The Pokemon franchise has undergone several major changes over the years when it comes to the gameplay formula, with entries like Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Legends: Z-A being some of the most notable departures in the genre. Even though the mainline Pokemon games still face plenty of criticism for supposedly cutting corners in their development, the franchise is still as popular as ever with plenty of ambitious projects on the horizon.
While spinoffs like Pokemon Pokopia and the 300 new Pokemon being added in Winds and Waves have been drawing plenty of attention already, a Nintendo insider has once again brought up a project that could drastically change the genre of the franchise moving forward.
A Project That Sounds Like A Dream Come True
As noted by Dexerto on X, Pokemon is currently rumored to have been developing a multi-region MMORPG adaptation of the franchise for quite some time, and while we still know painfully little about the project, we do know that GameFreak has slowly been building towards it over the past several entries in the franchise.
Although the information isn’t entirely new, as the ambitious multiplayer adaptation was leaked last year, the current rumors by CentroLeaks suggest that it will be launching not after the newest Pokemon Winds and Waves, but after the next mainline game scheduled for the franchise.
Fans have also raised some understandable concerns in response to the announcement as well, with players noting that Game Freak still struggles with the quality of their single-player experiences, with the scale of an MMO potentially being too much to handle. Regardless of how it turns out, we’ll have to wait quite a while to see the Pokemon MMO come to fruition given it’s supposedly releasing two generations in the future.
There’s Plenty Of Demand For A Pokemon MMO
As noted by CentroLeaks, the announcement isn’t exactly a shock either, since Pokemon has been slowly building towards the full-blown MMO experience that fans have been craving for years now, with Sword and Shield starting it off by letting you “see random online players in real time in some areas.”
Newer entries have also built upon this even more, with Scarlet and Violet offering interactions “with online players across the whole map,” and the upcoming Winds and Waves supposedly offering “MMO-style quests” and “co-op play with friends.”
Players have already made several fan-made Pokemon MMOs in response to the demand, like PokeMMO.
Although fans have raised additional concerns that the online aspect will overtake the single-player nature of the franchise, Pokemon has always had a strong multiplayer component since its very inception, with co-operative and online play being a natural progression for the games. Even still, it’s hard to imagine Nintendo completely abandoning single-player in favor of an exclusively live-service Pokemon experience.
- Created by
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Satoshi Tajiri
- First Film
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Pokemon: The First Movie
- Latest Film
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Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
- First Episode Air Date
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April 1, 1997
- Video Game(s)
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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Pokemon Legends Arceus, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Pokemon Sun and Moon, Pokemon Black and White, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Pokémon GO, Pokemon Snap, Pokémon Unite, New Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Masters EX, Pokemon TCG Live
