Five things gamers in China want from the Nintendo Switch

It looks like the Nintendo Switch may finally be coming to China. Unlike elsewhere in the world, game consoles are far from mainstream in China. An entire generation grew up without playing the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 or Microsoft Xbox 360 thanks to a long ban on console gaming that wasn’t lifted until four years ago.

When Pokémon Go sent the world into a catch-‘em-all frenzy in 2016, China missed out on all the fun. The game still hasn’t arrived in the country, even though Niantic said last year it hadn’t given up. Perhaps that’s why people are hoping that Nintendo’s partnership with Tencent could help satisfy their Pokémon cravings.

“What I mainly want is Pokémon,” a Weibo user commented about Switch’s potential arrival.

“Can Tencent [expletive] bring in Pokémon Go?” another said.

In an awkward turn of events, Tencent recently released a smartphone game called Let’s Hunt Monsters that lets you throw a ball in AR mode to catch virtual creatures. It shares more than a few similarities with Pokémon Go.

“Please don’t import Let’s Hunt Monsters on Switch and bundle them together,” pleaded one worried gamer.