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Potential News Dates (Comments May Contain Spoilers!)

Marketing is generally scheduled in advance; so, most of the ideas and videos were probably done. It makes zero sense to limit marketing because of dexit-backlash. The absolute opposite, even; they should have marketed more because of it.

Also, they can easily ignore the 'trolls' by just not reading comments. They're a big business, so they catch trolls all the time, anyway.

Also, they could've easily shown us more without being Sun/Moon 2.0. I'm pretty dissatisfied with this marketing campaign of theirs. I will buy one of the games, but I'm still not sure which one.
 
I don't think that Game Freak is really worried about convincing fans upset about dexit to buy the games.

That was exaclty the point addressed by SpinyShell.

That's all they really needed to hear

I do think I disagree in any way, but since the SwSh marketing campaign matter has been discussed enough before, I will refer to AngryBinacle's point of view only.

They release two versions, which unlike other games that are released that way, have only minor differences between each other. If they're dissatisfied about not having enough information to base their choice on which version to buy, it's a legitimate complaint. I don't see how the company's point of "you are going to buy either one anyway" fits in here. That is good feedback, a constructive criticism about the marketing campaign: some consumers find that they are not being given enough information to choose which version to buy. I'm sure it would be some feedback that they would give importance for, unlike you're implying.
 
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I disagree. They’ve awarded less opportunities (less open stages) to let trolls troll. Disengaging is a valid tactic when dealing with extreme hate and backlash. It’s obvious they’ve been in a lose-lose situation, so choosing to only reveal the bare minimum is a sound strategy. People still complain and hate no matter what, so giving them less to complain and hate about works.

It’s also them playing the long game. They know that, release week, there will be tons of negative press with full lists of every Pokémon not in these games. Choosing to save most of the new content to release at the same time as those lists is very smart. If they had been releasing things every week, they wouldn’t have much new content for people to write about to combat those articles.
The thing is, though... as much as they have put out fewer trailers, that isn't the issue. Our rate of trailers isn't a problem at all. It's the fact that they haven't put much into those trailers. It's not just fewer stages to scream Dexit on, it's empty stages with little hype to drown it out. They're not doing a good job of covering the few stages that they've bothered to set up- only revealing Sirfetch'd? Only revealing Galarian Ponyta? Here's a stage with only one thing on it, Dexit folks, please come and scream to your hearts' content!

I'm not saying that they should reveal a whole shitload of pokemon because that was absolutely the issue with Sun and Moon, but would it kill them to show more evolution lines? Tease more about the region? Or the legendaries? Just generally put a little more out instead of setting up huge stages just for solo acts that absolutely encourage the Dexit people to scream more? We had a 24 hour stream for just ponyta followed by a trailer for just ponyta... that's not remotely trying to distract anyone from Dexit. If you're gonna put anything out, is it really wise to adopt a defeatist attitude that "well they're going to scream anyway might as well not try" or wouldn't it be better to at least attempt to throw out enough shiny things and hope to distract people from the ongoing drama?

Basically, I don't see a problem with the frequency of news but the extreme lack of news within those news drops is just... giving people somewhere to yell.
 
They release two versions, which unlike other games that are released that way, have only minor differences between each other. If they're dissatisfied about not having enough information to base their choice on which version to buy, it's a legitimate complaint. I don't see how the company's point of "you are going to buy either one anyway" fits in here. That is good feedback, a constructive criticism about the marketing campaign: some consumers find that they are not being given enough information to choose which version to buy. I'm sure it would be some feedback that they would give importance for, unlike you're implying.

Sure, and I agree with that bit - I do think they should tell us a bit more about the version-exclusive material. What I was trying to imply was just that any dissatisfaction one might have with their promotional approach doesn't really mean much if you have already decided that you're going to buy one of the games. They're never going to see these individual posts on here, so the particulars of the feedback part of it is something they'll never receive.
 
Y'all really just gonna gloss over my comment about how knights ride horses and unicorns helped knights in old English lore, so that's a reason why Sirfetch'd and Galarian Ponyta are version exclusives, huh?
FAKE NEWS.


Okay in all seriousness though I think it's a good point--but now I want to see sirfetched ridding on a G Rapidash once it gets revealed.


Makes you wonder if something special happens if you get both of them together. Special double battle move?
 
We are 36 days away from release, what if they just remain silent until then? Torture us for the last month. They did it for 3 earlier this year.
 
Sure, and I agree with that bit - I do think they should tell us a bit more about the version-exclusive material. What I was trying to imply was just that any dissatisfaction one might have with their promotional approach doesn't really mean much if you have already decided that you're going to buy one of the games. They're never going to see these individual posts on here, so the particulars of the feedback part of it is something they'll never receive.
It doesn't mean as much as the purchase decision, but we agree that it means something. So that wasn't all they really needed to hear. They didn't say they would be heard here. They were just reproducing here their opinion on the marketing campaign.


Hey, since we're out of the news, let's play a game.

Speculating about what we expect from the game before it being announced and trying to do it now, with everything we know with just a month to the release, is obviously quite different. Some people are also worried about this supposed secretive cycle. So, knowing everything we know about the game so far, what do you realistic expect that is worth mentioning? What do you think they are hiding? What would they be hiding in a scenario where you would have maximum satisfaction? Just realistic things, not things like "retracting with the dexit", because we already know that should not happen.

Starting:

Well, in a scenario where I would consider to be decent, they would be hiding:
  • Something around 20~30 Gigantamax Forms (XY had 28 Megas);
  • At least 60 new Pokémon;
  • Something around six more lines of regional forms besides the four lines we know of (SM had 10 regional form lines), with at least two more regional evolutions, as well (preferably not from kanto);
  • At least one new Eeveelution;
  • A huge post-game, with a ton of things to do.

Now, in a realistic scenario where I would be most satisfied, I think they would be hiding:
  • A breathtaking story. At least, in terms of presentation. I mean, we're on Switch now. I wish they had voice acting, but we've seen that won't be the case;
  • Something around 30~35 Gigantamax Forms. With some of them having two versions in an even better - yet unlikely - scenario (like Sword and Shield versions, why not? Go crazy, Game Freak, surprise me!);
  • More than 80 new Pokémon (let's get close to nine hundred already);
  • Around 10 more lines of regional forms, with at least half of them presenting regional evolutions;
  • Two new Eeveelutions, at least (preferably some combination between Steel, Dragon, Ghost);
  • Something really innovating with the legendaries since they are hiding their types so much;
  • The Wild Area being much larger than we think we haven't seen the part that should go out on the coast yet, so it could be huge. And maybe with that snowy area being quite explorable as well, instead of just a background. That would be amazing;
  • The city to the north being larger than we think, too. Let it be a giant city with many different things to do. With a bunch of side quests, some battle facilities (more than one kind of), and maybe it could work like an online hub, like the Wild Area, and - why not - it could have many co-op mini-games to play local or online;
  • Some big extra non-battle related feature like Pokémon Musical would be cool too;
  • Many unrevealed dungeons. So far, we haven't see many. The fact of the Wild Area covering a large percentage of the map worries me. I hope the game has a lot more unrevealed;
  • I hope that in addition to addressing the problem of changing natures, they also recognize and solve the problem of not being able to change from abilities to hidden abilities, as well the issue with egg moves being exclusive to breeding only, and hidden powers being unchangeable. I think those together with the nature change system would solve any problem regarding using main story Pokémon competitively. Speaking of, I also hope they're hiding an improvement in the breeding system, any system where it allows eggs to be hatched automatically. Something like Isle Avue of Pelago, but totally automatic;
  • Being able to battle with all the 18 gym leaders after the main story, as well;
  • A Dex with 600+ species;
  • Better customization options;
  • Some new rematch system, like Vs. Seeker, to rematch common trainers would be pretty cool too (even more now with the possibility of getting their league cards. So we could rematch all of them and collect all their league cards in the post-game. It would be almost a new game plus).

Of course, that would be the major things only, the ones worth mentioning to me. I sure forgot a lot of things, and it's kind of hard try to speculate too much about what we have without going unrealistic.
 
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So in the USA pokecenter website at least, they just posted a bunch of starter merch. like sports/college banners and alot of sports themed things. Hint we will hear something soon on the starters? (hopefully they didn't do this just because of the little interviews with game informer)
 
So in the USA pokecenter website at least, they just posted a bunch of starter merch. like sports/college banners and alot of sports themed things. Hint we will hear something soon on the starters? (hopefully they didn't do this just because of the little interviews with game informer)
Actually probably just gearing up for the London Pokemon Center opening in about a week.
 
So in the USA pokecenter website at least, they just posted a bunch of starter merch. like sports/college banners and alot of sports themed things. Hint we will hear something soon on the starters? (hopefully they didn't do this just because of the little interviews with game informer)
Galar Starter Backpack
 
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Guess people are not much into a speculation mood today. :wynaut:Well, it was fun to make my new "pre-release wishlist" for these games anyway.

I don't think that means much. We are only 1 month away from the game release, it's common for starters merchandise to be released around this period. Many have already released in Japan, if I'm not mistaken.
 
I think next week, on Thursday, an embargo will end for gaming sites, possibly youtubers, on Sword and Shield coverage, as in a live of an italian gaming site, it was mentioned that there'll be an article on the site, and it'll likely be an hands on as well, given the hints in the live. Coupled with the tweet of last night, posted in the Leak Repository thread, I think it'll be a worldwide-end of an embargo.

He also hinted on seeing the starter's evolution, so a trailer about them might be released next week.
 
The game is very beautiful now. We can clearly see the graphics improvement.

I disagree. The graphics look about the same to me, and are rather mediocre. Nothing really looks beautiful in my opinion, the janky disconnect between things like the ground and grass or the rock textures aren't pretty.

'Meh' in graphical form...


Edit: In fact I think the game clips played throughout the video are just copies of older clips. So there's no graphical improvement because these are the same clips we saw back in June and such.
 
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I disagree. The graphics look about the same to me, and are rather mediocre. Nothing really looks beautiful in my opinion, the janky disconnect between things like the ground and grass or the rock textures aren't pretty.

View attachment 126310
I wouldn’t personally go that far, as the general vista of the shot, without focusing on the details, is nice/beautiful (they might be more about the art style then graphics), but yeah, I don’t think that this shot or the ones in the video shown vast improvements. Other trailers or videos shown some better improvements then this video.

I have no clue if that’s the final version of the game or not, but in any case, next week we’ll likely know more.
 
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