Pokémon fans are convinced that more classic games are coming to the Nintendo Switch later this year.

To celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, classic remakes of the original games FireRed & LeafGreen were made available to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 owners in February. In the first six weeks, more than 4million people downloaded the 2004 Game Boy Advance titles.

Many fans assumed Nintendo had just used an old version of FireRed & LeafGreen for the release but shortly after launch, a few subtle changes were discovered. An updated censor will stop you from using NSFW language when naming Pokémon and event tickets have been added to the post-game, meaning fans can now catch legendary creatures Ho-Oh and Lugia.

Looking at the game’s source code, dataminer Meatball_132 also discovered that FireRed & LeafGreen will “recognise” Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. Those games were originally released in 2003 and as it stands, it’s impossible to complete the National Dex in FireRed & LeafGreen without them.

Earlier this week, a leaker claimed Ruby & Sapphire would launch for the Nintendo Switch  in either September or October. Shortly afterwards, Nintendo announced that FireRed & LeafGreen would become compatible with their cross-game trading system Pokémon Home in October. “Once linked, you’ll be able to transfer Pokémon befriended in these titles and bring them to other games in the Pokémon series,” they explained in a blog post. 

A new Pokémon TCG set featuring Ruby & Sapphire legendary Rayquaza is also set to launch later this year. Because of all this, many fans believe Ruby & Sapphire are set for a re-release. “If true, anticipate an announcement the last weekend of August. Pokémon Worlds Championship is held then and they usually plan a couple smaller reveals during the event,” one fan wrote on Reddit.  “It blows my mind they don’t have their entire library accessible,” said another. 

In other news, a sequel to the hugely popular Hogwarts Legacy has finally been confirmed by Warner Bros. Games.

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