 like I initially expected, and the idea of the next games being the big 30th anniversary games for 2026 likely as a Switch 2 exclusive might be The Pokémon Company and Game Freak’s current worst-kept secret at this point. Let’s assume for just a second that this does happen like we’re all expecting. 2025 to 2026, alright? A one year gap, meaning that the Switch 2 would have one original generation, the 2026 games, to its name. But, if that’s the case, and Nintendo doesn’t seem to have any plans to move off of the Switch 2 anytime soon (and why would they?)… what exactly does that mean for the next set of original games after that? In, say, 2029 or 2030 or whatever?
I sat and thought about this for a while, and then it hit me. This exact situation happened with the Game Boy Advance. It was the next-gen version of its own predecessor, only for its own successor, the DS, to come out significantly earlier than some might have expected back in 2004. Nintendo would later confirm their intention was for the GBA and the DS to both be supported at the same time as each other, referring to the DS as Nintendo’s experimental third link alongside the GBA in the GameCube. Notice how the GBA and the GameCube mark the only time Nintendo has ever released a new handheld and a new console in the same year as one another excluding the Switch’s status as a hybrid console. Have you put the dots together yet? If everything I’ve said in this post holds, history says Nintendo’s next console, which would either be a Nintendo Switch 3 or something else entirely, will be released in either 2028 or 2029 and around the same time as the release of the last Switch 2 Pokémon game (not that 2025’s Pokémon Legends ZA was the first true cross-Gen game, so this game could also be like that). Furthermore, releasing something so soon after the Switch 2 could be to Nintendo’s benefit anyway, since the Switch 1 will be 11 years old in 2028 and likely be discontinued around that same time, meaning Nintendo can benefit from having another system out in the situation that the Switch 2 performs poorly during the second half of its own lifespan. When Nintendo said they wanted to avoid making some of the same mistakes with the Switch 2 that they did with the Wii U, what if this is actually what they meant the entire time? Or something along those same lines?
Even the limited time Pokémon consoles and console bundles match up perfectly with this. Most of the time these are released with a certain platform in mind- for instance, Gen 5 has DSi enhanced features but Gen 4 does not, even though they are both DS games. The correlation between each new Pokémon generation and a certain Nintendo handheld can be lined up as follows:
- Gen 1: Game Boy (Yellow came out almost exactly when the Game Boy Color did)
- Gen 2: Game Boy Color (Pokémon Crystal’s limited addition console was literally a GBA, as were two movie ones)
- Gen 3: Game Boy Advance (Emerald in late 2004, around the same time the DS came out)
- Gen 4: DS (last games came out around the release of the DSi and its XL variant)
- Gen 5: DSi (So why weren’t B2W2 3DS games exactly? Dream Radar was)
- Gen 6: 3DS (ORAS came out around the same time as the New 3DSes)
- Gen 7: “New” 3DS (last game in 2017- a Nintendo Direct also mistakenly said USUM would get a Switch port)
- Gen 8: Switch (BDSP & Legends came out around the same time as the OLED)
- Gen 9: Switch OLED (last game in 2025, first true cross-gen release in the series)
- Gen 10: Switch 2, probably (final game will probably release around the same time as what comes next)
- Gen 11: ??? (Will the pattern continue?)
What do you guys think? Have I officially fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole?
