Pokemon Winds and Waves were confirmed by The Pokemon Company and the games are, if nothing else, a surprising course correction after the release of Palworld.
The 2026 Pokemon Day event closed with the reveal of the tenth generation of Pokemon games. The reveal trailer included strikingly strong visuals, with sweeping shots of beaches and lush jungles. True to its name, it also hinted at the ability to both fly and dive to catch Pokemon.
The initial reactions to the game were strongly positive, with many marveling over the apparent visual upgrade relative to Pokemon Legends: Z-A. But even more intriguing was the confirmation that the game isn’t coming out until 2027. This marks a major shift from Game Freak and The Pokemon Company and could mark a new era of Pokemon.
Game Freak is buckling down to beat out Palworld
In 2024, Palworld had one of the most surprising launches in gaming history. After flying under the radar before release, it exploded out of the gate and became one of the biggest games in the history of Steam. A portion of the intrigue surrounding it was the idea that it was a “Pokemon Killer” that could overtake the world’s biggest media franchise.
While that concept has proven to be wildly premature, with Palworld’s popularity nosediving after launch, it centralized the longstanding discontent within the Pokemon fandom. Fans lambasted basically everything about each game for over a decade, even with games that are now beloved. The gripes were so wide-ranging that no singular criticism ever really gained momentum.
That changed with Palworld, though.
The Pokemon games, they said, were being hindered by the game’s annual release cycle and Game Freak was paradoxically also lazy for maintaining that quick churn of new games. Palworld, a game that heavily relied upon stock Unreal Engine assets and demonstrably stole assets from Pokemon games, was somehow a higher-effort endeavor.
It made little sense out of hand, but it was a popular enough talking point to be latched onto among the broader gaming fandom. The reveal of Pokemon Wind and Waves shows that The Pokemon Company may have actually taken that to heart, though.
2024 didn’t feature a major mainline Pokemon game release, making it the first full calendar year without either a game or DLC since 2015. Pokemon Legends: Z-A arrived in 2025 and while it didn’t achieve rave reviews, it boasted solid performance and stability on both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. The game still took heat for the lack of voice acting and underwhelming visuals, but those shortcomings can arguably be chalked up to its cross-generation release.
Pokemon Winds and Waves was presented as a proper Switch 2 exclusive and will let Game Freak flex its muscles when it comes to making a game on a console that isn’t terribly underpowered. Judging from that first look, it could be a radical aesthetic improvement from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Regardless, the before-and-after is stark when it comes to how the Pokemon franchise is being approached. Following Palworld’s release, The Pokemon Company has put more time aside for major game releases than ever before. Though Palworld was never a real competitor to Pokemon, trainers still owe at least a bit of gratitude.
