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Earlier this year, Pokemon fans were surprised and delighted when the 2004 Kanto remakes Pokemon FireRed <\/em>and LeafGreen <\/em>released for Nintendo Switch. The decision to drop the retro games as standalone ports rather than Nintendo Switch Online additions raised some eyebrows. And yet, fans flocked to revisit their memories of Kanto. Since then, many of us have been wondering when we might get to play other retro Pokemon titles on modern consoles. Now, an encouraging new report from Nintendo makes it seem like it\u2019s just a matter of time. <\/p>\n With all the anticipation for Pokemon Pokopia, <\/em>the timing for Nintendo\u2019s decision to drop Pokemon FireRed <\/em>and LeafGreen <\/em>on Switch seemed like a bold choice. And since it released, Pokemon\u2019s first life sim has certainly taken center stage as one of the year\u2019s highest-rated and most popular new games. Yet it would seem that Nintendo knew exactly what they were doing with that retro release. According to Nintendo\u2019s latest financial report, the Kanto remakes sold nearly as well as Pokemon Pokopia<\/em>. And that could be exactly the good news fans have been waiting for. <\/p>\n Courtesy of The Pokemon Comany<\/p>\n According to Nintendo\u2019s May 8th financial report, Pokemon FireRed <\/em>and LeafGreen <\/em>sold over 4 million units worldwide in the 6 weeks after release. For ports of 22-year-old games, that\u2019s pretty impressive. In fact, the retro ports nearly match the popularity of Pokemon Pokopia, <\/em>which sold over 4 million units in its first 5 weeks. Of course, <\/em>Pokopia <\/em>is a Switch 2 exclusive, so its sales are limited by ownership of the newer Nintendo console. But even so, with how close these games released to one another, those sales figures are pretty impressive.<\/p>\n If Pokemon FireRed <\/em>and LeafGreen <\/em>were a test run for The Pokemon Company, it\u2019s safe to say these initial sales figures are encouraging. Though 4 million is nowhere near the original\u2019s 12 million count, it\u2019s still early days for the ports. And as a digital-only release, it\u2019s safe to say the profit margins here are better than with a physical game release. And that could mean fan enthusiasm for the Kanto remakes will set the stage for the retro Nintendo Switch library many Pokemon fans hope to see.<\/p>\n Thus far, ports for other early Pokemon games have not been confirmed. However, many fans are hoping to see titles like HeartGold<\/em> and SoulSilver <\/em>release for the Nintendo Switch eventually. If the Kanto remakes had sold poorly, that would\u2019ve been pretty unlikely. But with strong early sales for the 2004 hits, it feels like it\u2019s just a matter of time before we see other older Pokemon games on the Nintendo Switch. And with a long wait for Pokemon Winds and Waves<\/em> ahead of us, sooner would be better than later. <\/p>\n Courtesy of The Pokemon Company<\/p>\n HeartGold <\/em>and SoulSilver <\/em>would make a lot of sense for the next retro re-release, since the Johto remakes followed in Kanto\u2019s footsteps. Those games initially released in the U.S. in March, so we\u2019ve missed the anniversary drop opportunity there. However, their Japan release date was Sepetember 12th, so that could <\/em>be another potential chance for Pokemon to hit us with the next Switch ports. Given that we don\u2019t have much lined up for the rest of 2026, this wouldn\u2019t be terrible timing. <\/p>\n Of course, since FireRed <\/em>and LeafGreen <\/em>let fans visit Johto as part of their extended journey, some fans think we\u2019ll skip right to Hoenn remakes, instead. Omega Ruby <\/em>and Alpha Sapphire<\/em> got their original release back in November 2014, so the anniversary drop timing would be pretty fitting there, too. After all, Pokemon fans are pretty used to getting a new game in the fall. And thus far, there\u2019s nothing on the horizon for fall 2026. <\/p>\n For now, there\u2019s nothing official in the works for more retro Pokemon ports to the Switch. But the sales report from Nintendo is a really encouraging sign for future re-releases of older games. <\/p>\n Which older Pokemon game do you most hope to see on the Nintendo Switch? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earlier this year, Pokemon fans were surprised and delighted when the 2004 Kanto remakes Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen released for Nintendo Switch. The decision to drop the retro games as standalone ports rather than Nintendo Switch Online additions raised some eyebrows. And yet, fans flocked to revisit their memories of Kanto. Since then, many of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3006,77,3718,1143,560,389,5264,4198,675,314],"class_list":{"0":"post-7687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-releases","8":"tag-future","9":"tag-games","10":"tag-good","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nintendo","13":"tag-pokemon","14":"tag-ports","15":"tag-report","16":"tag-retro","17":"tag-switch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pokemon FireRed <\/em>and LeafGreen<\/em>\u2018s Success Paves the Way for More Switch Ports<\/h2>\n