"The only thing we know about Poke-Switch that is speculation-worthy and also has potential to be one of the bigger changes to the games... but no one talks about it."

No, not PKMN following you (sorry, don't kill me).Since the reveal that a core-series Switch title is in development before even USUM were revealed, people have been going on about unrealistic radical changes to the core formula of the games, whether it's the "BotW open world"/"PKMN Skyrim"-crowd, some expecting it to turn battle mechanics to Pokken, or others asking for the supposed dream of an "all the regions"-game, somehow STILL not realizing that it screams quantity over quality amongst a plethora of other issues. The expectations and speculation has gotten so ridiculous a few months ago, that Ohmori and Masuda expressed their fear of disappointing the overwhelming flood of overexcited fans in an interview by telling everyone that they just want to keep making PKMN-games and that they hope people can lower their expectations.Anyhow, let's get to the one thing we actually can speculate about. Moving to the Switch brings at least 2 changes that Gamefreak has to deal with as they transition from the 3DS:-going from a personal handheld to a per-household console. (and before some switch-enthusiast/3ds-doomsayer comes around the corner to yell at me how the Switch IS truly a handheld.. I'm not even implying the opposite. The point is that it being a console makes it a different price-level, and the fact that there is on average more people sharing a switch than was ever the case with the 3DS or any of its predecessors.)-how the Switch handles game-save-files. Basically, the games themselves do not keep track of progress. Instead, the Switch has a Player-profile system built into it, and when you play a game, a save file is created for your profile (and multiple people can have profiles on the same console obviously)Those two are related of course. And the consequence of them is that, #1 multiple save-files are essentially confirmed, and #2, considering how Gamefreak always tries to adapt to the capabilities a new piece of hardware has to offer, and try to make features of their games make use of them intuitively.. it would not come as a surprise if once some actual information on the games starts being released, we will find out that Gamefreak went for a mentality of "lots of siblings play on a single Switch together" and put some serious focus on local-multiplayer aspects.And that's where the possibility for speculation is that I have to my surprise not seen being discussed anywhere over the months. Hence this post : )(I have a hunch that perhaps that's because most people brush off the possibility of multiple save files off the bat with a "Gamefreak will find a way" reaction, but to my understanding, the Profile system of the Switch is a pretty inherent part of the system)Now for my speculation on what this could mean for the series in upcoming titles.In the most simple scenario, it would mean that yes, multiple save files can be played with one game, and that there would simply be a separate Stadium/BattleRevolution-esque mode of the game as the one place for interaction between different save files on the same console.And the unrealistic extreme scenario (using "local multiplayer" aspect to the fullest), would be one where multiple people can actually play the main game at the same time, whether we are talking about a co-op mode where a second player is basically the 1st players travel-partner and their roles can be swapped (and multi-battles being everywhere), or both playing simultaneously on a single Switch doing different things and crossing each others paths in the game.Discuss :D via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2BYExma