Why Are Classic Pokémon Games Not On Switch?

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

short answer: nintendo sucks

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

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.

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.

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.

Greed is truly something else

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.

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.

Well, time to emulate!

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

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.

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

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

My cope is that they're waiting as long as possible to release them on the eShop, that way they maximize profits. If they release them too early, people will be busy with those and take away attention/sales from the mainline games. However, the way they released them on 3DS was Gen 1 eight months before the switch was announced, and then Gen 2 six months after it had launched. They're banking that the majority of people that'll buy it are the hardcore fans that'll buy it regardless of when they release it (which would probably be right). With 2024 being late into the switch's lifespan and all of the Scarlet and Violet DLC being finished, I think this coming Presents is a great time to announce them coming to either eShop or NSO over the next year or so.

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.

Your brought up some really good points, this is some underrated content, keep it up!

5:46 WOOOO i feel represented

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.

I feel like at the very least they could add gen 1 and maybe gen 2 games. It could be a way to reinvigorate interest in the series and provide a simple way for new generations to experience the games. Plus, people could trade and battle without having to buy a link cable.