Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon will be last of its kind on 3DS

The upcoming Pokemon games, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, for the Nintendo 3DS will likely be the last titles in the series to appear on Nintendo’s handheld platform, according to developer Game Freak. This suggests the series will now find a more permanent home on the Nintendo Switch, starting with the core RPG title that was announced during E3. 

"When we were making Pokemon X and Y, we really were trying to push the 3DS system to its absolute limits – which is what we thought we’d done," Game Freak director Shigeru Ohmori told IGN. "But when Sun and Moon came around, we completely redesigned the system, and actually ended up pushing the 3DS even further to what we thought was the most we could draw out of it.

"With Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, we’ve tried to eke that out more and really, really push the system to its absolute limits, and we’re now feeling that perhaps this is the maximum of what we can get out. So we’re really treating Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon as the culmination of our work with the 3DS system."

Game Freak went on to say that around half the number of developers who worked on Sun and Moon had worked on their Ultra counterparts, but it’s currently unknown how much of the company’s resources are currently involved in making the aforementioned Switch title. 

Pokemon Sun and Moon were hugely successful in the UK, selling 1.5m units in their first week. They’ve since gone on to sell 15.67m worldwide, making them the second best-selling 3DS title of all time after Pokemon X and Y (which currently stand at 16.15m). While it’s unlikely Ultra Sun and Moon will replicate their success, they’re bound to be one of the big sellers for the console this Christmas. Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon launch on November 17th for the 3DS.