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

[Jukain]

How can you make it "amazing" without changing it?

 

[Silktree]

The amount of hyperbole in this thread is astonishing. Stop looking at two extremes and pretending there is nothing in between, and better yet, stop speaking for lapsed players or kids. None of us are marketing experts.

The "issues" with returning to Kanto are unrelated to the timing. Suffice to say that the return will happen eventually whether you like it or not. It's fine to just say "I want a new generation now" and leave it at that.

 

[Joker901]

It seems no matter what happens a target audience loses out

1- Game is targeted for the nostalgia fans of gen 1. Relives and extends up on the fandom. Fans who don’t like gen 1 or want someone new lose out. To an extent young children may be confused by all these references from a game from 20 years ago although the VC games exist so it may not matter.

2- Game is completely new in an updated setting with new Pokémon, characters story and plot. Nostalgia fans lose out.

It’s actually fairly hard to have a middle ground here that suits everyone unless they have a game like XD Gale of Darkness where it’s a reboot to the series in a sense but we have Pokemon we all know and can relate to, + they extend slightly on existing characters without going crazy so those wanting something fresh are still satisfied and nostalgia fans are not alienated in their experience.

I never realised how dangerous this situation is for game freak until I saw these comments, it’s pretty much a make and break situation. Reminds me of how bad skyward sword was in public reception and how BOTW was that one chance of redeeming faith in the series to its fans.

No matter what happens they will sell 16 milions copies and we are the ones who are gonna buy them. This is the ugly truth and honestly I don't like it at all.
When you know that you can loose money, you have to be sure that the games you are making are good, original and worthbuying. When you know you will sell 16 milions copies no matter what you can also release two games that are not worthbuying. I'm looking at you usum.

 

[Scarftail]

The reason why they didn't add any new pokemon or new form or new mechanic to the movie may tell us something about the games themselves or may mean nothing. We still don't know, however the lack of new stuff for the movie is not indicative in any way of the games release date.

Every single time a new game was on the horizon, the movie immediately preceding it featured something from the game. And even if that's just a pattern that can be broken, it wouldn't make any marketing sense to stop doing that. If that was the case, why didn't 2016's movie just have Volcanion in it? Because they wanted to advertise SM. And suffice to say there's little to no chance the next game has no new Pokemon, form, or mechanic. I know I'm jumping to conclusions, but I'm not putting stock in a movie reveal after Zeraora.

 

[Enryx25]

It seems no matter what happens a target audience loses out

1- Game is targeted for the nostalgia fans of gen 1. Relives and extends up on the fandom. Fans who don’t like gen 1 or want someone new lose out. To an extent young children may be confused by all these references from a game from 20 years ago although the VC games exist so it may not matter.

2- Game is completely new in an updated setting with new Pokémon, characters story and plot. Nostalgia fans lose out.

It’s actually fairly hard to have a middle ground here that suits everyone unless they have a game like XD Gale of Darkness where it’s a reboot to the series in a sense but we have Pokemon we all know and can relate to, + they extend slightly on existing characters without going crazy so those wanting something fresh are still satisfied and nostalgia fans are not alienated in their experience.

I never realised how dangerous this situation is for game freak until I saw these comments, it’s pretty much a make and break situation. Reminds me of how bad skyward sword was in public reception and how BOTW was that one chance of redeeming faith in the series to its fans.

It's actually really easy.
Totally new gen with new Pokemon, characters, plot and a reimagining of Kanto as a postgame region.

 

[Joker901]

Every single time a new game was on the horizon, the movie immediately preceding it featured something from the game. And even if that's just a pattern that can be broken, it wouldn't make any marketing sense to stop doing that. If that was the case, why didn't 2016's movie just have Volcanion in it? Because they wanted to advertise SM. And suffice to say there's little to no chance the next game has no new Pokemon, form, or mechanic. I know I'm jumping to conclusions, but I'm not putting stock in a movie reveal after Zeraora.

No matter how you see things a pattern will be broken anyway: next games will not have a port in a movie if they don't have one in the upcoming movie, cause next summer movie will be already about the new games. So...maybe they didn't need to include anything new, maybe they didn't want to include anything new, maybe there's nothing new to include. I don't see why this should be indicative of the games release date.
Btw, we still need to discover the eevee gimmick. For what we know eevee can have a new hairstyle and next games will feature new hairtstyles for old pokemon. This why Mega Ampharos exists. Done, confirmed.

 

[Defiant]

Yes. This is one of the reasons why I don't want a Kanto remake for the first Switch game. No matter how they go about doing it, people will be upset by the end result. And, it will get less sales than if they did a new region.

That's nice, what would you like by the way? Anything you'd like to contribute ideas for a new region perhaps?
I'd be interested to know how you go about predicting sales of games that are yet to be announced, what factors do you take into account etc? Do you have a formula or something like that?

 

[Icy Wind]

That's nice, what would you like by the way? Any ideas for a new region?
I think it's cool how you can work out how much a game will sell before it's even announced. Do you have a formula or someone on the inside who manipulates the data, I understand if you can't reveal your sources.

Dude, every remake so far has sold less than a new region. That's a fact.

Pokemon X & Y sell 4M copies in first weekend

Pokemon Diamond & Pearl - 17.63 million sales
Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire - 16.22 million sales
Pokemon Black & White - 15.42 million sales
Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver - 12.67 million sales
Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen - 12 million sales

Why the snark?

 

[Defiant]

Dude, every remake so far has sold less than a new region. That's a fact.

Why the snark?

I don't think we're talking about remakes are we?
The theory is a brand new game/story with new Pokes, just set in Kanto. Not a Red/Blue remake.

Wasn't being snarky at all, am genuinely interested.
Have edited the original comment to hopefully remove whatever it was that unintentionally sounded "snarky"

 

[RileyXY1]

I don't think we're talking about remakes are we?
The theory is a brand new game/story with new Pokes, just set in Kanto. Not a Red/Blue remake.

That wouldn't work well for GF. The 27-32 demographic will hate the game for ruining their nostalgia.

 

[Defiant]

That wouldn't work well for GF. The 27-32 demographic will hate the game for ruining their nostalgia.

So do you think Game Freak will never revisit Kanto in the main series ever again? Even though it was the region which launched the franchise and the real life region where most of them live and work. If you do think they will revisit Kanto again, under what circumstances do you think that will be?

 

[Jukain]

You will never satisfy the people only looking for nostalgia, because you would have to be a 100% copy, and we already have that. (and I've been unable to find statistics on how well it sold) I'm also convinced that even in that case, they only play the game for a few minutes and never touch it again.

 

[Joker901]

I would like to remember you that nintendo has sold about 20 milions consoles right now. This means that a lot more than half of the people with a switch have to buy the games to make them sell 17 milions copies again.
The games HAVE to be good because they have to convince people with a switch to buy a copy and people without the switch to buy both the console and the game.

 

[Bullet Club Master]

That would be quite epic if we got Zeraora plus the Eevee gimmick today.

 

[RileyXY1]

So do you think Game Freak will never revisit Kanto in the main series ever again? Even though it was the region which launched the franchise and the real life region where most of them live and work. If you do think they will revisit Kanto again, under what circumstances do you think that will be?

To please people, likely a 1 for 1 remake. I don't want that.

 

[Virbank Video]

I’m not going to quote or tag the forum member and I apologise if this breaches any rules, that’s not my intention - but is there really no reprimand for someone posting the same thing over and over and over again, showing no indication whatsoever that they are taking onboard anyone else’s reasonable, measured counter arguments? As a 29 year old, I’m really getting tired of seeing my age group getting generalised so flagrantly with absolutely no factual backing.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I hope they'd debut on Switch with a new region, and do Kanto for the 25th anniversary or something...

I'll probably accept a Kanto remake/sequel/whatever without issue, but I'd prefer a new generation any day.

 

[thefrustratedxerneas]

I've been lurking in this thread for about a hundred pages or so and I think I'd like to share my thoughts about the subject.

With so much evidence pointing to it, I do believe we're going back to Kanto (as much as I wouldn't like that). However, I don't think we are going to have an exact remake, if only for the reason that if the nostalgia crowd wanted Kanto as it appears in the first generation, they would just play the first generation games. Sure, Kanto on the Switch would have better graphics than it did on the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS, but even that still wouldn't satisfy everyone, because most of the people I've talked to in the "only the first games are good, everything after that stinks" demographic prefer sprites over 3D models.

The folks behind Pokemon care about money above all else. That's why they release two slightly different versions of the same game at once, and then one or two additional versions a few years after, in most cases. If a direct remake of the first generation games were released, they would not make as much money as they would had Game Freak shook it up even a little bit, because people could just buy the first gen games on the virtual console for a drastically lower price. Most people don't buy games exclusively for the graphics; yes, graphical quality is a big factor, but I can't imagine anyone would sacrifice such a large amount of money in exchange for 3D models instead of sprites (especially if that Lapras screenshot is real).

My thoughts (and hopes) are, if Game Freak are rereleasing Kanto, they'll make it a lot more interesting than it was in previous generations, because let's face it: it's boring. They could add an engaging plot, new Pokemon/forms, new features, you name it. There isn't much reason they couldn't do that with an entirely new region though. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[SamurottMan]

I'd be excited for a Kanto revisit if Kanto elements haven't been shoved in my face for the last 5 years.

 

[Joker901]

That would be quite epic if we got Zeraora plus the Eevee gimmick today.

Well, if that gimmick is important/relevant for the movie they could show it today (will this be the last trailer we get?), it may be even related to Zeraora for what we know.