Is Game Freak working on a full console Pokemon RPG for Nintendo Switch?

Pokémon developer Game Freak has teased an upcoming project that sounds an awful lot like the famed handheld adventure series. The project was mentioned in two new job listings on a Japanese recruitment website.

Translated by Siliconera, the listing reads: "Here's a chance to work on the development of a globally popular RPG!" Game Freak is looking for programmers and character modellers for the game.

Specifically it wants artists experienced with designing character models for Wii U and PS Vita games to "create models of deformed cartoon-like figures, monsters, items and so on".

"We'll have you work on the production of an RPG game that is popular on a global scale," reads the listing, which also states that the "platform will be [a] console" and that "it's a title that just about anyone knows".

Well it's certainly not Tembo the Badass Elephant 2.

Given Nintendo Switch is set to be Nintendo's sole console once the 3DS (which has had two exclusive sets of mainline Pokémon titles to date), it's safe to assume Game Freak will be working on something for the home and hybrid console.

If another core Pokémon adventure was developed for Switch, it would be the first developed for a home Nintendo console, despite its additional handheld capabilities.

The listing states that the advertised role is for contract work ending May 2018, which would fit with rumours last year that Game Freak is at work on a Pokémon Sun and Moon follow-up called Pokémon Stars for release on Switch later this year.

If that release has been pushed back until early 2018, or if Game Freak has additional content planned for release after a 2017 launch, the time frame of this role certainly fits with those reports.

Pokémon Sun and Moon were enormous when they launched for Nintendo 3DS last November, with sales nearing 15 million by the end of 2016 and are closer to 20 million by now.

After the success of that game and mobile phenomenon Pokémon Go last year, a new (or new-ish) Pokémon title could do wonders for Switch during its first year on the market.

For all the latest video game news follow us on Twitter @IBTGamesUK.