This week, Game Freak director Junichi Masuda posted an innocent screenshot of a Weedle he caught in Pokemon GO.

Moments after the screenshot was posted, many Pokemon fans tried to find out if he was hiding any secrets in the screenshot. Looks like they think he has hidden some clues to the next Pokemon Switch RPG.

みなさん、おはようございます！今日も寒いですねー、温かいもの食べたいねー(笑) 頑張っていきましょう！

いま久しぶりにビードル捕まえた(笑) pic.twitter.com/cLSxRA8NlX

— 増田順一@Pokémon (@Junichi_Masuda) February 15, 2019

Let’s go through their claims one by one. First, they looked at the CP (199) and weight (4.16kg) of Weedle:

They claimed CP 199 refers to Slowking (PokeDex number 199), and 4.16kg refers to Vespiquen (Pokedex number 416).

The fans claimed this is Masuda’s way of hinting the games are called Pokemon King and Pokemon Queen. Adding on to that, the length of the Weedle is 0.33m, which might be referring to Nidoran (PokeDex No. 33). Nidoran’s final evolution is Nidoking.

Moving on, the fans believe Pokemon King and Queen will be officially announced on February 26, 2019:

199 CP = Nidoking

4.16kg = Vespiquen

Weedle = Evolves into Beedrill -> It’s a Bee (the word Bee sounds similar to the number 8 in Japanese -> Generation 8

226 = February 26, 2019 is the official announcement (February 27 in Japan)

Someone even went further claiming Pokemon King and Queen will launch on November 21, 2019 and we will get a full gameplay trailer on April 16:

https://twitter.com/godlybeast97/status/1096448269776023552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

“Reveal on Feb 26 hence the 226 candies, if you add 2351 you get 11 and if you add 714 you get 21 so the game will release on 11/21/2019 hence the 2351714 stardust, and 4.16 kg means we get a full fat gameplay trailer on April 16th.”

Although these claims may sound far-fetched, we must not forget Junichi Masuda has quietly dropped hints for previous games such as Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu/Eevee before they were officially announced.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!