With Nintendo Switch Coming, Pokemon Dev Discusses Franchise's Future on 3DS

Will Sun and Moon be the last mainline games for 3DS? Junichi Masuda weighs in.

"When it comes to the main series, thinking of Pokemon RPGs that we develop at Game Freak, we always really considered the timing of when we released them," Masuda said. "There has to be a certain point where we're able to release the games and get them into the hands of enough people, to make sure the audience is big enough. This year, with Pokemon Sun and Moon, obviously we're going to be starting to think about the next title, and then depending on what that timing is, I think that will determine which platform we would release it on."

"Thanks to our software, the 3DS hardware is still growing," Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said in an interview. "So that business still has momentum. And certainly rather than being cannibalized by the Switch, we think the 3DS can continue in its own form."

For the full article, please go to:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/with-nintendo-switch-coming-pokemon-dev-discusses-/1100-6445232/

I hope so. I don't see a reason to keep it in the 3DS if NSwitch is gonna cover the portable market as well.
Plus a Pokemon game on the NSwitch is probably gonna be able to be a bigger scale game, which is something I've always felt this franchise needs.

Nah, I think there'll be atleast one more next year.

If they have to do something, make a Sun2/Moon2 and move on to the Switch, leave the Shinnoh remake for the HD Switch.

I hope so. I think the 3DS would be pretty much dead if they considered releasing the next gen game on it. May as well go to switch and try to push the series to bigger grounds.

Hopefully yeah, and its very likely.I personally believe that the Switch will have a very good year(in terms of hardware sales), and couple that with pokemon natural ability to sell consoles, and that would be a audience big enough to release a main entry on it, in lets say around a year after its initial release.

Maybe one more mainline for the 3DS and then a mainline title for the Switch after it establishes a big enough userbase.  And as much as it makes financial sense to release games of a more establed platform, content sells hardware.  For the sake of the Switch and Nintendo, Pokemon needs to come to the Switch soon.

I'm wondering if Sun and Moon will skip a third version like X and Y did. That way a new gen two/three years from now can be released on the Switch and it could be announced in 2018 to get people excited.

I wouldn't mind the 3DS remaining heavily relevant for at least another 3-4 years. I know some wont agree.

Bring a Pokemon mainline game to the Switch and the user base will explode (regardless of how well it was selling at the time).
The more users the more you sell other games and the more enticing it is to third parties to make/port games (as long as it's relatively easy for them to port).

It's pretty basic, but it is up to them. But I really can't see another mainline hitting 3DS, so I'm hoping Switch is the next home.