Nintendo has been quiet about the upcoming Pokemon Sword and Shield since the games were officially announced a few months ago. However, Nintendo is expected to break its silence on Pokemon Sword and Shield at E3 2019 in June, where the games will likely be featured during the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation. While fans will have to wait until then for more official details on what Pokemon Sword and Shield have to offer, a recent Pokemon GO datamining effort suggests that the games will connect to one another.

Frequent Pokemon GO leaker Chrales posted his findings from the datamine, finding text that says "koala_settings." While this seems indecipherable on the surface, it's worth pointing out that Pokemon Let's Go was referred to as "beluga" in Pokemon GO's files, meaning there is a precedent for Switch Pokemon games to have animal codenames in POGO.

Since Pokemon Let's Go featured connectivity with Pokemon GO, the natural assumption is that this means Pokemon Sword and Shield (assuming they are what "koala" refers to) will have Pokemon GO connectivity as well. Pokemon Sword and Shield will be more traditional Pokemon gaming experiences, so it remains to be seen just how the games will incorporate Pokemon GO, if at all, but perhaps we'll learn more during the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation in June.

If fans are lucky, maybe the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation will also touch on some of the other Pokemon Sword and Shield rumors. Besides the fake starter Pokemon evolutions that have hit the Internet, there have also been more credible leaks, like the introduction of armored Pokemon, for instance.

Hopefully the Pokemon Sword and Shield release date will also be announced during the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation. Since Pokemon Sword and Shield will likely be the Switch's big holiday 2019 games, it would make sense for Nintendo to nail down a release date at the show. Of course, that's assuming development is going well and the games won't slip to 2020.

Regardless, more on Pokemon Sword and Shield will come to light at E3 2019 in June.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are in development exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.