The Pokemon Company and Nintendo will launch the Nintendo 3DS video games Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire simultaneously worldwide in November.
 
The new games are updates of the Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire Game Boy Advance games from 2003, which were fan-favorites, and the 16 million copies sold worldwide made it the best-selling Game Boy Advance title ever.   Retreads  of previous Pokemon video games have been done before, on both Pokemon Red and Blue as well as Pokemon Gold and Silver.  The new games promise a dramatic story within a new world.  The original Ruby and Sapphire took place in the Hoenn region and introduced new features including double battles and new Pokemon.
 
The CCG normally follows the lead of the video game releases, but there have been only a handful of CCG products tied to XY, which launched with the Kalso Starter last November followed up with the Flashfire expansion (see “'Pokemon XY--Flashfire'”).
 
A Pokemon Company spokesperson declined to answer questions about the future for XY and Ruby and Sapphire for the CCG.
 
Viz will release Pokemon Adventures Ruby and Sapphire Box Set, which will collect the Ruby and Sapphire arc from the manga, in September (see “’Pokemon’ Activity Picks Up”).