Written by: [jomifisi](https://comuniq.xyz/profile?u=jomifisi_17) <br>When Nintendo released Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on Switch on February 27, 2026, the dataminer Yakumono (also known as LuigiBlood) opened the emulator that runs both games and found something nobody had announced: the software explicitly recognizes ROMs for Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. Almost eight months later, with an insider pointing to this autumn, an official 30-second clip with footage too clean to be Game Boy Advance, and a Pokémon HOME update arriving, that old discovery has become the most interesting piece of the puzzle again. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company still haven't announced anything. But the clues are no longer few. ## Timeline of the clues: from February to October 9 The noise of recent weeks mixes facts, rumors and optimistic readings, so it helps to put everything in order and separate what happened from what someone thinks happened. - **February 20:** the FireRed and LeafGreen pages appear on the eShop with February 27 as the release date. They arrive at $19.99 each, in separate language versions, like the original cartridges. - **Right after launch:** Yakumono analyzes the emulator and finds it recognizes the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald ROMs, alongside those of FireRed and LeafGreen. - **May 8:** the two games total 4 million units sold in six weeks. - **August 13:** The Pokémon Company announces that HOME will link with FireRed and LeafGreen in October. Around the same time, the insider Shpeshal Nick claims on X that Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are coming to Switch and Switch 2 in late September or October. - **September:** the official Japanese Pokémon account posts a video with unusually high-quality Ruby and Sapphire footage, running exactly 30 seconds, the maximum length of Switch video captures. The source of the footage was not identified. - **October 7:** Pokémon HOME 4.1.0 goes live with the link to FireRed and LeafGreen. - **October 9:** GameRant writes that an official update "basically confirms" the Hoenn versions. It doesn't confirm them. More on that below. One detail jumps out from the list: none of these points is an announcement of Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald. They are all side signals, and each one alone would withstand an innocent explanation. Together they start to carry weight. ## What the emulator proves and what it leaves open In my reading, the emulator finding is the most solid item on the list and, at the same time, the easiest to overestimate. Solid because it doesn't depend on anyone saying anything: it's code that is already there, published by Nintendo itself, with a list of recognized ROMs that has room for all five third-generation games. Whoever builds a tool like this once has every reason to reuse it, and leaving entries prepared for the remaining titles is the kind of engineering decision that costs almost nothing. And that's where the problem lies. Costing almost nothing to include also means costing almost nothing to leave dormant. A dataminer finding references to a game in a file says nothing about commercial intent, about schedule, or about whether the project ever moved forward. The industry is full of things found in code and never released, and anyone who has covered this for years knows that the conversion rate from "it's in the files" to "it's on sale" is far lower than headlines make it seem. So why does it still matter? Because the finding doesn't come alone. A prepared emulator, an insider with a date, an official clip that looks like a Switch capture, and a HOME link that has just gone into production form a sequence that, if it's coincidence, is a coincidence with very good aim. It isn't proof. It's a pattern, and patterns have the advantage that they can be tested in the coming weeks. ## The National Pokédex as a forgotten argument ### The gap FireRed and LeafGreen left behind There is a practical, rarely mentioned reason why Hoenn is missing from the Kanto games on Switch. In the originals, completing the National Pokédex depended on trades with third-generation games, which carried creatures from Kanto over to Hoenn. On Switch that is no longer possible, because there is no compatibility between current consoles and the Game Boy Advance. Anyone who bought FireRed or LeafGreen to complete the Pokédex ended up, by definition, with a game they can't complete on their own. It could be a design accident, inherited from a faithful conversion. It could also be the most convenient flaw Nintendo ever had, because it leaves a piece missing exactly where the catalog's next release would fit. ### What HOME changes in the equation The October 7 update brought two rules that matter. The first: having a Pokémon registered in the FireRed or LeafGreen Pokédex is enough for it to be registered in HOME, with no transfer needed. The second: anyone who completes the Pokédex in those games receives a Celebi on the mobile version of HOME. The link became an ecosystem with rewards and records, and an ecosystem like that asks for games to feed it. Add a date that carries weight: Pokémon Bank on the 3DS shuts down in February 2027. I won't say the two things are connected, because I have no information saying so. What you can see is Nintendo tidying the house before something else happens, and houses usually get tidied when someone is coming. ## The precedent: 4 million in six weeks The economic argument is the one that convinces me most. FireRed and LeafGreen sold 4 million units in six weeks at $19.99, and the rough math, at list price and without discounting anything, comes to close to $80 million. That's a number I calculated, not Nintendo's, but it gives the order of magnitude. For a project that is essentially the original game running on an emulator that already exists, the margin is hard to ignore. In Brazil, the press pointed to the same price of 109.90 reais as the first-generation remakes if Hoenn follows the same path. It's speculation on top of speculation, but it shows how the market already treats this as a predictable continuation rather than a surprise. Then there's the comparison with what already exists. Hoenn got a modern treatment in 2014, with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the 3DS, but the original Game Boy Advance versions have never been re-released on Switch. And the second-hand market never forgave that: an original cartridge can cost more than $200 used. When something is worth that much outside the official circuit and has been unavailable inside it for years, any company realizes it's leaving money on the table. GameRant and KitGuru also point out that the expected format would be simple ports of the original versions, with no changes to graphics or gameplay, which lowers the cost even further. ## The date: why November enters the conversation Shpeshal Nick's window, late September or October, is closing, and nothing has been announced. That doesn't destroy the rumor, but it forces you to look at it with less urgency. The insider's track record is debated: Gamereactor describes him as someone with a mixed record who gets Nintendo matters right now and then, while other sites treat him as a source with an excellent recent hit rate. Neither description is false, which is why caution makes sense. The detail that interests me most is another. Collider notes that the Japanese clip was posted exactly two months before the Japanese anniversary of Ruby and Sapphire, which falls in November. Notebookcheck calls this what it is: an inference, not an established fact. Even so, if Nintendo likes to use symbolic dates, and it did so on Pokémon Day with FireRed and LeafGreen, then the end of the October window may just be the start of the November one. And there's the short-notice precedent. Nintendo revealed FireRed and LeafGreen about a week before they reached the eShop. If Hoenn follows the same script, an announcement could appear with no warning at all, and the lack of movement today says little about what comes tomorrow. ## Where I think this is heading ### The pattern that repeats Over the last eight months The Pokémon Company has built a fairly legible sequence: first the Kanto games on Pokémon Day, then the HOME link months later, now a discreet signal about Hoenn. Each step can be read in isolation as maintenance. Together they look like a schedule. If I had to bet, I'd bet on Hoenn arriving on Switch between November and early 2027, with more confidence in the release existing than in the date. ### The part almost nobody is discussing Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald have something FireRed and LeafGreen never had: they depend on a clock. Berries grow in real time, the tides in Shoal Cave follow the hours of the day, and in the original cartridges the internal battery that powers that clock eventually dies, leaving half of these mechanics broken in many second-hand copies. A Switch port has to decide what to do about this: tie the clock to the console's, simulate a fixed time, or leave everything frozen. There is no official information or leak on how it will be handled, and it's exactly the kind of decision that separates an acceptable port from one fans will argue about for months. It's also still unknown whether Emerald comes alone or with the other two, whether the price follows Kanto's $19.99, and whether Switch 2 gets its own treatment. None of this has an answer today. And perhaps the most uncomfortable question isn't whether Hoenn arrives, but why a company that had the emulator ready, the market's interest and the will to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary left this for last.