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Speculation Could we see the end of the 3-4 year generational cycle?

Gen 3 was reviled upon launch.
Gonna need citation. The only thing that got backlash was the cutoff from the previous two games, meaning no one could transfer their pokemon from Gen 2 to Gen 3.

I know there's a meme that "people hated something at release, but like it now", but there's literally no evidence of such. A minority complaining about a new generation is not the same thing as everybody hating it.

Also, saying people just hate a new generation because it's new is such a reductive over-simplification of what a lot of people feel negatively towards a new game.
 
I hope not lol
New regions and New pokemon is my favorite thing about new games. If they stopped making new generations or if there were long 5+ years gaps in between new generations I would be very sad
I think 4 years in-between generations is a good about of time. It gives them enough time for development and also doesn't feel like literally forever.
 
Yes, I think the announcement of BDSP and LA is a clear sign that 8th gen isn't ending anytime soon. They've got a large number of game types in their toolkit now to weather a longer generation, they've got the new generations, the remakes, DLC, Let's Go games, Legends games, hell they could bring back sequels too if they want. The anime is suited towards lasting longer too, with this generation not being tied to a specific region and having much vaguer, less definable goals, so they can make as many episodes as they want.

Furthermore, LA is a very ambitious game, it's much larger and more intensive than pretty much anything else they've done besides SwSh. So do you really think that they're working on LA and 9th gen at the same time and releasing them back to back? I highly doubt it, there are very few AAA developers capable of releasing games of that caliber in back to back years and the ones that do have several very large development teams about the size of Game Freak altogether. It's more than likely LA OR 9th gen, not both. So I don't even think they've started on 9th gen yet and won't really begin until after LA releases.

I think that Game Freak's experience and the fanbase's reaction to SwSh may have spurred them into changing their development practices, they found out the hard way that an HD open world console game is not an easy thing to make and they're going to be capable of less and less if they keep trying to release full games every year, so they're going to spread things out more and rely on DLC, smaller games, and outsourcing to keep the games yearly.
Don't know about gen 9 not even being started yet. Yes I could see gen 8 lasting another year into 2023 maybe even 2024 if dlc for LA or BDSP is planned. But gen 9 is likely at least in some form of programming stage right now as we write. I can see no longer than a 5 year generation window. I can see the anime keeping its current style though as it works very well with a longer generation and Gou will always have more Pokemon to catch. Ash could get a new goal after winning/losing to Leon.

Gen 9 is likely at least being worked on right now alongside PLA.

Inb4 gen 9 is announced a month after PLA releases for late 2022
 
I’m pretty confident that gen 8 will last into 2023. It’s already strange how we’re getting BDSP and and LA so close to each other. I doubt they’d release yet another main series game within the same year.
 
I’m pretty confident that gen 8 will last into 2023. It’s already strange how we’re getting BDSP and and LA so close to each other. I doubt they’d release yet another main series game within the same year.
Yeah I was mostly joking about the late 2022 thing, announcing a new gen so soon after LA would step on their most ambitious titles toes. BDSP being so close though was likely a marketing strategy. Release BDSP for the kids who don't know what sinnoh is yet, and for the nostalgia cash grab (and renew sinnoh in peoples minds since its been so long) and release a more new fresh game that connects with the last one by being in the same region. Get something nostalgic and something new, with another developer it was more than possible.

But still the pessimist in me wonders if game freak would still try to maintain the 3 year cycle anyway and release gen 9 at the end of the year.
 
I would say yes. Game Freak has finally realized that they need more time, attention and resources to develop full scale Switch Pokemon games. So they outsourced the Sinnoh remakes to ILCA and are almost completely focused on LA with some attention also on the next project after LA.

It would be a breath of fresh air for the series if we do get longer generations. Games have gotten a bit too rushed for my taste and longer development cycles would result in better game quality overall.

Also, I hope with LA that we see them experimenting more and more with the formula. I'm quite tired of tradition and would embrace some innovation. But keep a steady balance between the two like LA is innovation and BDSP is tradition.
 
Despite how BDSP look, it's not a badly-developed game, it's just a subjectively poor design choice, and I'm not at all against remakes being outsourced. If the gameplay is good, I'm perfectly fine with ILCA remaking future games, just maybe not in such a chibi style, LGPE style would be perfect for remakes. I also hope the whole "Legends title coming out ~6 months after the remakes of the same region" becomes a trend and isn't a one-off occurrence, because I'd love for ILCA to remake Johto in Let's Go style in 2023, they could honestly literally straight up build the Johto region using LGPE as the base (the same way GS was built on top of RB), and in the meantime, Game Freak could be working on Legends: Ho-Oh for a late 2023 or early 2024 release.
 
Despite how BDSP look, it's not a badly-developed game, it's just a subjectively poor design choice, and I'm not at all against remakes being outsourced. If the gameplay is good, I'm perfectly fine with ILCA remaking future games, just maybe not in such a chibi style, LGPE style would be perfect for remakes. I also hope the whole "Legends title coming out ~6 months after the remakes of the same region" becomes a trend and isn't a one-off occurrence, because I'd love for ILCA to remake Johto in Let's Go style in 2023, they could honestly literally straight up build the Johto region using LGPE as the base (the same way GS was built on top of RB), and in the meantime, Game Freak could be working on Legends: Ho-Oh for a late 2023 or early 2024 release.
If that's the case then we won't see Gen 9 until 2025.
 
I don't think "generations" really exist anymore at this point. US/UM introduced completely new Pokémon mid-generation, Let's Go wasn't compatible with the other main series games of gen. 7 OR gen. 8, it's highly unlikely that BD/SP are going to be compatible with Sword/Shield etc. And even before that, OR/AS and X/Y were not fully compatible due to the newly introduced Mega Evolutions.

Ultimately this whole "What's a generation?" discussion is just semantics, of course. But I don't think there really are any signs of the Pokémon franchise slowing down. If we count the Sword/Shield DLC as a "game" (because it clearly fills the role of the re-releases we know from earlier), there has been a main series game every year since 2016, and there isn't a gap year in sight:
  • Sun/Moon (2016)
  • Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (2017)
  • Let's Go (2018)
  • Sword/Shield (2019)
  • Sword/Shield DLC (2020)
  • Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (2021)
  • Legends: Arceus (2022)
So even if we begin to see more remakes, and even if certain things are getting outsourced to external developers, I still think that's too many games in too little time. Annual releases may have worked during the GB/GBA/DS days, but it's obvious that ever since they moved onto the 3DS, they don't have enough time to make games up to their old quality standard anymore, and things only got worse on the Switch. And honestly, I don't understand why they keep trying to shove out a new main series game every year in the first place. You don't see that with Zelda or Mario, for example.

This being said – I really, really hope what @EmpoleonProd brought up in the original post turns out to be true. Ideally Game Freak ends up being able to focus on future brand new games and potential future Legends titles and take their time with those, while external developers can work on remakes (both "faithful" and Let's Go ones), and any gaps can be filled with spin-off titles like Snap or Mystery Dungeon; in fact, why not revive the Ranger and PokéPark series or introduce a new spin-off that is more than just a phone app?
 
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Generations certainly exist in terms of a new region being introduced alongside more than just a handful of Pokemon and features. What doesn't exist anymore is the cohesion between initial versions and the other games.

And honestly, I don't understand why they keep trying to shove out a new main series game every year in the first place. You don't see that with Zelda or Mario, for example.
Because the fans let them get away with it. Even this thread is more about quantity than quality.
 
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