Controversial Pokémon Winds and Waves leak warns of a game price hike

If GTA 6 can charge more for a video game, why not Pokémon?

The consensus around Grand Theft Auto 6 is that if a game is big enough, a company can charge whatever it wants for it. Could the same be said about Pokémon? Between the games, merchandise, and smart licensing, Pokémon is way bigger than GTA. People routinely pay more for a single Pokémon card than for a new video game. Surely, if anything could pull off a price hike, it's Pokémon.

Fans are debating this topic after a post from a well-known Pokémon leaker, Centro, went viral. In early July, the account shared alleged internal documents from The Pokémon Company detailing product pricing. The files reportedly hailed from the massive Game Freak data breach in 2024, which contained development plans, design documents, and budget breakdowns.

Here, Centro claimed that The Pokémon Company wants fans to purchase both versions of a new pocket monster generation. Since the beginning, every new installment has been sold as two separate games with exclusive Pokémon and features. This franchise concept is generally understood to encourage social play, not a push for profits. New Pokémon games already sell extremely well. Still, it's entirely plausible that a company would welcome more sales. If Centro is to be believed, Game Freak has already made strides here: 50% of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon players reportedly bought both versions of the game.

Centro further claimed that The Pokémon Company has "been wanting to increase the price of Pokémon games from the old $60 price since Sword/Shield, but wasn't possible back then due to higher prices not being standardized yet in North America.

Given the state of recent Pokémon releases, fans grimaced at the idea of paying higher prices. Infamously, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were borderline unplayable on the Switch. The series has also undergone a number of controversies surrounding its lackluster graphics and production values. After 30 years of titles, the games still don't have voice acting.

"It’s gonna be $80 physical I bet," one Pokémon fan wrote.

"I work in a company with board members like this, and they're so greedy and stupid," another wrote.

After a year of multiple price increases for both video game software and hardware, costs are at the forefront of gamers' minds. As companies like Sony push toward digital in an effort to boost profits, money has become a sensitive topic for video game fans. Perhaps this is why Centro's posts were often misread as meaning that Game Freak will absolutely raise prices for Pokémon Winds and Waves.

But the documents Centro references weren't about modern Pokémon games. These were discussions held around 2018, in reference to Pokémon Sword and Shield. The deliberations were also specific to boosting sales in Japan. Those games were not more expensive, so we already know what Game Freak decided there.

Pokémon Winds and Waves still don't have release dates. Between now and whenever the games come out, the ongoing component crisis could push companies like Nintendo to further increase software or hardware prices. We've already seen higher price tags for games like Mario Kart World ($79.99), so an $80 Pokémon game is not outrageous. Nintendo has tried to balance recent price hikes with cheaper first-party digital games. Should more expensive Pokémon games come to pass, it could be mitigated with better console or game bundle deals.

At the moment, Pokémon fans have nothing to worry about. As far as anyone knows, Winds and Waves will cost as much as any normal Switch 2 game.