Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald Switch port truthers believe they have gotten an extra bit of ammo thanks to a Pokemon Home update released today.
Last month, fans noticed that some Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire footage posted by an official Japanese Pokemon Twitter account was somewhat suspicious. Namely the footage was surprisingly crisp for a 2002 Game Boy Advance game and it lasted exactly 30 seconds – which is how long video clips saved onto a Switch console last. Given that these looked somewhat in line with the Switch versions of FireRed and LeafGreen, speculation naturally kicked off that the other Gen 3 games would join the remakes.
Today, The Pokemon Company rolled out an update for Pokemon Home which allows players to transfer their FireRed and LeafGreen monsters into the app, and then bring them forward to other games in the series – although once they leave their GBA home they won’t be able to return.
However, as pointed out by a user on ResetEra, the new button added to the app’s menu says “GBA games” as opposed to specifying that it’s FireRed and LeafGreen, which they believe could be a hint at future ports of other GBA titles – namely, Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald.
Of course, at risk of sounding like a downer, this could mean nothing. A button labeled GBA games is far more space efficient that a button specifically namedropping FireRed and LeafGreen. That being said, given that Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are now way higher on the list of the best-selling Pokemon games of all time thanks to the new Switch re-releases, I would be shocked if The Pokemon Company leaves the potential money of Gen 3 ports off the table.