I definitely think whatever this year's game is, it's going to take place in an old region. SV is done and they're probably not going to introduce a new region until Gen 10, so they're probably going to go back to an old region of some kind. As for which one, it's most likely between Johto and Unova, and I'm leaning towards Unova. LGPE was more about bringing Go gameplay to consoles than remaking Kanto, and I'm not sure they have interest in remaking Johto right now (there's an alternative way to bring Johto to Switch, which I'll get into in a minute). I think we'll get a BDSP-esque Unova remake + either a Legends Unova or some kind of spiritual successor to LA.

As far as what else besides the flagship game though, I'm wondering if it's finally time for main series games on NSO. This feels like something we need more and more with each passing day. The eShop has shut down, 3DS online is going down, and Bank is either going to be shut down completely or at least be unsafe to use. So there's a ton of old games that are going to be cut off. Bringing the Pokemon games to NSO can really help make these older regions remain accessible. This is how they can make both Johto and Unova accessible. In fact, if they put the first three gens on NSO, then the Switch will have every region in some form on the Switch except Kalos and Alola.

I'm also 50/50 on Mystery Dungeon happening next year. This would be about time for one and it's one of the more popular Pokemon spinoffs, but is it popular enough to get another game? I'm not so sure if it is, but maybe.

Also, there's a lot of rumors and speculation about the Switch's successor coming this year. I don't think Pokemon will make the jump Year 1, they tend to be a relatively late adopter and linger on the past gen console a bit. So if we do in fact get a Switch successor in 2024, don't be shocked if Pokemon largely ignores it until 2025/2026. This next game will most likely be a Switch game regardless of what Nintendo may oy may not do with a potential next gen hardware release this year.