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

[Sheep40]

It was at the time.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

It was at the time.

Really? Of all the locations in the world to go to, I think going to the US is kind of a no-brainer.

• It has the oldest dedicated Nintendo branch besides Japan itself (NoA was founded 1980, the others are Australia, founded 1993, Korea, 2006, and Europe, 1990)
• It's the third most-populated country in the world
• It's the first country to receive Pokemon outside of Japan
• Americans primarily speak English, and a lot of translations of Pokemon material translate from English to another language rather than from Japanese (for example, the French dub of the anime is based on the English dub, not the original Japanese)

From their prior business practices, it's clear that both Nintendo and the Pokemon Company saw America as the next place to expand to after doing business in Japan, and with good reason. It makes sense that it would follow that Pokemon games would expand their location to America after being based on Japan. The only reason it was out of left field is because Pokemon had only based their regions in Japan up until that point, and surely nobody expected that would be the trend forever?

Compare that to a Russia-based region- Russia tended to get Pokemon games later than their European releases, and Pokemon games don't get translated into Russian. They certainly could make a Russia-based region- there's lots to work with, and Pokemon is still plenty popular in Russia. But it'd be odd for that to happen when they've shown comparatively little interest in Russian audiences.

 

[Johtoo]

Australia would be great considering it's where i live, but I can't help but to think how similar it would be to Alola. I also prefer Pokemon games that are set in big European capitals. Italy or Spain would be far more aesthetically pleasing than Australia.

 

[Johnny Boy]

Australia would be great considering it's where i live, but I can't help but to think how similar it would be to Alola. I also prefer Pokemon games that are set in big European capitals. Italy or Spain would be far more aesthetically pleasing than Australia.

How would it be similar to Alola? Australia has a range of unique environments and has a lot of cool wildlife and folklore that would be excellent inspirations for Pokémon.

 

[Johtoo]

How would it be similar to Alola? Australia has a range of unique environments and has a lot of cool wildlife and folklore that would be excellent inspirations for Pokémon.

It depends where in Australia they focus on

Queensland (Where I live) have a very tropical vibe similar to Hawaii

NSW covers a lot. You have the metropolitan Sydney, but you also have dry roads and long stretches of nothing.
You have this

and this

In the same state.
Victoria is more European/American

South Australia is more metropolitan and Western Australia is essentially like country texas with a coastal vibe.

I think the issue is not just how simular it could be to Alola, because a game set in Queensland would be really close to that. It's that Australia is also diverse. You have huge cities, but coastal enviroments and rainforests as well. You could set a game in each individual city, but trying to focus on one area might be tough. Italy and Spain are more easy to capture because the enviroment there is more consistent. Australia is different with every state you visit in.

 

[swiftgallade46]

I think that, like the US and Europe, Australia would probably be divided into several regions.

 

[Bolt Strike]

It depends where in Australia they focus on

Queensland (Where I live) have a very tropical vibe similar to Hawaii

NSW covers a lot. You have the metropolitan Sydney, but you also have dry roads and long stretches of nothing.
You have this

and this

In the same state.
Victoria is more European/American

South Australia is more metropolitan and Western Australia is essentially like country texas with a coastal vibe.

I think the issue is not just how simular it could be to Alola, because a game set in Queensland would be really close to that. It's that Australia is also diverse. You have huge cities, but coastal enviroments and rainforests as well. You could set a game in each individual city, but trying to focus on one area might be tough. Italy and Spain are more easy to capture because the enviroment there is more consistent. Australia is different with every state you visit in.

I think that, like the US and Europe, Australia would probably be divided into several regions.

Australia doesn't have a large and diverse enough population to support multiple regions (or at least, its diversity isn't well known, to the rest of the world there's just the European immigrants and the Aborigines). Meanwhile, Europe is made up of multiple countries with different environments and cultures. As for the U.S., there's only been one "real" U.S. region so far with Unova, Hawaii, while politically part of the U.S., is very isolated and culturally different from the contiguous U.S. to the point of almost feeling like a different country, and Orre is a spinoff region that doesn't really incorporate its inspiration much. The U.S. is definitely populated and diverse enough to get away with more regions, we could get more regions based on areas of the country such as the West Coast/California, the Midwest (Chicago/Detroit), and Texas, but right now they seem to treat Unova like it represents the entire country (which it doesn't, but they treat it like it does) so I'm not sure they see the U.S. as being "split up into separate regions".

 

[swiftgallade46]

Australia doesn't have a large and diverse enough population to support multiple regions (or at least, its diversity isn't well known, to the rest of the world there's just the European immigrants and the Aborigines).

Well this completely isn’t true... Australia is an entire continent. They have beaches, jungles, mountains and everything in between. The first four regions were all based on Japan. I really don’t think it’d be a far fetched notion that AU could provide inspiration for more than region, however far apart those generations may be.

 

[Rainfall]

Really? Of all the locations in the world to go to, I think going to the US is kind of a no-brainer.

• It has the oldest dedicated Nintendo branch besides Japan itself (NoA was founded 1980, the others are Australia, founded 1993, Korea, 2006, and Europe, 1990)
• It's the third most-populated country in the world
• It's the first country to receive Pokemon outside of Japan
• Americans primarily speak English, and a lot of translations of Pokemon material translate from English to another language rather than from Japanese (for example, the French dub of the anime is based on the English dub, not the original Japanese)

[---]

Ah, good points!

Nothing really to contribute except a small point I remembered before.

NYC and London are at or near the top of most of the world city evaluation rankings.
World city summary tables:

Global city - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

World city characteristics:

Global city - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bolt Strike]

Well this completely isn’t true... Australia is an entire continent. They have beaches, jungles, mountains and everything in between. The first four regions were all based on Japan. I really don’t think it’d be a far fetched notion that AU could provide inspiration for more than region, however far apart those generations may be.

Whether or not it's a continent, a country, or just an area in a country is irrelevant, we've had regions based on areas of various political levels. They have various types of biomes, but so does every other region. When they choose whether or not to make a region an entire country or part of a country is most likely based on how populated and well known that area is. Worldwide, most people probably do not know much about the different parts of Australia, it's all just Australia. Japan did have multiple regions, yes, but Japan is an exception because it's their home region. Furthermore, it sells extremely well there, so a large part of its target audience does know about its subregions anyway.

 

[swiftgallade46]

Whether or not it's a continent, a country, or just an area in a country is irrelevant, we've had regions based on areas of various political levels. They have various types of biomes, but so does every other region. When they choose whether or not to make a region an entire country or part of a country is most likely based on how populated and well known that area is. Worldwide, most people probably do not know much about the different parts of Australia, it's all just Australia. Japan did have multiple regions, yes, but Japan is an exception because it's their home region. Furthermore, it sells extremely well there, so a large part of its target audience does know about its subregions anyway.

It’s absolutely relevant. It’s a continent because it’s massive. Your claim about there not being much population diversity there is false. There are huge populations in AU in several different parts of it. Pokémon is huge in AU as well. Just because it’s not as big as it is in Japan doesn’t mean it isn’t big. A large part of the target audience would know about AU subregions either way.

 

[Bolt Strike]

It’s absolutely relevant. It’s a continent because it’s massive.

They can and have taken liberties with the proportions of areas relative to the rest of the world. Unova, which is based primarily on one city, is about as big as other regions and countries. They can shrink Australia to be about the size of other regions as they see fit.

Your claim about there not being much population diversity there is false. There are huge populations in AU in several different parts of it. Pokémon is huge in AU as well.

You're missing the point about the diversity. It's not a matter of the population being spread to different cities, it's how culturally similar/different those cities are to one another, and how recognizable those differences are to the world at large. In general is someone probably going to know the difference between someone who lives in Queensland or New South Wales? Are they going to be able to tell Sydney apart from Melbourne or Brisbane? Probably not, most people are probably just going to see all of it as Australia instead of its different subcultures.

Just because it’s not as big as it is in Japan doesn’t mean it isn’t big. A large part of the target audience would know about AU subregions either way.

Well again, they're likely making an exception for Japan due to it being their home region which they know much better than the rest of the world. There is a significant portion that would know about the subregion, but probably mostly just the people that live in Australia itself and that's not nearly as big a portion as those that live in Japan.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

You're missing the point about the diversity. It's not a matter of the population being spread to different cities, it's how culturally similar/different those cities are to one another, and how recognizable those differences are to the world at large. In general is someone probably going to know the difference between someone who lives in Queensland or New South Wales? Are they going to be able to tell Sydney apart from Melbourne or Brisbane? Probably not, most people are probably just going to see all of it as Australia instead of its different subcultures.

I mean, I can't readily distinguish the architecture styles of Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, and I doubt a large part of the US is readily able to, but they still chose to sell Pokemon games here and they still did well.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

Australia doesn't have a large and diverse enough population to support multiple regions (or at least, its diversity isn't well known, to the rest of the world there's just the European immigrants and the Aborigines).

Australia has a massive asian population...

Worldwide, most people probably do not know much about the different parts of Australia, it's all just Australia.

Just because you don't know about Australia doesn't mean that most people around the world wouldn't.

I personally think that an Australia region would be very cool. The outback would be a fantastic place for a wild area.

 

[Johtoo]

As an Australian: I think I should chime in here. Australians are not all alike. There is quite a division between the urban population and the rural population. There is also a strong sense of indigenous identity and Australia as a whole is extremely multicultural. We have a huge italian community, a huge greek community, a huge asian population. We're probably the most diverse nation in the world and our geographic makeup is equally as diverse. Queensland is largely rural minded (the equivalent of maybe texas, but much more white. Victoria is more multiculural and urbanized and politcally more left leaning. Sydney as well. We also have sporting codes that are popular in individual states. Queensland and NSW follow one sport, while Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia follow another. We also have Northern Territory, where the largest proportion of the indigenous population live. Queensland also has a large indigenous population, while you will have to look really hard to find indigenous australians in Sydney or Melbourne. There is a lot that Gamefreak could do here, and I notice how conscious they are about diversity, so maybe Australia would be the perfect region for them after all. But the issue is I don't see how they could fit it all into 1 game. Queensland is 6 times the size of Italy (which tells you how big this country is)

Australia has a massive asian population...

Exactly. 12% of our population are Asian. It's the same range as African Americans in the United States.

 

[R1ke]

As an Australian: I think I should chime in here. Australians are not all alike. There is quite a division between the urban population and the rural population. There is also a strong sense of indigenous identity and Australia as a whole is extremely multicultural. We have a huge italian community, a huge greek community, a huge asian population. We're probably the most diverse nation in the world and our geographic makeup is equally as diverse. Queensland is largely rural minded (the equivalent of maybe texas, but much more white. Victoria is more multiculural and urbanized and politcally more left leaning. Sydney as well. We also have sporting codes that are popular in individual states. Queensland and NSW follow one sport, while Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia follow another. We also have Northern Territory, where the largest proportion of the indigenous population live. Queensland also have a large indigenous population, while you will have to look really hard to find indigenous australians in Sydney or Melbourne. There is a lot that Gamefreak could do here, and I notice how conscious they are about diversity, so maybe Australia would be the perfect region for them after all. But the issue is I don't see how they could fit it all into 1 game. Queensland is 6 times the size of Italy (which tells you how big this country is)

As another Australian, I second this.

Australia is a good candidate for a region.

 

[Fan of Jarrus]

Still hoping for a dingo Mon.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I mean, I can't readily distinguish the architecture styles of Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, and I doubt a large part of the US is readily able to, but they still chose to sell Pokemon games here and they still did well.

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.

Australia has a massive asian population...

I don't think a lot of people know that though.

Just because you don't know about Australia doesn't mean that most people around the world wouldn't.

How much of Australia do you think people actually know? People only know as much of an area as they've been exposed to, so all they have to go by is what they've seen in entertainment and school for the most part, and a lot of that is generalities. So most people will probably not be familiar enough with the area to justify multiple regions, not unless they've actually lived there or they've specifically studied the region.

I personally think that an Australia region would be very cool. The outback would be a fantastic place for a wild area.

Definitely, and this is another reason why I think Australia could be next. It's a great candidate for them to practice with more open areas, and that would indeed make a great Wild Area type of place.

As an Australian: I think I should chime in here. Australians are not all alike. There is quite a division between the urban population and the rural population. There is also a strong sense of indigenous identity and Australia as a whole is extremely multicultural. We have a huge italian community, a huge greek community, a huge asian population. We're probably the most diverse nation in the world and our geographic makeup is equally as diverse. Queensland is largely rural minded (the equivalent of maybe texas, but much more white. Victoria is more multiculural and urbanized and politcally more left leaning. Sydney as well. We also have sporting codes that are popular in individual states. Queensland and NSW follow one sport, while Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia follow another. We also have Northern Territory, where the largest proportion of the indigenous population live. Queensland also has a large indigenous population, while you will have to look really hard to find indigenous australians in Sydney or Melbourne. There is a lot that Gamefreak could do here, and I notice how conscious they are about diversity, so maybe Australia would be the perfect region for them after all.

I don't doubt that they're not all alike, no country really is (especially not in the West which is highly globalized). But again, who's going to know that? Most people are probably only going to be familiar with the stereotypes, sad to say.

But the issue is I don't see how they could fit it all into 1 game. Queensland is 6 times the size of Italy (which tells you how big this country is)

Again, the regions aren't always to scale compared to the rest of the world. We have a region based on one city (Unova) that's about as big as regions that span an entire country. They would probably scale the areas up/down as needed to fit everything in. The cities would probably take up more of the continent than they would IRL while the outback would take up less.

 

[Esserise]

Gonna' throw my hat in the ring and say Italy's next. No particular reason why, I just think it's going to be a big country with a very recognizable profile, as that seems conducive to their modern design process, and Italy's a popular tourist spot with lots of unique landmarks and cultural traditions.

Personally I don't have a real preference, I'm just generally curious to see what they choose now that they've done all the ones that I think were the most "obvious." (Which is definitely super-subjective but what can I say)

 

[Sheep40]

Fact is it's totally up in the air. This is kind of relying on GF breaking patterns. Which it's always a toss-up if they do. We never truly know what they're going to do and that's the fun of it.