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Speculation Gen 9 Predictions (Development predictions, New Regions, Version names)

I was right about the UK two Januarys ago but the amount of evidence towards it was overwhelming.

Because of the DLCs, I feel like China and colder regions like Russia would be out. I also think that it'll be a drier region (something we haven't really had before) so that it's not too similar to Alola and Hoenn. So I personally think that it is very likely that it'll be the Southern/Western parts of the USA like Texas or California but MAYBE South America as well but probably as a DLC. I think this would also complement the growing optimism towards the USA in terms of the global politics so yea that's where my money's on.

Otherwise, it'll probably be Australia but it's probably not the most popular of places as our friend @Bolt Strike would have us know ;)
 
I was right about the UK two Januarys ago but the amount of evidence towards it was overwhelming.

Because of the DLCs, I feel like China and colder regions like Russia would be out. I also think that it'll be a drier region (something we haven't really had before) so that it's not too similar to Alola and Hoenn. So I personally think that it is very likely that it'll be the Southern/Western parts of the USA like Texas or California but MAYBE South America as well but probably as a DLC. I think this would also complement the growing optimism towards the USA in terms of the global politics so yea that's where my money's on.

Otherwise, it'll probably be Australia but it's probably not the most popular of places as our friend @Bolt Strike would have us know ;)

You're not understanding my argument. I'm not saying Australia isn't popular, to the contrary it's probably the most popular area of the world remaining. I was responding to some of the other members saying that Australia might need multiple regions, it's a very large and populous area, but not large and populous enough for multiple regions. The only two countries in the world I could see doing that are Japan, due to home favoritism, and the U.S., being one of the largest, most populous, and most diverse countries in the world.

Australia would definitely be the best option for a drier region due to its popularity. Texas might be good, but perhaps not as well known as Australia. California is more urban than dry, it'd probably be like an entire region of Hau'oli City. The Southwest U.S. isn't particularly well known, and has already been done with Orre. And South America doesn't have a lot of Pokemon fans (it does have the advantage of being the origin of Mew in the series' lore, but aside from that there's not much going for it as a high priority region).
 
You're not understanding my argument. I was responding to some of the other members saying that Australia might need multiple regions, it's a very large and populous area, but not large and populous enough for multiple regions. The only two countries in the world I could see doing that are Japan, due to home favoritism, and the U.S., being one of the largest, most populous, and most diverse countries in the world.
I guess I just don’t understand how you can say that the US—a country—deserves two regions because of its size, population, and diversity, while Australia—a whole continent—does not.
 
I guess I just don’t understand how you can say that the US—a country—deserves two regions because of its size, population, and diversity, while Australia—a whole continent—does not.

The thing is that the U.S. is known for its size, population, and diversity, whereas Australia is less so. The U.S. foundation, history, and culture are deeply rooted in being a diverse country of immigrants of various races and ethnicities, and several of its major cities and different subcultures are known worldwide. With Australia that isn't the case, the world mainly views Australia as a singular people and culture. (regardless of how true that actually is, that's the way they're viewed).

And while Australia is a continent, it's a small continent and is also one country. Again, the political levels are relatively arbitrary in all this, it's a matter of popularity and recognition.
 
The thing is that the U.S. is known for its size, population, and diversity, whereas Australia is less so. The U.S. foundation, history, and culture are deeply rooted in being a diverse country of immigrants of various races and ethnicities, and several of its major cities and different subcultures are known worldwide. With Australia that isn't the case, the world mainly views Australia as a singular people and culture. (regardless of how true that actually is, that's the way they're viewed).

And while Australia is a continent, it's a small continent and is also one country. Again, the political levels are relatively arbitrary in all this, it's a matter of popularity and recognition.
This sounds like a deeply American perspective rather than a worldly one. I’m not saying that there should be two AU regions in a row, I’m just saying that AU is large and diverse enough that I don’t think just one region could cover it, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see another eventually.
 
I really wish Game Freak would steer away from current tourist attractions in terms of region design and instead go for one of these options (ordered from least likely to most likely):
  1. A completely made up place
  2. A region based on a fictional location like Atlantis, or multiple locations like the places in the Cthulhu Mythos
  3. A region derived from a particular mythology, like Norse Mythology which has a ton of locations to draw inspiration from.
  4. At the very least, I'd like to see a modern re-interpretation of defunct nations like the Roman Empire or Babylon.
I just feel like such options would really force Game Freak to think outside the box and would result in some creative areas, In addition, the first three options would save Game Freak the trouble of planning trips since research can be more easily be done via local or remote means. This is especially important since we are just at the tail end of the pandemic, so travel could still be restricted for a while.
 
Aren't those out of bounds? I remember a certain TRPG getting sued for using Cthulhu mythos characters, but I can't remember why...
That was just an example to get my point across. Also, aren't they public domain now?
 
I guess I just don’t understand how you can say that the US—a country—deserves two regions because of its size, population, and diversity, while Australia—a whole continent—does not.
To be fair, the US is larger than Australia even if you include only the continuous 48 states (~8 million km vs ~7.7 million km). That being said, I have to agree with your point. Sure, the US is diverse and all, but I'd argue that most non-Americans are only aware of superficial stereotypes of the most well-known states (Texans are cowboys, Californians are surfer dudes, New Yorkers only come from NYC, etc.) so any point about diversity is kinda moot. And, to be honest, I don't think that the diversity of a country is really reflected in their corresponding region(s). Outside of Galar and Alola, and maybe Kalos, overall the varying regions feel rather similar to me with the exception of a few design choices. I figure a country's size is more of a factor in whether it's split into multiple regions than any sort of regional diversity.
 
I acknowledged that earlier. They likely treated Japan as an exception because of it being their home region and because there are likely more Japanese players than any other region. In general, they probably would not do the same for other countries.
It's not really "making an exception" when Japan was the only country they were making regions based on lol. Pokemon had no reason to have set standards for making regions based on other countries, because for almost a decade, they had never used another country. And in that decade, they used subregions that the rest of the world might not be as familiar with, and they were completely successful. So why should they decide all of sudden "Oh, no, people won't know about that part of Australia" when they already have proof that people being unfamiliar with subcultures doesn't impede the games' success?
The U.S. foundation, history, and culture are deeply rooted in being a diverse country of immigrants of various races and ethnicities, and several of its major cities and different subcultures are known worldwide.
I mean, the founders of the countries owned slaved, the history of the US includes Japanese internment camps, "Irish need not apply", and Jim Crow laws, and we just went through a period of massive demonization of Mexican immigrants, so I don't know that I would say the US really has that great a reputation about cultural diversity. It'd probably be great Pokemon-ified, since Pokemon typically has its settings in a semi-utopia, but it seems to me that praise for diverse communities would be despite the history of the US, not because of it.
 
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My prediction: I think Gen 9 will come next year or year after that. Since Gen 10 will obviously come on 30th anniversary. I think it's been developed by B team, same team that has been developed Gen 8. I think main team Team A which worked on Village in 2018 are now finishing DP remakes which will come in November this year. Team C was doing DLC's and will have finishing touches on DP remakes, Gen 9 main game.

New region: I think it will be India it's a hint from Copperajah, but take it with grain of salt.

As of names, I have no idea what would you guys give names of Pokemon games located in India?
 
The Yugosphere isn't really as cold as people would assume it to be. It gets pretty hot and humid there in the summer. Especially in north Macedonia. Also, parts of Serbia are rocky desert. Portions of Bosnia are quite swampy. But much of the place is mountainous.
 
If Gamefreak were to choose Australia, I think New South Wales would be the perfect region
You have Bondi Beach
WAKEUP-BONDI-DRONE-2019-0004.jpg

You have Sydney Harbour (Which would obviously be the central city)
largeImageSrc.adapt.740.medium.jpg

You have the outback
Outback-Australia.jpg

You have the Snowy Mountains
107485-56.jpg

You have rainforest reserves
the-residence-hero.jpg

Frankly speaking: it is the perfect schematic for a region as it covers basically everything. Also, as an Australian, we have this thing where we like to light our cities up (look at the harbour pic). It would be beautiful to see a lit up Sydney Harbour bridge in a Pokemon game.
 

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To be fair, the US is larger than Australia even if you include only the continuous 48 states (~8 million km vs ~7.7 million km). That being said, I have to agree with your point. Sure, the US is diverse and all, but I'd argue that most non-Americans are only aware of superficial stereotypes of the most well-known states (Texans are cowboys, Californians are surfer dudes, New Yorkers only come from NYC, etc.) so any point about diversity is kinda moot. And, to be honest, I don't think that the diversity of a country is really reflected in their corresponding region(s). Outside of Galar and Alola, and maybe Kalos, overall the varying regions feel rather similar to me with the exception of a few design choices. I figure a country's size is more of a factor in whether it's split into multiple regions than any sort of regional diversity.

Well let's look at some statistics.

Japan: 377,975 sq km/145,937 sq mi- 4 regions (+1 spinoff region)
U.S.- 9,833,520 sq km/3,796,742 sq mi- 2 regions (+1 spinoff region)
New York City- 1212.60 sq km/468.19 sq mi- 1 region
Hawaii- 28,311 sq km/10,931 sq mi- 1 region
France- 640,679 sq km/247,368 sq mi- 1 region
UK- 242,495 sq km/93,628 sq mi- 1 region

Australia- 7,692,024 sq km/2,969,907 sq mi

There is 0 consistency when it comes to the size of real world locations vs. size of Pokemon regions, even when you factor Japan (which may amount to Early Installment Weirdness. So IDK where you guys are getting the notion of "they decide regions based on size".

Also, there's more of those Amercian stereotypes than Australian stereotypes, and as I said, they haven't had more than one "real" American region because of Orre being a spinoff and Hawaii being an isolated island that's very different from the mainland U.S.

It's not really "making an exception" when Japan was the only country they were making regions based on lol. Pokemon had no reason to have set standards for making regions based on other countries, because for almost a decade, they had never used another country. And in that decade, they used subregions that the rest of the world might not be as familiar with, and they were completely successful. So why should they decide all of sudden "Oh, no, people won't know about that part of Australia" when they already have proof that people being unfamiliar with subcultures doesn't impede the games' success?

Because they need enough source material (landmarks, culture, etc.) to make the regions interesting. They might know their own landmarks a little better (plus the games being older means they didn't have to do as much to make the games interesting as they do now).

I mean, the founders of the countries owned slaved, the history of the US includes Japanese internment camps, "Irish need not apply", and Jim Crow laws, and we just went through a period of massive demonization of Mexican immigrants, so I don't know that I would say the US really has that great a reputation about cultural diversity. It'd probably be great Pokemon-ified, since Pokemon typically has its settings in a semi-utopia, but it seems to me that praise for diverse communities would be despite the history of the US, not because of it.

Well I never said it was all positive, but there were positives in that history, the country was founded by multiple immigrants wanting to escape political and religious persecution, and many different immigrants from various parts of the world flocked to the U.S. for the promise of a better life.
 
Well let's look at some statistics.

Japan: 377,975 sq km/145,937 sq mi- 4 regions (+1 spinoff region)
U.S.- 9,833,520 sq km/3,796,742 sq mi- 2 regions (+1 spinoff region)
New York City- 1212.60 sq km/468.19 sq mi- 1 region
Hawaii- 28,311 sq km/10,931 sq mi- 1 region
France- 640,679 sq km/247,368 sq mi- 1 region
UK- 242,495 sq km/93,628 sq mi- 1 region

Australia- 7,692,024 sq km/2,969,907 sq mi

There is 0 consistency when it comes to the size of real world locations vs. size of Pokemon regions, even when you factor Japan (which may amount to Early Installment Weirdness. So IDK where you guys are getting the notion of "they decide regions based on size".
Eh, while Hawaii is smaller than France, ultimately its parent country is significantly larger than France and I think that's the key part here. Australia, like its sibling, is a rather large country, being the sixth largest in the world.

Also, I am not well-versed in Australian diversity, but for what it's worth, according to Pew Research Center, Australians appear to have similar views about diversity compared to Americans, views that are mostly positive.
 
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Because they need enough source material (landmarks, culture, etc.) to make the regions interesting.
Wait, so which is it? Does Australia not have enough source material for multiple regions, or is it that people are too unfamiliar with Australia to justify Game Freak using it for two regions? You've changed arguments here.
They might know their own landmarks a little better (plus the games being older means they didn't have to do as much to make the games interesting as they do now).
I don't think doing a little researching about a country is out of Game Freak's skillset.
 
Wait, so which is it? Does Australia not have enough source material for multiple regions, or is it that people are too unfamiliar with Australia to justify Game Freak using it for two regions? You've changed arguments here.

I don't think doing a little researching about a country is out of Game Freak's skillset.

I don't think there would be any point in making multiple regions out of Australia. The individual states aren't that distinct from each other culturally or geographically whereas in Japan you have semi-tropical Kyushu represented by Hoenn and cold, snowy Hokkaido represented by Sinnoh.
 
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