I think some of us are getting too hung up on the part that says the catching mechanic will return from Pokemon Go. I am almost certain that doesn't refer to the actual "battle" phase of Pokemon Go, where you use berries and such to lure in Pokemon and catch them, kind of like Safari Zone in the main Pokemon games, with no actual battling and weakening of wild Pokemon. I am almost certain that refers to the fact that there are no random encounters in Pokemon Go, nearby Pokemon show up as an icon on your map which you can click to enter into the catching phase with. I think that is what the leak means, that wild Pokemon will be visible in the overworld for the first time in a mainline Pokemon game, and you just walk or surf to the Pokemon that you want to battle with. The leaked screenshot indicated that was true:

As you can see, the wild Pokemon are visible on the overworld, there is a Gyrados at the back and a Tentacool to the right. Hard to tell what the other 3 are since it was an off-screen blurry screenshot. The fact that all of the Pokemon seem to be from Gen 1 and the fact that Eevee is out of his ball riding on his trainers head, indicates that this leaked screenshot from a month ago matches with the details of this leak.

I mean if that was only the case, I would assume the leaker would have simply said that random encounters are going away or that encountering Pokemon would resemble Pokemon Go. The catch system they seem to be alluding to, to me anyways, sounds like the portion in Pokemon Go were you through the balls and where in past core RPG games you try to weaken the Pokemon before catching it.

At this point, I just wish someone leaked screenshots of the encounter system when dealing with wild Pokemon as well as the general battle system when facing off against other trainers and gyms. The rumours and leaks as they are now are a cause for concern for those of us that do not want a simplification of the core RPG mechanics, even though they are still quite vague in many ways.

Logically it will end up like this, but i just can't get away from my prediction that what will happen is Animal Crossing in September, Smash in November and Pokemon in March

Logically it will end up like this, but i just can't get away from my prediction that what will happen is Animal Crossing in September, Smash in November and Pokemon in March

i could see AC being announced but a 2019 release

We'll see, but you are probably right. i don't even remember why i got so hung up on Animal Crossing releasing this year