Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

[Johnny Boy]

Bite your tounge, sir. Raichu is a big badass version of pikachu. Its a great evo

If anything Pichu’s useless ass should forever be erased from existence.

 

[dvor]

If anything Pichu’s useless ass should forever be erased from existence.

Spoiler

 

[SinnohEevee]

What's needed is Gorochu, or Mega Raichu.

 

[BlindCaptainDrip]

What's needed is Gorochu, or Mega Raichu.

Doubtful now, knowing we can't evole either starter.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Ehh, there's a ton of ways to interpret what is being said. Make a big sweeping statement on how they've fundamentally misread the market comes off a bit paranoid on a game we know so very little about.

I believe he's referencing that hardcore gamers are much more likely to take their switch with them everywhere vs. people who are okay playing an hour or two a week in their home winding down for the day. For example, my wife, despite who would fall under the casual gamer label, has logged in a ton of time in BOTW but she has rarely taken the switch out of the house. While I on the other hand rarely play in the house and I purchase pretty much major switch title and take it with me everywhere. Unless it's a weekend I almost never play it docked. Sure, this is anecdotal but I don't think the casual players are more apt to take the switch with them, I would argue hardcore gamers are.

So maybe Gamefreak is talking about making the handheld experience as smooth and well running as possible. Some switch games run like ass in handheld and we all saw how the unstable 3DS's performance was in SuMo, so I imagine optimization for handheld is a big deal with them.

You're right in that to some degree everyone doesn't fit into this category, but Game Freak themselves tends to lump the fanbase into two different buckets when making game design decisions: the casual fans who don't really spend a lot of time on video games because they have mobile devices that can do a lot of things like internet, social media, movies, music, etc., and the hardcore gamers who are deeply invested in the series and want to invest time in all of its mechanics and battle competitively.

Now, the casuals are naturally drawn more to Pokemon Go because it's on their smartphones with all of their other multimedia things that they like and it's designed to be quick and easy so they don't have to spend too much time. So if they're playing their games more when they're out and about, why would they be interested in console features? Wouldn't they be more interested in the handheld features and playing it more like they would their mobile games? And that's not even getting into the fact that they might not even be interested in a Switch to begin with because it's purely a gaming device and not a multimedia device.

As for the hardcore gamers, they might use the handheld features some, but they're probably going to be spending a lot more time with the games at home in their free time. So a home console environment would be more natural to them. More handheld features probably isn't going to excite them too much, they'd be more interested in seeing the games evolve into large scale, fleshed out experiences.

So yeah, just based on the way they're classifying their audience it's just flat out illogical.

Now if you really want to be more accurate I'd say we should probably split the hardcore into two smaller groups because even within the hardcore segment. There's competitive gamers who are interested in mastering the mechanics to prove their skill against other players, and then there's also what I'll call the sandbox gamers, who are simply interested in a large, adventure type of game and tons of content. The sandbox gamers don't really care for skill as much as they want a fulfilling and immersive experience, they're sort of in between hardcore and casual in a way. Really, if you divide it this way, you get a much clearer picture of where the interest in console games lies. Competitive gamers probably won't care too much about whether or not they're playing on handheld or console, they have multiple different options to battle people in different ways. It's the sandbox gamers that are going to be more concerned with a console esque experience, as home consoles are an environment where they can sit down and savor a meaty, fleshed out game for hours and hours and hours on end. And those are most likely the audience that drove sales of games like BotW and Mario Odyssey and are clamoring for Pokemon to get a similar treatment.

Sadly though, Game Freak doesn't seem to give this market much attention, and they don't seem to really pay much attention to WHY BotW sold as well as it did, which is what makes their impression on the market that much more bewildering. You'd think if Game Freak were crediting BotW for proving them wrong about the Switch's success they'd take a closer look at what the game was doing and think "Hmm, this game was large and open ended and full of content and we didn't think a game like that would really do well in the industry anymore and yet it did. Maybe there's something to this". But nope, they've pretty much dismissed BotW's success and think LGPE is more appropriate for a console environment. There's nothing they can do with the 2019 game that would justify that line of thinking.

 

[Minnale101]

LGEP came into development after pokemon go.

So its gonna have 2 years of development and zelda which had 6 years of development . Its gonna get outsold by it

2011 skyward, 2017 botw

Using that time frame lets look at what gamefreak had done

2011 western release of black and white
2012 pokemon black and white 2
2013 x and y
2014 oras
2015 skip year
2016 sun and moon
2017 usum

6 pokemon released in the same time frame of sky ward sword to botw

4 of them sold 14 + million

The long development time is not worth it for gamefreak to make a game like botw

 

[BackSet]

LGEP came into development after pokemon go.

So its gonna have 2 years of development and zelda which had 6 years of development . Its gonna get outsold by it

2011 skyward, 2017 botw

Using that time frame lets look at what gamefreak had done

2011 western release of black and white
2012 pokemon black and white 2
2013 x and y
2014 oras
2015 skip year
2016 sun and moon
2017 usum

6 pokemon released in the same time frame of sky ward sword to botw

4 of them sold 14 + million

The long development time is not worth it for gamefreak to make a game like botw

Personally, I’d say it would be quite worth it. Don’t tell the guys on ZU but I’m hinestly much more invested in pokemon than zelda so I’m willing to wait.

 

[prog rocker]

I'm more afraid of what would happen to the fandom if we get long development times. Just one year of wait and we were almost killing each other.

 

[Bolt Strike]

LGEP came into development after pokemon go.

So its gonna have 2 years of development and zelda which had 6 years of development . Its gonna get outsold by it

2011 skyward, 2017 botw

Using that time frame lets look at what gamefreak had done

2011 western release of black and white
2012 pokemon black and white 2
2013 x and y
2014 oras
2015 skip year
2016 sun and moon
2017 usum

6 pokemon released in the same time frame of sky ward sword to botw

4 of them sold 14 + million

The long development time is not worth it for gamefreak to make a game like botw

We'll see if they still feel that way when fans start leaving because Pokemon can't keep up with games like BotW as they become more and more of a standard in the market. That's the thing about competition, if you don't keep up with what everyone is doing, you eventually get left in the dust. Hefty investments are pretty much a necessity to succeed in the console market.

 

[Minnale101]

We'll see if they still feel that way when fans start leaving because Pokemon can't keep up with games like BotW as they become more and more of a standard in the market. That's the thing about competition, if you don't keep up with what everyone is doing, you eventually get left in the dust. Hefty investments are pretty much a necessity to succeed in the console market.

They will leave and new kids replace them. It’s always been like that. Why gamefreak is super smart and sales are super steady

 

[omahanime]

I am filled with dread that Pokemon: Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee will be gloried side game like what they have thrown in the main games to fluff them out. And the way they reference Sun/Moon means more in game movies and less game play.

 

[Minnale101]

I am filled with dread that Pokemon: Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee will be gloried side game like what they have thrown in the main games to fluff them out. And the way they reference Sun/Moon means more in game movies and less game play.

Oh I’m def expecting them to go full jrpg with Gen 8. Atleast the characters will emote I hope

 

[Bolt Strike]

They will leave and new kids replace them. It’s always been like that. Why gamefreak is super smart and sales are super steady

The new kids are more interested in mobile than console nowadays. If they want to stick with this kind of business model for Pokemon they'd be better off turning it into a mobile exclusive where it doesn't matter if the games are quick and cheap because that audience enjoys those types of quickplay games. But on a console like the Switch? The userbase is made up of more hardcore gamers expecting larger and more involved games. So again, they're going to need to scale up to remain successful in that market.

 

[Minnale101]

The new kids are more interested in mobile than console nowadays. If they want to stick with this kind of business model for Pokemon they'd be better off turning it into a mobile exclusive where it doesn't matter if the games are quick and cheap because that audience enjoys those types of quickplay games. But on a console like the Switch? The userbase is made up of more hardcore gamers expecting larger and more involved games. So again, they're going to need to scale up to remain successful in that market.

By the time Gen 8 releases in 2nd half of 2019. I’m expecting a new cheaper switch like ds lite or 2ds and you will see kids buy the systems

Mobile gaming has been massive since 2012. It’s nothing new.

Of course hardcore are the one to buy a system in its first 2 years of launch without a price cut. Casual fans will ease into switch

 

[RileyXY1]

By the time Gen 8 releases in 2nd half of 2019. I’m expecting a new cheaper switch like ds lite or 2ds and you will see kids buy the systems

Mobile gaming has been massive since 2012. It’s nothing new.

Of course hardcore are the one to buy a system in its first 2 years of launch without a price cut. Casual fans will ease into switch

They are making a dockless Switch which will only be released in Japan.

 

[Minnale101]

They are making a dockless Switch which will only be released in Japan.

That’s not a new switch. Just a switch without a dock

Ds lite came out 2006 with Gen 4 release

2ds release 2013 when x and y released

2 years after original system released

 

[Bolt Strike]

By the time Gen 8 releases in 2nd half of 2019. I’m expecting a new cheaper switch like ds lite or 2ds and you will see kids buy the systems

Mobile gaming has been massive since 2012. It’s nothing new.

Of course hardcore are the one to buy a system in its first 2 years of launch without a price cut. Casual fans will ease into switch

Still wouldn't be enough. Kids aren't as interested in consoles because they're dedicated gaming devices, whereas mobile is multimedia with internet, social media, movies, music, apps, etc. Game Freak themselves even points this out every time they justify casualizing or simplifying whatever gameplay mechanics they're changing up. Again, this is where they're fundamentally misreading the market. If casual gamers are buying a mobile device for a variety of different forms of entertainment, and a device that's gaming focused is still selling, then that means that either they've misunderstood what the casuals want or there's a different market supporting the Switch. Because by this logic, the casuals should be fundamentally uninterested in the Switch. Honestly, this kind of nonsense makes me wonder how much market research Game Freak actually does.

 

[Knightwolf09]

Still wouldn't be enough. Kids aren't as interested in consoles because they're dedicated gaming devices, whereas mobile is multimedia with internet, social media, movies, music, apps, etc. Game Freak themselves even points this out every time they justify casualizing or simplifying whatever gameplay mechanics they're changing up. Again, this is where they're fundamentally misreading the market. If casual gamers are buying a mobile device for a variety of different forms of entertainment, and a device that's gaming focused is still selling, then that means that either they've misunderstood what the casuals want or there's a different market supporting the Switch. Because by this logic, the casuals should be fundamentally uninterested in the Switch. Honestly, this kind of nonsense makes me wonder how much market research Game Freak actually does.

So why are console games doing so well? You can't just say it's purely because of teen and adult audiences

 

[RileyXY1]

So why are console games doing so well? You can't just say it's purely because of teen and adult audiences

It is true.

 

[Knightwolf09]

It is true.

I seriously doubt that, rather it sounds dumb to me