Pokémon Is Officially Giving Arcanine A New Evolution After 30 Years

Published Oct 8, 2026, 6:44 AM EDT

James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.

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The Pokémon franchise is going through a genuinely major moment in its history right now, particularly as it celebrated 30 years since first debuting to gamers all over the world. The TCG is where most of the love has been directed so far, with the bespoke set release designed to mark the occasion going down very well with fans (if not scalpers).

There's plenty more to come though, and we already know what the next step is going to be in the world of video games, with Winds and Waves confirmed as the first games of the tenth generation. Now, some information about those upcoming releases is emerging, and there could be some very exciting new evolutions as part of that.

Over on Twitter/X, the user Centro LEAKS, who has become known for their accurate early reporting on Pokémon games, shared a post detailing a bunch of potential information on the release of Winds and Waves. Among all of that was a really interesting piece of information in which Arcanine could be about to get another evolution, for the first time in history.

The relevant part of the post reads as follows, "Some of the Pokémon that currently have placeholder special weather forms in the game are Arcanine, Lucario, Kecleon, Pikachu and 7 new Gen 10 Pokémon (note things can change in final game, remember Mega Jynx)."

That would certainly be a huge revelation for an evolutionary line that currently only has two parts to it. While this wouldn't mark a traditional expansion up to three, given the specific weather element required, it would be a pretty huge moment for what is a Generation I Pokémon.

It's worth noting, of course, that Pokémon did introduce Hisuian Growlithe and Arcanine forms in Pokémon Legends Arceus. But this sounds like a different form for the classic Arcanine, which is terribly exciting.

The other headline tidbits from the leak include:

• It's been described as an "MMOlite", with a lot of focus on communication features.
• Online play (MMOlite features) will be the biggest technical leap in Gen 10.
• It will follow a similar structure to Scarlet/Violet in having 3 main stories.
• Salandit will get a regional evolution, Poison/Dragon.
• Lt. Surge's son will be in the game and has his dad's Raichu
• Winds/Waves will be an ambitious game, and the delay to 2027 was just due to needing more time to finish the game.

As mentioned above, we aren't going to be able to see exactly what Game Freak has been cooking up until 2027, though they haven't gone as far as confirming a date for that just yet. What we have seen so far, however limited it may be, does look good though, and the move to an archipelago should have some fascinating effects on the gameplay. In the meantime, rumors continue to swirl that Pokémon games like Ruby and Sapphire could be on the way to the Switch 2 in earnest, which would give us plenty to do in the meantime.