The Pokemon rumor mills have been churning along throughout 2020. One main reason for this is that next year will see the 25th anniversary from one of the most beloved franchises in video game history, having broken the mold back in 1996 with the original triage, Red, Blue, and Yellow.
The Wikipedia page for "video game remake" pops up with remastered images of Pokemon Red and Blue sitting side-by-side with the original Game Boy handheld console. This is because The Pokemon Company is no stranger to remaking and porting old, nostalgic titles to the newest console. Beginning with FireRed and LeafGreen, the Pokemon franchise began remastering its highly successful games long ago on the Game Boy Advance and has not stopped since. The Nintendo DS saw the remastered versions of the second generation of Pokemon games, HeartGold and Soulsilver. And though they already received that colorized remake back in 2009, players could expect ports to the Switch happening next year.
Judging by the treatment the Super Mario series received with its 35th anniversary this year, it's expected that The Pokemon Company will have big plans for 2021. According to many rumors from industry insiders, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are currently in the works for a 2021 release window and may possibly also feature Gigantamaxing. Diamond and Pearl are the most logical ports to be on the way as they fall next in line, should Pokemon continue to follow the same trend. But taking a closer look at the meaning behind the 25th anniversary points in a big direction for HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes: the 25th anniversary is the year to gift silver, meaning The Pokemon Company may be gifting Silver to fans next year.
Gold and Silver Sales
Pokemon Gold and Silver saw success by drawing the same formula from the original three releases, Red, Blue, and Yellow. It made no real innovations to the game and kept with the same purview, though some may argue that The Pokemon Company is still doing this. The new games did introduce 100 new species of Pokemon and take the trainer to a new region also based on Japan. Gold and Silver recorded 23 million units sold by 2010, making them the best-selling games for the Game Boy Color, and to this day, many avid Poke fans consider them to be the best games in the entire series.
HeartGold and SoulSilver Reception
Because of the original Gold and Silver's renowned success, it was no mystery to see Nintendo DS ports release years later. HeartGold and SoulSilver fell in line with the 10th anniversary of the second-generation pair and were made to pay homage to what fans fell in love with the first time around while also feeling refreshing to long-time veteran players.
Some might argue that The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are mainly looking for an easy money grab by constantly porting old games to new consoles, which may be the case, but based on HeartGold and SoulSilver's success, they were generally concerned with pleasing fans back in 2009. The DS remakes' sales would also perform quite well, resulting in the duo being the eighth best-selling DS games of all time.
It might seem odd for Nintendo to re-release a video game a third time, but this isn't the first time the Japanese developer would've done it. Super Mario 64 saw a port to both the Nintendo DS and the Switch, so it's possible for Pokemon to follow the same path. There's also plenty of room for Game Freak to innovate Gold and Silver yet again as it did with by mimicking some elements seen in Diamond and Pearl on the DS remaster. Some have even posited that Nintendo may have plans to release Crystal (Gold and Silver's third counterpart) as Pokemon Let's Go! 2. However it may be done, it's likely Pokemon has plans to gift Silver to its fans for its 25th anniversary.
Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver ports are rumored to be in development.