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

[Oriden]

?I don't get your point, are you saying that kids would prefer Legends over BDSP? (If that's the case I understand that actually)

No, I'm saying that Legends is out right now so if your kid's birthday falls between now and November, you're more likely to be getting them Legends, not telling them that they don't get a birthday present if they want Gen 9 for Christmas.

I'm actually ignoring BDSP's existence because they made it clear that they don't care if its sales are cannibalized by releasing Legends so soon after it. Seriously, if the risk of a game cannibalizing sales of another game was a huge concern, it would have been for BDSP. The gap between Legends and a possible 2022 Gen 9 release is nearly equal to the risk of SwSh cannibalizing the sales of Let's Go.

 

[Sheep40]

My prediction was that Gen X would be a hard reboot of the franchise in time for the 30th anniversary, thus leaving it up to gen IX to be the one with all the continuity callbacks and the themes of nostalgia gone wrong and letting go of the past.

 

[Daren]

My prediction was that Gen X would be a hard reboot of the franchise in time for the 30th anniversary, thus leaving it up to gen IX to be the one with all the continuity callbacks and the themes of nostalgia gone wrong and letting go of the past.

A series that spends as much effort as Pokémon glorifying the first game cannot make a theme about letting go of the past and be taken seriously.
Plus this isn't a story heavy series or one that cares about consistency. They have no incentive to hard reboot.

 

[Oriden]

My prediction was that Gen X would be a hard reboot of the franchise in time for the 30th anniversary, thus leaving it up to gen IX to be the one with all the continuity callbacks and the themes of nostalgia gone wrong and letting go of the past.

They're not going to throw away 30 years of world building. Plus the last reboot attempt wasn't well received, that's why we haven't gotten another region dominated with only new pokemon like Unova.

 

[Poke Dragon]

They are not going to completely remove any Pokemon forever when most Pokemon have untapped potential for new things to be added for them.

 

[Dorothy]

My prediction was that Gen X would be a hard reboot of the franchise in time for the 30th anniversary, thus leaving it up to gen IX to be the one with all the continuity callbacks and the themes of nostalgia gone wrong and letting go of the past.

Pokemon will never do this.

They're not going to throw away 30 years of world building. Plus the last reboot attempt wasn't well received, that's why we haven't gotten another region dominated with only new pokemon like Unova.

Unova was not an attempt at a reboot.

 

[Oriden]

Pokemon will never do this.

Unova was not an attempt at a reboot.

It was a soft reboot. They were trying to put everyone back at square one for those games.

 

[Sheep40]

Eh, I still think they may go into more complex themes with the story as time goes on.

Also, TBF, the infamous rival to pokemon did in fact call out it's fan's endless nostalgia. twice. It's high time we get our Tri. and Last Evolution.

 

[Dorothy]

Eh, I still think they may go into more complex themes with the story as time goes on.

Also, TBF, the infamous rival to pokemon did in fact call out it's fan's endless nostalgia. twice. It's high time we get our Tri. and Last Evolution.

Pokemon fans' nostalgia is part and parcel of a billion dollar business. They have no incentive to challenge that.

 

[Emmy]

Not to mention, I like Pokémon - because it's Pokémon. I don't need it to be more like Digimon...Because I already have Digimon for that.

 

[Sheep40]

Pokemon fans' nostalgia is part and parcel of a billion dollar business. They have no incentive to challenge that.

It also caused actionable instances of harrasment and libel.

 

[Dorothy]

It also caused actionable instances of harrasment and libel.

I'm sorry, what are you talking about?

 

[Oriden]

Eh, I still think they may go into more complex themes with the story as time goes on.

Also, TBF, the infamous rival to pokemon did in fact call out it's fan's endless nostalgia. twice. It's high time we get our Tri. and Last Evolution.

Very much no. The difference between Pokemon and Digimon is that Digimon Adventure actually ended at some point while Pokemon has held on as a continuous thing. There's no revisiting a series from your childhood because the Pokemon anime never ended.

And while it was great to revisit Digimon Adventure and see those characters again, having them effectively tell us "Digimon is for kids" wasn't a great message. Nor is it something that Pokemon will ever resort to because they've made it clear that Pokemon is for all ages. You can get pokemon print shirts for work, you can get pokemon-themed wedding bands- Pokemon is not going to say "It's time to move on" because it's not ending and it plans to be with us for life.

 

[prog rocker]

having them effectively tell us "Digimon is for kids" wasn't a great message.

Not helped by the fact that they had to pull a happy ending override to say it...

 

[Daren]

I don't know exactly what Digimon did but Pokémon has invested way too much into presenting itself as being a broad appeal franchise that loves celebrating it's anniversaries and milestones. They have nothing to gain if they try to snap it into a more narrow focus.

I'm sorry, what are you talking about?

I assume all the stuff that happened over Dexit, like when some guy made a twitter account accusing Msauda of weird stuff.

But the thing is; the world has plenty of terrible people and the internet has given them the ability to reach you from anywhere, which is why you still see actors get threats for what their characters did, even in works targeted only at adults who you'd expect to have an inkling of commonsense.

Trying to put in a theme about nostalgia being bad to ward toxic fans off is pointless because you literally cannot get rid of these people once your franchise is big--and Pokémon is huge.

 

[Cute Charm]

This is kind of random, but there's suspiciously been a lot of like Chinese collaborations lately like this song:

Or the cooking videos that are put out in association with TPC Shanghai. Not to mention Mustard an Tao Hua.

What I'm saying is...what if the theories are wrong about the Italian region. What if we're getting a Chinese region instead? I mean there really haven't been any Asian regions outside of the Japanese ones. So its probably time to return to Asia after two American regions and two European regions.

 

[Cute Charm]

Politics inbound? I dunno I feel as though this may get backlash from some active in politics. I could be very wrong however--this could happen

I mean, they could get around all the current politics by having a Hong Kong, Macau, or even Taiwan if they wanted. But even that, especially the first one, would probably end up angering mainland China.

Even so, considering the collaborations, the very obviously Chinese characters that didn't get renamed, Kubfu's pokedex entry, and even all the way back in Gen 7 with Konikoni being a Chinatown...China seems like a stronger contender for a new region than Italy (outside of Volo and Cogita's names. There really hasn't been any other Latin or Italian hints.)

Also considering they were going to make Galar some kind of fairytale land...if they do make one, it will probably be some stereotypical China where everything's misty mountains and everyone knows kung-fu.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Politics inbound? I dunno I feel as though this may get backlash from some active in politics. I could be very wrong however--this could happen

They could do it, but they'd have to be verrrry careful to make sure that China is portrayed in a positive light or else the Chinese government will get angry and ban the game. They cannot mention, or even allude to, any kind of criticism of the Chinese government. They could do it, but because they would have to tiptoe around the political issues I don't think that would be their first choice.

 

[Emmy]

As much as I would love a China PokéRegion, I suspect this isn't building up to that so much as it is just trying to take advantage of (Greater) China's fanbase now that the games have been officially translated there as of Sun/Moon. Especially as Mustard's storyline was so Chinese that it would potentially make a Chinese Region feel somewhat redundant.

I don't see it as being much different to how Digimon suddenly has Chinese exclusive video games which have Chinese mythology inspired Digimon that debut there first ahead of Japan since China has such a huge market to draw from.

But who knows~

 

[Sheep40]

If we get a china region for gen IX, we need a nine-colored deer legendary