The Pokémon Company Confirms Pokémon Pokopia Is Not The Only Release That Won’t Receiving A Native Physical Release

Recently, The Pokémon Company held its periodic Pokémon Presents showcase. During the presentation, it featured plenty of ongoing projects as well as some new installments underway. One such announcement is 10th generation titles Pokémon Winds & Pokémon Waves. The new entry takes the series out of European-inspired settings to a new tropical backdrop with emphasis on island archipelagos. The game is slated to ship next year in 2027.

As for the current 2026, The Pokémon Company & Koei Tecmo is preparing to launch Pokémon Pokopia next week. While a new entry for the 30-year franchise, it will mark the first release with Pokémon attached that is a Game-Key Card. Similarly, The Pokémon Company also shipped both Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen on the Nintendo eShop.

While the company has always been adamant on releasing physically, this is another example of skipping traditional avenues for the series. During the showcase, the Pokémon company COO Takato Utsunomiya verified that the modern remakes are to remain on the digital store permanently. You can watch the segment of the show in the video below:

“The Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen games – remakes of the Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green games in Japan – were released on the Game Boy Advanced in 2004. Today, these games have been made available to play once more as download-exclusive titles on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2,” Utsunomiya stated in the segment.

This is a growing concern for the sake of preservation since the beginning of this new console generation for Nintendo. Both Pokémon Pokopia alongside Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen are not eligible to be included in the National Diet Library in Japan. And this number has steadily risen for titles on the new console. You can read the full report by heading here.

Were you hoping either Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen were to receive a physical release?

Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen is out now for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.