Just as most of the world are sinking their teeth into Pokémon Sun and Moon, Eurogamer have reported on a frankly incredible rumour: Pokémon Sun and Moon are getting a third version, codenamed Pokémon Stars, but on Nintendo Switch instead of 3DS.
This would mark two major milestones for Pokémon: It'd be the first time a main-series Pokémon generation spanned two console devices, but far more importantly, it would mark the first time in Pokémon's 20-year history that a main-series Pokémon game is playable on your TV without additional hardware.
Let's collect the rumours so far: Firstly, the game is being developed by Game Freak themselves, and the games have been in development in parallel with Sun and Moon themselves. That means that despite running on completely different hardware, Pokémon Stars already contains a lot of the content from Sun and Moon already.
In terms of release date, the games are likely to be released in late 2017. It's rumoured that the games were originally due for summer next year, but were delayed – likely so that all effort could be put into polishing Sun and Moon for today's release.
Those of you familiar with Pokémon know that the pattern of a third game usually includes minor enhancements over the existing games – Platinum had an expanded Pokédex and enhanced plot over Diamond and Pearl, for example, as well as extra features and post-game content. Rumour has it that Stars will be similarly enhanced - while it will still be set in Alola, and still use the same style as Sun and Moon, the game is likely to be expanded and polished over Sun and Moon.
The games will be indirectly compatible with Sun and Moon too - while there's no word on battling or trading between the two versions (it seems unlikely at this point), you'll be able to transfer your Pokémon between Sun/Moon and Stars using the Pokémon Bank app. There's also a suggestion – currently much less reliable than the other rumours in this article – that new Pokémon will be available in the Switch version. It's possible that this will simply mean new formes, like in ORAS and Platinum, but nothing is confirmed so far.
Lastly, the assets (Pokémon models, textures, etcetera) are said to be much higher-resolution in Stars than in Sun/Moon – indeed, the shot of Pikipek's model we saw all the way back in February is allegedly the Switch model, not the 3DS one.
That's everything we know right now – and remember, none of this has been confirmed by Nintendo yet. That said, it comes from reliable sources, so we're happy to pass it along. As always, stay tuned – we will be reporting on all the latest Pokémon news, whether that be Pokémon Sun, Moon, Stars, or anything else, as it appears!
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