Thanks to some vague wording surrounding the official listing pages for the Pokemon Sword and Shield games, there was concern that the titles would feature ways to circumvent the Nintendo Switch Online paid service. According to the original listing there's "an in-game purchase option for users who do not have a membership," implying that the paid service wouldn't be necessary.

However, a spokesperson from Nintendo America reached out to Tech Radar to clarify the listing with the following statement:

As stated on the Game Store pages for the Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield games at www.nintendo.com, a Nintendo Switch Online membership is required to use the games’ online features. The games include an in-game option to purchase a Nintendo Switch Online membership for those who do not already have one.

Nintendo Online service will soon be getting SNES games, as the proverbial well of NES titles was beginning to run dry after the last batch of monthly gaming announcements. And in less than a year, the online service itself nearly passed 10 million total subscribers.

New Gigantamax forms for several Gen One Pokemon such as Pikachu, Eevee, Charizard, Butterfree, and Meowth were revealed in a brand new trailer. In other recent news, a new form for Farfetch’d called Sirfetch’d and a new form of Ponyta was revealed. We also found out that HMs won’t appear and the games will feature autosaving. Additionally, instead of exp. share returning to the series, experience points will be distributed evenly to each Pokemon in your party.

There are two other trailers for the game as well. The first showed off Team Yell, new Pokemon forms and evolutions, a new Pokemon, and new rivals. The second showcased more gameplay, new abilities, moves, and held items.

Pokemon Sword and Shield will be released for Nintendo Switch on November 15th. Meanwhile check out a write-up from one of our DualShockers own, in which he claims this will be the series title to reignite his passion for the series. You can preorder Sword here and Shield here.