Take this one with heavy skepticism until Nintendo or The Pokémon Company confirms anything directly: a fresh datamine plus a separate insider leak are both pointing toward Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald landing on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 later this year as GBA ports, following the same format as February's FireRed and LeafGreen releases.

The more concrete piece of evidence is a datamine, not a rumor from an anonymous source. Bluesky user Yakumono found that Sloop, the Game Boy Advance emulator Nintendo built for FireRed and LeafGreen's Switch release, contains initialization code with what are described as "emulator hacks for different titles" - and that code specifically recognizes ROMs for Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, the same way it already recognizes FireRed and LeafGreen. Leak aggregator CentroLeaks verified and amplified the find. It's worth being careful about what this actually proves: the emulator being built to run these ROMs isn't the same as an official release being scheduled, but it's a strong signal that at minimum, the groundwork exists.

Layered on top of that is a separate claim from insider Shpeshal Nick, who has a solid recent track record on Nintendo leaks, including reportedly getting the Zelda-themed Switch 2 hardware and the 40th Anniversary Pro Controller right before either was officially announced. Nick's claim is that Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald ports are currently targeting a "late September or October" release window. No pricing, platform split between Switch and Switch 2, or bundling details were included. (Sources: Vice, GameRant)

If it happens, the expectation across outlets covering this is that these would be faithful ports rather than full remakes, closer to how FireRed and LeafGreen shipped on Switch than to something like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's 3D rebuild. That would likely mean the original Game Boy Advance experience with some modern conveniences layered on, potentially including online trading and Pokémon HOME compatibility, rather than a ground-up reimagining of Hoenn.

The timing lines up with an obvious gap in the release calendar. Pokémon Winds & Waves, the actual Generation 10 games, aren't landing until 2027 at the earliest, and 2026 is the franchise's 30th anniversary year. A low-effort, high-nostalgia GBA port slotting into that gap - the same playbook FireRed and LeafGreen already followed earlier this year - tracks with how Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have been filling anniversary-year gaps elsewhere. Early fan reaction to the rumor has leaned positive, with plenty of people hoping for a similarly low price point to FireRed and LeafGreen's Switch release.

Nothing here is official. No release date, pricing, or platform lineup has been confirmed by Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, and until one of them says something directly, this stays a rumor built on a datamine and a single insider's claim, however well-sourced that insider has been recently. We'll update this if anything more solid surfaces.

Sources for this piece: Vice, GameRant, ScreenRant, and Dexerto.