This week, Nintendo ported Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen to the Switch, but they may only be the beginning, as dataminers have already uncovered evidence that Gen 3 is being worked on.
"I found a function that initialises the emulator hacks based on the GBA ROM's ID," explained @meatball_132 in an extensive X thread on their findings. "These are the IDs the emulator recognises for the Pokémon hacks. BPR and BPG are FireRed and LeafGreen, respectively, but AXV, AXP, and BPE are Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, respectively."
The appearance of Gen 3 indicates that Nintendo may have begun porting Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald to Switch, though it's worth taking these findings with a grain of salt. While Nintendo might be preparing its emulator for a return trip to Hoenn, that doesn't mean Gen 3 will be the next set of games released — not to mention that plans change, and could easily be scrapped.
Of course, given the enormous popularity of Pokémon, and the sheer anticipation behind FireRed and LeafGreen, it's hard to imagine Nintendo stopping here, so it seems a safe bet that we'll revisit the Gen 3 trio in future. But when exactly that might happen is unclear, and...
