So with the evidence overwhelmingly confirming Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee are real, it hit me recently exactly what GameFreak is going for here and that the gen 8 games fans have been clamoring for are still on their way and these are absolutely not meant to be them. If you look at the pattern since Gen 4, a remake has always come near the end of each gen.The reason Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee are throwing so many off, myself included at first, is because a) GameFreak has never switched consoles mid gen. The first Pokemon games on a system have always kicked off a new gen. And b) everyone expected the gen 7 remakes to be Diamond/Pearl for the obvious reasons.

But it makes perfect sense why GF would have bucked the trend/expectations in both of those cases when you think about it, and it's a good thing. I for one have always been reluctant to believe the gen 8 games would hit this year. This isn't a normal system jump for GF, they're making a huge leap from handheld to console/HD development for the first time in franchise history.  It's going to take a longer dev time than normal, maybe even longer than any of us anticipated. Perhaps GF realized to make the gen 8 games for Switch they wanted would take several years out from the Switch release. The problem being that demand for a Switch Pokemon game has been through the roof since Switch launched ,and I doubt Nintendo was willing to wait 3+ years post launch for the first titles in the franchise to hit the system.

So what better way than a remake for GF to get their feet wet in HD development and use it as a bit of a testing ground for what will work and what won't? Now of course it seems like the obvious route would have been to make the gen 4 remakes, but the only reason these remakes ever started getting made in the first place was to capitalize on fan nostalgia. I for one have never seen huge nostalgia for the post-gen 3 games. The vast majority of nostalgia in the fanbase is contained in those first 3 gens. And gen 1 is the undisputed nostalgia champ by a mile. Especially after Pokemon Go was so massive a couple years ago and really cemented the gen 1 pokemon as the most iconic and recognizable. So from a sales standpoint, it simply makes far more sense to revisit gen 1 than gen 4.

Basically, my theory is that Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee are simply the late gen 7 remakes we should have expected to get all along looking at history. The good thing about it being on Switch is that it gives them an outlet to hone their HD development skills and test what they want to use for the 8th gen. The rumored Go features for example are probably being put in to see how the fanbase reacts to them so they can decide just how much they want to incorporate that into the 8th gen games. These allow GF to release a Pokemon game to tide eager Switch owners over until they make the true next gen jump in 2020 or so, so they can have the dev time to give fans far more what they've been hoping Gen 8 on a console would be. 

I don't see this game or any game being a test.

Or the formula is going to advance, and we're truly going to get a big Pokemon rpg. Or it's going to get small tweaks here and there.

I think its entirely possible that this game is still gen 7, they have switched console mid gen before with Crystal being gb color exclusive, so why not now?

I'm still holding out for a sequel rather than a remake however, FR/LG are already great remakes, is it really necessary? Plus a large portion of the fanbase will react negatively to a second gen 1 remake. A sequel offers nostalgia but also the chance to show fans what has become of the kanto/johto regions all these years later.

Still there are so many possibilities, it could be a spin-off for all we know! Cant wait for the official big reveal!

Gen 8 this early did seem like something to good to be true, especially if it was to be big leap in the franchise.

So getting this to hold us over is great news in my book.

I don't still don't think it will be quite gen 7 as I very much don't think these games will be able to connect with Sun and Moon for battling and trading, but more like either gen 7.5 or a whole new second branch in the mainline series or maybe we have just come to the point were different set generations are no longer a thing.

I'd prefer a sequel to a remake as well, though I think it's worth noting that FireRed/LeafGreen are old enough games that another gen 1 remake, on an HD console no less, might not be as derivative as it initially seems. Is a remake to 14 year old games really that far fetched? A remake also allows them to focus more of their efforts on the true gen 8 games. 

There is no testing outside of R&D, the games they make are the games they make. No one will accept that excuse if the games are bad, so they damn better be good!

They could certainly use these games as a way to test how the fanbase reacts to certain features for Gen 8. Like the Go implementation for example. A Link Between Worlds was testing ground for BOTW if you don't understand what I mean. 

If I'm not mistaken, the Pokémon anime never stops or enter in really long fillers, so considering it's already started covering ultra sun/moon since October last year, and that pokemon seasons last about a year, I think there's no way in hell The Pokémon Company will wait until 2020 to make a season based on gen 8. I think Game Freak should focus on delivering a gen 8 game next year.

I have no doubt these games are being made with the developer's mindset being to create a good fun Yellow remake, not to test what works and what doesn't for Gen 8. Obviously new installments build off the previous and refer to feedback, but to say they're creating a game as a test makes the developers sound incompetent and sleezy. Having consumers pay full price just to test an underbaked game the developers couldn't be bothered to figure out what's good or not themselves. Plus since there's always another Pokemon game, when is the testing supposed to end? Has every Pokemon game ever just been a test? o_O

I heard it was supposed to be a remake of gen 1 and 2.