Forewarning: this is an opinionated article. Reader discretion advised. Share with your friends if you agree, forget about it if you do not agree.

We’ve been blinded for quite a while now. You know, the broken tracker issue. Niantic proved on several occasions that they are not going to cave to the playerbase, no matter how loud they are. Undeniably, the lack of ingame tracking and recent crackdown on third party trackers negatively influenced player numbers.

A lot of communities and places where Pokémon GO was prevalent as an afternoon activity are now mostly empty. Lures are also becoming an increasingly rare sight. Maybe it is too early, but we are going to say this out loud: Niantic is incompetent at running Pokémon GO.

However, not all hope is lost. We like to forget that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are stakeholders and investors in Pokémon GO. In a parallel universe, that may be a bad thing, but with the current state of Pokémon GO affairs, it may be the divine intervention the game needs.

Junichi Masuda, one of the oldest Pokémon producers and a member of the Game Freak board of directors, recently stated that Pokémon Sun and Moon integration with Pokémon GO “will definitely come down the road”.

As Pokémon Sun and Moon is shaping up to be one of the best installments in the core series, this can and will mean only one thing: Nintendo and The Pokémon Company will try to upsell the game to Pokémon GO players.

Wait, what? How does this save Pokémon GO? Easy now, and let’s think for a second. Masuda and other Game Freak people don’t halfass things. Maybe sometimes, but not in general.

They won’t let Niantic sink the game so low it’s unsellable. Masuda also stated that “Pokémon Go reached even way more people than the anime” – that’s an audience that no one wants to see gone.

We strongly believe that the integration between games will come sooner than expected. When thinking about possible integrations, here’s what comes to mind:

• Buying Pokémon Sun and Moon will unlock Alolan forms in Pokémon GO
• Pokémon GO players will have special quests in game if they own Pokémon Sun and Moon
• Hatch Sun and Moon eggs by walking in Pokémon GO – they are based on core games
• Synced game event dates – Safari zone, Dance competition etc
• Obtain special items if you own Sun and Moon

Nostalgia is strong, but disappointment is strong also. You can reach millions of players, you can be the first app to earn 600M dollars that fast. But you still need to respect your player base.

Nintendo, we need you to step in.