Nintendo and The Pokemon Company announced Detective Pikachu 2 in 2019, a sequel to the Pokemon spinoff that first released on the Nintendo 3DS and inspired a film adaptation of the same name. Since then, the developers remained silent about the game, leading some to wonder if production had ceased altogether, but a new piece of information, first spotted by NintendoLife, suggests development is proceeding well and may be near completion.
Jonathan Murphy, a senior programmer with Creatures Inc., posted an update on his LinkedIn page that lists one of his projects as Detective Pikachu 2, alongside another, unannounced project. Murphy also said the Detective Pikachu project is nearing completion, though he offered no hint of when the game might be expected to release.
Whenever it does launch on Nintendo Switch, Detective Pikachu 2 will be in good company. While adventure and point-and-click games may not be as popular as they once were, both genres have found eager audiences on Nintendo Switch, with releases such as AI: The Somnium Files and Danganronpa in the past two years, along with several other indie releases, including Lord Winklebottom Investigates and Oxenfree.
Whether the new game means a second Detective Pikachu movie also waits over the horizon is less clear. Justice Smith, star of the first film, told Inverse that the film’s production company, Legendary Films, had put any plans for a sequel on hold indefinitely. With Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s success at box offices, though, perhaps those plans may resurface sooner, rather than later.
Meanwhile, The Pokemon Company will release Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, the series’ latest mainline games, on Nov. 18, 2022, for Nintendo Switch.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
