Pokémon Winds & Waves Release Date Splits Gamers

6 days ago 9

Pokemon Winds Waves Character looking to the sky

Published May 2, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT

Austin King is the Senior Editor of Gaming at ScreenRant and has been with the site since 2020 with a focus on RPGs and tabletop games. He previously managed content for Geek to Geek Media, and has served as a writer for sites like Nintendad, Geek Fitness, and more.

In addition to his work at ScreenRant, he also hosts the Dragon Quest FM podcast and is the author of several books, including co-writing Nimbus (a #1 bestseller in 2013). His latest is the nonfiction The Dragon Quest Book, available now.

He's written about pop culture, video games, and genre studies over the course of his career. You can find him on BlueSky, X, and at Dragonquestaustin.com

Pokémon Winds and Waves are coming out in 2027. The Gen 10 games were officially revealed in February during the Pokémon Presents, showing off islands, biomes, returning Pokémon, and the newest Starters. Beyond that, fans have mostly had to rely on leaks and rumors to find out more about Winds and Waves, but that hasn't necessarily always been a good thing.

Over on X, Centro Leaks reiterated this assessment, which has not been officially confirmed, writing, "the current consensus is that Pokémon Winds & Waves will be a late 2027 release." The post goes on to say, "the delay is mostly for optimization and just waiting for Switch 2 install base to grow a bit."

However, the term delay is a bit of a misnomer. At no point were Winds and Waves given an earlier release date or window in an official capacity, despite fans (and some insiders) claiming the Gen 10 titles would come out in early 2027 or even late 2026. For many fans, a late 2027 launch — especially in November — has always seemed like the most likely scenario.

This is one of the various things fans are split on when it comes to the latest release date leak. A few see the extra time as a good sign that Pokémon is avoiding the performance issues that notoriously plagued Scarlet and Violet. "I'm glad they’re trying to make it not a complete mess. Hope they get it running at 60fps too," wrote one user on X.

"Not a good sign since previous games have been know [sic] to be a technical disaster," commented another user in the same thread. Another commenter agreed: "If this is true, this game better run flawlessly with minimal or zero game-breaking bugs."

So, while some fans have seen this as a good thing, hoping a longer development means a game that runs smoothly, others see it as a bit of an affront. Basically, they see this as a sign that performance issues are still a problem and are upset that the 30th Anniversary this year hasn't seen the release of a new mainline game. With a release date for Pokémon Winds and Waves still a long ways off, fans are going to have plenty of time to keep debating this, though.