Why Are Classic Pokémon Games Not On Switch?

Where in the world are the retro Pokemon games? It's been so long since NSO launched on the Switch and we still haven't managed to see even Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow on the platform. Now that the 3DS and Wii U eShops are shut down, there's no way we can buy these legally anymore.

My links:

[JacobCruise]

What’s your favorite Pokemon game? Comment below! ❤

[kephalai]

so that they can sell you the eventual remakes for full price 70$

[Galo]

Because GameFreak don't want people playing 25 year old games and realizing they have more fun with them than they do with the latest titles on Switch.

[ilovegarradors]

I'm so happy I still have all my old Pokemon games and orginal hardware. But it is terrible there aren't easy ways for the fans who don't, to play them. New fans are missing out on not only great games but also pieces of Pokemon history.

[slimjimoil]

Gamefreak knows gen 3 alone is better than anything they've churned out in a decade

[doopness]

The 3DS versions of Gen 1&2 had the savestates and rewind disabled so that could absolutely do it the save way on the switch.

[GalcianBTH]

Because if you could catch certain legendaries in them they wouldn't sell you DLC that's only purpose is making them available.

[Mage_Nichlas_]

To be fair, if they hadn't built up such bad will with the new games then the "Awesome classic releases might take away from modern sales." idea wouldn't be a worry.
Also, I personally really love the idea of keeping every Pokémon I care about and grow attached to. If they don't allow me to transfer up a Shiny Rattata I find and I have to just delete it for a new file then it's a No Purchase from me.

[jokerpilled]

I’m glad you made this video, we were talking about this during your livestream chat and it really puts into perspective Nintendo’s current meta and how the OG Pokémon fans should move forward instead of hoping Nintendo gives us what we want. As long as they don’t start copyrighting emulated games, there shouldn’t be a big issue. We just need to make it more easily accessible and convenient to play classic games.

[codingjhames]

I hate all the pokemon games on switch, this time will be remembered as the "Dark age of Pokemon"

[AzureFlute]

In fairness, BDSP was likely not meant to be a thing. They were pretty slap-dashed together because more time was going to be needed for Legends Arceus, but it does still run back to the point that the remakes were meant to be a holiday release to make sure they could get money from that big rush of sales.

That said I don't actually think retro games rereleased on Switch would even hurt modern sales. The Virtual Console releases of Gen 1 and 2 sold relatively well for what they were but nowhere near the sales of the actual 3DS mainline titles.

I *would* like RBY and GSC on NSO though, specifically because it's been shown you can connect them to Stadium on NSO through unofficial means and it would be great to have that connectivity again.

[Goremejy]

It’s obviously so they can sell us them in a “classic Pokemon” bundle or something.

[Tristan_Shuler]

The optimist in me hopes that they’re waiting to announce them for the Switch 2. The realist in me knows they haven’t and they won’t because money from new, rushed, soulless remakes is what makes more money.

[ziggy]

I would throw so much money at classic Pokémon games on the switch

[minislayer]

I mean, DPPT EShop release that's sold for like 5 million copies and sold for 15-20 bucks each, or two brand new games that's sold for 30 million copies in total for 60 bucks each

It's just too simple to answer this question

Look up VC releases of RBGY and GSC if you think that I'm underestimating things

[knatkniht]

Also, the 3DS pokemon ports don't have rewind or save states, and that fixes the issue with exploitation.

[pokeman]

I mean, transferring Pokémon from older games to Pokémon Home isn’t impossible. We could transfer Pokémon from the Gen 1/2 games to Pokémon Bank back in the day.

[danieldishon]

I believe they are saving it for the 30th anniversary. That would be the best way to give us a master collection of most, if not all of the hand held games that currently are not accessible in the Switch. And it would give them time to plan for the compatibility of the master collection of the old games with Pokémon Home and other potential Pokémon projects they might be working on for the Switch 2.

[joffam]

They haven't figured out a way to milk more money yet.

[Zaccyonline]

I want Pokémon to license Square Enix’s HD-2D style and give us the old games updated that way.