Nintendo Sets Date for More Pokemon Sun & Moon Details

Fresh off a big win with Pokémon GO, Nintendo and development partner GameFreak are ready to reveal when we’ll learn more about the Pokémon Sun & Moon game that the two plan to launch just before the holiday season starts. Nintendo revealed when it’d have more Pokémon Sun & Moon details to share with the public earlier this morning on the game’s website.

Pokémon Sun & Moon is the second and third big releases for the franchise this calendar year. Pokémon GO, a mobile version of the franchise that requires smartphone owners to explore the world around them, launched in early July. These new games aren’t meant for smartphones; instead they’ll come to the Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo 3DS handhelds. Nintendo has already confirmed the Pokémon Sun & Moon release date as November 16th in the United States. The release is set for November 18th in Europe.

Siliconera reports that the Japanese version of the game’s official site confirms an announcement for the game on August 1st at 10AM Japanese Standard Time. That’s 6AM Pacific Standard Time and 9 AM Eastern Standard Time in the United States. Nintendo didn’t include a statement with the announcement, nor did it confirm what the new details it’ll announce. Included in the image on the website are pictures of four creatures for Pokémon Sun & Moon revealed, all of which were announced this week. Besides confirming those creatures for the game, Nintendo also revealed that players will be able to hold their own competitions using Global Link. That’s something they haven’t been able to do in previous games.

Read: All the New Pokémon in Pokémon Sun and Moon

If Nintendo and GameFreak stick to their usual release teases template, we’ll definitely see more Pokémon announced on August 1st. The announcement videos usually provide details on a handful of new creatures before highlighting an upgraded game mechanic. Perhaps Nintendo will reveal more about how Pokémon Sun & Moon interact with PokeBank and older parts of the franchise. We already know that players will be able to trade creatures with owners of the digital re-releases of Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue.

Read: Mythical Pokémon Giveaway: What You Need to Know

Revealed as part of the Pokémon 20th Anniversary Celebration, Pokémon Sun & Moon will take place in a completely different region from others we’ve gotten in the franchise before. Players will tour and meet the citizens of Alola, a chain of islands that’s very, very similar to the real-life Hawaiian Islands. The area is dominated by a huge Volcano. There’s a new foremost Pokémon expert to collect creatures for, plus a mysterious assistant that fits into the game’s overarching narrative somehow. Player’s PokeDex is actually in habited by a Pokémon itself.

Nintendo is also giving users access to legendary creatures from older generations of Pokémon as part of the Pokémon 20th Anniversary Celebration on its website.

Of course, a new generation of Pokémon handheld games means a new generation of creatures. Besides the Mudsdale, Bounsweet, Comefy and Wimpod shown off in the announcement for these new details, there are three new starter Pokémon. They are Rowlet, Litten and Popplio. Popplio is a Water-type Pokémon that sort of looks like a seal. Litten is best described as a Fire-kitten. Rowlet is a Grass and Flying hybrid that wears leaves as a bow tie.

Pokémon Sun & Moon pre-orders are already available at Amazon, Best Buy and GameStop, though Nintendo isn’t giving players anything extra for purchasing the game more than three months before its release.

It’s likely that Nintendo will keep dropping new videos of creatures and mechanics once a month until November.