The future of the Main Series

[Adelon]

My speculative take on what comes next:

2020 Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC

2021 Sinnoh remake (likely)

2022 Generation 9

2022 Generation 9 DLC

2023 Let’s Go Johto?

2024 Generation 10

2025 Generation 10 DLC

2026 Unova remake (somewhat unlikely)

2027 Generation 11

2028 Generation 11 DLC

2029 Kalos remake (unlikely but we can dream)

2030 Generation 12

2031 Generation 12 DLC

2032 Lets Go Hoenn (could happen in 2026 if GameFreak decides they don't want to remake Unova or Kalos)

 

[Phosphene]

2032 Lets Go Hoenn (could happen in 2026 if GameFreak decides they don't want to remake Unova or Kalos)

Part of me feels that the Let's Go series will stop with Let's Go Johto because part of me thinks that it is a way for Kanto and Johto to finally get 3D games like the rest of the series. Thus, Hoenn wouldn't need a Let's Go game since it already has a 3D remake. On the other hand, I could still see a LG Hoenn if all gens 5+ get remakes, as it would be the only region not on a console.

 

[colours]

maybe it's just me but i feel like game freak should stop remakes after sinnoh.

yes, i know it'd be a slap to the face to those who want unova remakes (not even that much given how many unova pokemon are in gen 8 as it stands...) and even kalos remakes down the line, especially since the latters' fans strongly believe those games got shafted due to a lack of any sort of third game or sequel whatsoever. but remake after remake just to cash in on nostalgia is just... such a tiring strategy at this point. i want game freak to focus on the new and leave the past where it belongs: in the past, and focus on new games with new experiences.

 

[Esserise]

If I may be critical... all you've done here is take the very conservative prediction of "New Game, New Game DLC, Remake" and copy/paste it four times, without really elaborating on why they would adhere to that pattern for the next whole decade or how you think it will be feasible for them to produce a main series release literally every consecutive year from now on without a break.

Personally, I don't think there's really much point in making projections so far out. At least one, possibly even two of the consoles that these hypothetical games would be on don't even exist yet, and the state of technology is as much of a factor in game development decisions as anything else. And as far as my own preferences go, I'd really rather they find something new to do instead of just cycling through the exact same pattern over and over. I don't care too much whether that involves remakes or not (quite frankly, I'm not even convinced that we "need" Sinnoh remakes, even though I would certainly play them if they did get produced), I just don't think it's healthy to stay so same-y and unchallenging of familiar notions for so long. Also, at this point, I highly suspect that Let's Go was a one-off. I believe that the concept has a very limited appeal and shelf-life, and it would be easier for them to, as they have done, simply implement any bits of the Let's Go style that people did like into their formal main series releases.

 

[KenzeyEevee]

Tbh I dont feel like pokemon will be around for another 20 years

 

[Bolt Strike]

There's only two things I can say with near certainty about the future of the series:

1. 9th gen will be on the Switch. Nintendo seems to want the Switch to be around for several more years, and I don't think we'll see its successor for 3-5 more years. They'll have finished the 9th gen game by then.
2. DP remakes will be sometime on Switch. There's been vocal enough demand for several years to the point where I'm willing to bet they're already in development right now.

Other than that? Totally up in the air. They're probably going to spread things out a bit more with DLC, but it's hard to say how long they'll continue doing that. As for Let's Go, that was mainly designed to get Go players to make the jump to console and was fairly divisive, so is there really a point in continuing? Who's going to buy Let's Go Johto that didn't buy LGPE or SwSh? I don't think there's much of a market for these games, or at least not relative to other Pokemon games. The biggest question though, is whether or not they'll keep releasing new generations every 3 years. After the backlash to SwSh, they might rethink that a bit. If not of their own volition, then Nintendo will probably pressure them to take more time on their games since they're very protective of their brands and reputation. If they do expand, they could do 4 years and fill the extra year with another set of DLC. So something like this:

2019- SwSh (Switch)
2020- SwSh Expansion Pass (Switch)
2021- Sinnoh remakes (Switch)
2022- Sinnoh remakes DLC (Switch)
2023- 9th gen (Switch)
2024- 9th gen DLC (Switch)
2025- Unova remakes (Switch)
2026- Unova remakes DLC (Switch)
2027- 10th gen (Switch successor)

What could they do with DLC for remakes you ask? Well they could include cut content from third versions. After ORAS failed to include Emerald content, if they don't have time to include some of the Platinum content in DP remakes, they could sell it as a DLC pack. Admittedly this would be somewhat scummy, but I'd rather have it through DLC than not at all like with ORAS. They could also throw in event Pokemon and have mini story arcs for Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus.

 

[vivian20]

If all the people that bought LGPE buy lets go jotho, they will have big profits. After the backlash to SWSH they sold over 17 millions copies , more than sun/moon, xy, BW and RSE. SWSH will likely surpass DP soon. So, what would be the reason to change the 3 years gap between generations now?

They might release a jotho DLC for LGPE instead of lets go jotho.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

maybe it's just me but i feel like game freak should stop remakes after sinnoh.

yes, i know it'd be a slap to the face to those who want unova remakes (not even that much given how many unova pokemon are in gen 8 as it stands...) and even kalos remakes down the line, especially since the latters' fans strongly believe those games got shafted due to a lack of any sort of third game or sequel whatsoever. but remake after remake just to cash in on nostalgia is just... such a tiring strategy at this point. i want game freak to focus on the new and leave the past where it belongs: in the past, and focus on new games with new experiences.

Aren’t remakes like new regions for GameFreak's key demographic (children) though? Many people experienced Hoenn for the first time with ORAS and so on for the other remakes.

They make a nice buffer for a new-and-old experience since only churning out new generations and new groups of Pokémon every year would cause fatigue. Remakes allow them to relax a little as well as provide a semi-new experience with an added nostalgia benefit.

 

[Poke Dragon]

I just don't agree with ending remakes at all, especially when it's just isn't realistic for Game Freak to make completely new games every single year since they only have two teams working on different games, plus their own non-Pokemon games added on top of that. It puts too much strain on a company that doesn't have that many people. Remakes, in general, exist for many, many reasons. And besides, remakes are good for the video-game industry in general. So no, they should never stop remaking the main series Pokemon games and I don't any reasons whatsoever to stop in the first place.

 

[colours]

Aren’t remakes like new regions for GameFreak's key demographic (children) though? Many people experienced Hoenn for the first time with ORAS and so on for the other remakes.

They make a nice buffer for a new-and-old experience since only churning out new generations and new groups of Pokémon every year would cause fatigue. Remakes allow them to relax a little as well as provide a semi-new experience with an added nostalgia benefit.

the question i have in my mind is "when does it end?"

after sinnoh remakes, unova fans would want their turn. after unova, kalos fans would want their remake on whatever newest nintendo system there is. and what about those who like alola? it's on the same system as kalos, and compared to swsh or lgpe, it doesn't exactly look great.

i understand the argument that remakes help expose the older regions to a much newer generation and i agree with that point, but again, answer me this: when does it end? does it come full circle like LGPE where it's a remake of a region that's already been remade? how many times do we have to see our older regions just to satisfy our nostalgia? for example, do you remember the speculation of let's go johto before the pokemon presents presentation? are we going to remake regions that have already been remade, just in a newer style?

to be clear: i don't mind remakes. but i think copypasting them into a newer system isn't exactly the right way to go about it. i've beaten lance before, i've beaten red and blue before. heck last generation in sm/usum we fought them both, again. personally, i want a new spin on old regions. i dont want the same gym leaders, the same elite four members, the same champions. i understand things aren't going to work this way and that's fine, this is really just my personal wishlist, but instead of bringing back old regions 1:1 on newer systems, they could become something better. maybe it can be a region revisited in the past, or in the future. doesn't have to be crazy, just from a different perspective with different, fresh characters is all.

It puts too much strain on a company that doesn't have that many people

let's play devil's advocate for a moment: how would you know that? what if it's normal for Game Freak to work on multiple projects at one time? they've worked on LGPE after all, while a year later churning out SwSh and its DLC. i'll be honest: i don't claim to be anything close to an expert on how game development is supposed to work, but unless anyone here has been in the industry before (or studied it extensively), i don't think it's very useful talking as if we know for sure what Game Freak's schedule is, with all due respect. =P

that aside though, i'm not quite sure i follow the rest of your post? they churn out games every year, but that's because they start their next project immediately after the last one finishes. that's quite literally what happened with Pokemon Sun and Moon

Development started immediately after Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire was completed and Ohmori kept his game director position. Since the games were to be released on the franchise's 20th anniversary,

Ultra Sun and Moon started late in the development of Sun and Moon, and Shigeru Ohmori stated that the younger staff members worked on it while the more experienced staff worked on the upcoming Switch title (LGPE):

Shigeru Ohmori, one of the game's producers, stated that Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were worked on by younger staff members while veterans worked on the upcoming Pokémon games for the Nintendo Switch, although some more experienced members, such as Shigeki Morimoto were assigned to it.[11]

In a separate interview, Ohmori also described an idea to develop the Ultra installments formed late during the development of Sun and Moon, with the titles intended to take advantage of the momentum gained by the Pokémon series following the massively successful release of the mobile game Pokémon Go. Game director Kazumasa Iwao was previously in charge of the battle systems in Sun and Moon

and by the way, in regards to time. let's go back as far as BW and figure out how long each game took Game Freak as far as development is concerned. keep in mind "development" likely doesn't mean actual coding of the games, but rather the idea, discussion, deliberation, art, planning, all that stuff.

Black and White - unknown. they were announced in late January 2010 as being in development, but as for how long they've been in development, i don't believe there were any interviews there. considering the fact that HGSS was being paraded around in 2009, it can be reasoned that this was in development alongside HGSS, or at the very least, late into its development/near-completion. but we dont know for sure, of course.
Black 2 and White 2 - unknown when they started, but they were announced in February 2012. if the above timelines given for sm/usum/swsh are to be believed, it can be reasoned that this was started immediately after BW was finished and took ~2ish years.
Pokemon X and Y - development began in 2010. they were released in 2013. 3 years.

so as you can see, it's been pretty normal for them to work on multiple games as they have done so for years. we can take this to mean that they're pretty used to having specific teams of people working on different projects and tossing up different ideas for other games simultaneously. this isn't something that's new territory for them.

---

but that's going past the point of my response. as i stated to PkmnTrainerV, my question is mainly "when does it end?" do we continue remaking old regions forever for newer and newer generations? i dunno how i personally feel about that. i love sinnoh, and i'd love to see it remade, and perhaps that was unfair of me to say it should stop after sinnoh because unova fans deserve a chance to see their game shine in the newest console, as well. but where does Game Freak really go after that? i just have mixed feelings about the long term future of remakes, is all.

 

[RileyXY1]

My own prediction is that there won't be a main series game release in 2021.

 

[SlowGinFizzzz]

The only thing that I think can be said with near certainty is that we'll see Sinnoh remakes on the Switch, and we'll see gen. 9 on the Switch. Everything else seems too far away to even try to predict.

Aside from that, I very much hope that Game Freak moves away from that ridiculous one-game-per-year release pattern for good. It's evident that they're not capable of delivering quality games under that kind of pressure, plus it can easily lead to an oversaturation on the consumers' side. Extending a game's life circle to two or three years via DLC might be one way of dealing with this issue, and if TPC really "needs" a Pokémon game ready for Christmas every single year, they should just put some good spin-off games in the spotlight again, like they did during gen. 3 and 4. Nobody's gonna complain if the "gaps" are filled with games like Mystery Dungeon, Ranger (?), Colosseum/XD, Snap, Conquest, PokéPark etc. that are all developed by different companies than Game Freak.

 

[RileyXY1]

I also think that they won't stop doing remakes after Sinnoh.

 

[WyndonCalling]

I'm surprised no one's much addressed the possibility of a third or even fourth set of additional DLC for SwSh, given that we can probably expect, what, around 200 species still remaining to be introduced after the Crown Tundra (assuming that it reintroduces comparable numbers to IoA)? There's also definitely still a few locations in mainland Galar that might warrant either one-off event or full-DLC level content, such as the Hulbury lighthouse or the Rose plant. If GF are minded to reintroduce omitted mechanics, namely Mega Evolution, future installments could be great vehicles for which to do so, especially if they're locked up in the post-game.

Additional DLC also gives GF more time to take more bites of the Gen 8 cherry before diving wholesale into a outright new Gen (which I agree is likely to have a home on the Switch or a hypothetical upgraded Switch console). Gen 8 isn't quite a 'live service' and I'm glad it isn't, but the current model does allow GF to perpetuate the hype juices with a drip-feed of content without needing a wholesale third version, which I can only hope enables the team to keep bringing interesting ideas to SwSh. I think it could be a while before we get wind of outright new titles.

I must confess I've come around to liking LGPE a fair bit more than in my initial impressions, thought I still don't like paying full price for 70% of a 'proper' Switch game. Theoretically, it's a good model to revisit older Generations but I do question whether GF's appetite is likely to be there given how much the initial titles rested on the name recognition of the titular characters. What would a Johto version look like - are we just taking the same species to a new region, and slapping a '2' on the end of the name? Is an outright sequel like that appealing to Pokemon-lite gamers who perhaps just wanted a nostalgia fix? Or are we going to push Eevee from the limelight to bring Togepi into the double-act? Are there any Gen 2 species which are nearly as popular as Eevee? Decisions, decisions.

Finally, while I certainly understand the desire to revisit Sinnoh, I'm far less certain as to what people thinks actually needs updating as a main series title. Gens 1 and 2 became paleolithic pretty quickly, but while Gen 3 was a little long in the tooth mechanically I always felt it looked just fine (in no small part thanks to the wonderful colours), the net result being that ORAS felt by far like the most unnecessary remake to date. I'm not sure free movement and 3D graphics would do that much to really enhance the DS experience, and mechanically the only major missing piece of the puzzle is the Fairy-type. I'd say Sinnoh is a far better candidate for a LGPE-esque 'remastering' rather than an outright remake (though that would imply that GF would draw a distinction between the two lines and would set them at different price points...).

 

[Puddle]

I for one was quite disappointed that you can't go inside Hammerlocke University. I'd love to see a new sidequest where you can actually study there and stroll around the quadrangles. I know you can send your Pokémon there via Poké Jobs but that's not quite the same.

That being said, I'm not sure whether Sword and Shield will get more DLC, as The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra have already added more new content to the game than a traditional third version would. And it would be a bit rubbish (as Hop might say) if they decided to charge more money for the next batch of DLC, as the price of the Expansion Pass on top of the original game is already a bit too much. I'd be in favour of more DLC if it were free for players who've already purchased the Expansion Pass, or free for everyone.

I agree that Ruby and Sapphire didn't really need a remake. Some of the GBA sprites actually look better than the 3D models, and some of the music sounds more powerful and emotive in the originals, too. That being said, ORAS is still a big improvement overall and it's one of my favourite games of all time - I'm actually playing Omega Ruby at the moment. I'd love to see a Sinnoh remake because although we don't really need one, I know it'll be a blast.

I get the impression that Game Freak originally only intended to remake Kanto and Johto, as a way of compensating for the backwards compatibility issue. The remakes proved more popular than they expected, and ORAS came about as a result of popular demand. If there's enough fan support for a Sinnoh remake, I'm pretty sure there will be one.

 

[Poke Dragon]

The thing about remakes is that there are still things that need to be fixed in the original game even in the more advanced generations. Gen 4 for example suffers a huge slowness problem, which a remake would definitely fix.

 

[Matleo]

what if they create holographic game technology? or something better?
A PC game would be actually once cool

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

what if they create holographic game technology? or something better?
A PC game would be actually once cool

1. They can only release games on Nintendo consoles since they’re partially owned by Nintendo.
2. GameFreak works with existing technologies and does not create new ones. They’re not a research and development company. They can’t even get 3D graphics fluid right now.
3. Widespread consumer Technology doesn’t exist for that.

Pokemon on PC will remain exclusive to emulators for the longest time I guess. Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

[hanecco]

Even if Game Freak stops doing remakes, I think old titles will continue to be sold via virtual console or whatever its future equivalent is. There's no way Game Freak hasn't seen the amount of money previous titles continue to rake in.

 

[RK9]

Gib Visual Novels.

Let us date the waifus dangit.