UPDATED 11:54 EDT / FEBRUARY 26 2016

NEWS

Nintendo Direct officially confirms ‘Pokemon Sun’ and ‘Pokemon Moon’ for holiday 2016 release

In today’s Nintendo Direct, The Pokemon Company CEO and President Tsunekazu Ishihara looked back on the legacy of the now 20-year-old multimedia franchise and announced that the next two entries into the series, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, will be arriving at the end of the year.

During the Nintendo Direct, Ishihara introduced a video “commemorating all Pokemon trainers,” which showcased the series’ handheld gaming history, from the original Nintendo Game Boy in 1996 through the Nintendo 3DS today. It concluded with the unveiling of Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, which are slated for release during the 2016 holiday season.

Details are sparse about the actual gameplay of the newly announced Pokemon games, but then again, it’s Pokemon—we pretty much know what we’re getting.

A new feature that was announced, however, is the ability to transfer Pokemon caught in the upcoming re-releases of Pokemon Red and Blue and Pokemon Yellow to the new games.

“Beginning with the Game Boy Advance games, we made it possible for you to take the Pokemon you caught and bring them over to the next generation of games, even if they were on different hardware,” Ishihara said. “However, we were never able to solve the communication issues with the Game Boy, and it was not possible to bring Pokemon from the Game Boy games over to games on other hardware.”

“That is why I am happy to announce that the new digital distributions of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow will take advantage of the online Pokemon storage service, Pokemon Bank. That way, you can bring them over to your Pokemon Sun or Pokemon Moon game.”

Ishihara also noted that in addition to the seven languages that had previously been available for the most recent Pokemon games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon would also be adding an option for Traditional and Simplified Chinese.

“We hope that through Pokemon, players can overcome language barriers and interact with other players from around the world,” Ishihara said.

Screenshot via Nintendo.com/Nintendo-Direct

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