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During the course of E3, IGN interviewed Nintendo on the balance between private and professional life and on the management of crisis culture, which has become a particularly hot topic in the video game world since about a year. Fresh NoA President Doug Bowser presented a constructive response, citing Animal Crossing: New Horizons 'postponement to next year, in order to put workers' priorities ahead of the sanctity of release. This decision was unanimously hailed by the general public of video games, even though the action of Nintendo was hit by the announcement, and that it was one of the biggest articles from the conference, racking up thousands of retweets and tens of thousands of likes, while Nintendo has reaffirmed its image as a respectful and comparatively fair company to many others.
Shortly after initially posting the article on Twitter, in Nintendo Wire Slack, my colleague Jaxson Tapp – who was personally hitting the floor of the E3 – asked a reasonable question. "Did I miss something [Junichi] Masuda was telling when he was dealing with the crisis? Why do people tag it in answers?
While someone was entering the Treehouse stream, I immediately knew the answer. A few hours earlier, Masuda announced that Pokémon Sword & Shield would not allow the transfer of Pokémon that are not in the Galar Pokédex, which removes an undetermined number of Pokémon from the game. balance and the fact that this decision should be made, Masuda was quite frank, he spoke about it more in USGamer alongside the director of the game, Shigeru Ohmori, and then said there was not yet decided whether or not the non-Galar Pokémon will be updated later.
The flashback was immediate. Pokémon announcements of all types have generally had mixed reactions lately, but it was one of the most virulent negations in recent memory. Several types of players – from the finalists in the national Dex to the brilliant hunters, to those who were simply emotionally attached to their former "Mons" – decried the decision of every wall on the Internet. Twitter's hashtags, Reddit chats and comment sections were lit with unanimous rage. People questioned the reasoning behind the decision, pointing out a number of discrepancies between the alleged factors and the previously known facts. And soon, the event had a nickname – "Dexit", a brazen and certainly intelligent reference to Brexit, a real political situation that is just as dark and tense.
People especially tended to focus on time issues. The masses were perfectly in agreement with suspending the game for a few months – despite some saddlers, the reaction to the Animal Crossing delay was extremely positive once people understood the reason, and if this involved getting all Pokémon in most, that would not mind waiting a few more months for that. Where was the harm?
I thought about it for a while as I went through the forums and looked for news about it. And it soon became clear that a delay seems simple and good on paper, as well as many other things that Game Freak could do to remedy the situation, it is not a small decision to take. In fact, it's almost an inevitable dilemma – a symptom of the growing pains that have nibbled the entire Pokemon franchise over the past decade.
Before delving into the causes and consequences of this problem, it's important to remember the full size of Pokémon. For game design, there are currently more than 800 collectible monsters, each with animating models and sets to modify, as well as any potential changes that Game Freak could bring to the Galar region (how, for example, Dynamaxing Would it affect Pokemon's individual models? Besides that, Pokemon is literally the most lucrative media franchise in the world, with a total business turnover of $ 90 billion – almost 1.5 times that of Star. Wars, for comparison, and almost two decades later, as a younger player, even as a video game franchise, Pokémon is behind only Mario and perhaps Call of Duty in terms of money. a money maker on a scale that few, if any, are able to understand.The Newline Pokemon games are the safe from which all branches of the media empire – anime, manga, card game and, more importantly, derivatives – are developing. These are not games that exist in isolation. To turn a single one is to scramble the whole business and cause shock waves that reverberate in each of his entanglements.
Sword & Shield should be released in November. This is undoubtedly the commercial title of Nintendo's 2019 season. It's not like the composition of the rest of the year is mediocre – it's actually pretty good, as E3 showed – but there's just nothing that matches the sales standards of a Pokémon title. Fire Emblem, Link's Awakening and Luigi's Mansion are solid assets, but they are A and B lists – Pokémon is SSS level. The only Nintendo games worthy of its financial level are Mario, Zelda (Smack Bros) and Zasha. Everything else is incomparable from the point of view of sales. Delaying the game beyond Christmas is simply not an option if Nintendo wants to register a good fourth quarter, especially since Animal Crossing is postponed. Even if we wish to cite Miyamoto on quality and delayed games, in the economic climate in which Pokémon lives, this is simply not feasible. Sword and Shield must release this holiday season – so demand the invisible hand of the free market. Watch how Nintendo's shares fell after AC's delay and imagine how much they would dive if they did the same for Pokémon.
This explanation alone should provide enough reason to explain why developers, who follow a strict schedule, have been forced to make a decision. But some Internet contingents, dissatisfied with this, have filed counter-claims against the reasoning provided regarding the constraints of balance, time and budget. They are right to be suspected to a certain extent and their arguments deserve to be examined – but we need to look carefully at the reasoning on both sides.
First of all, it's just the time spent modeling and animating new Pokémon. A valid excuse at a glance that becomes more delicate when you consider that the models and animations used in Sword & Shield seem identical to those of generation VI / VII, simply enlarged and restored. Game Freak originally designed Pokémon for 3DS on a larger scale than the console can render, theoretically preparing them for more powerful consoles such as … well, the Switch. Not to mention that they have already had a try (and, hopefully, a preparatory work) with Let's Go games. Should not it just be a copy-and-paste job, if that Is the case?
Well, if I've learned something by listening to a video game developer for more than five seconds, it's: Game development is never as simple and easy as it seems, and complications are likely to occur with almost everything you do. Yes, Sword & Shield's models and animations do not look very up-to-date with those of previous people, and I doubt they'll be much more refined before they're released. But to assume that this is a pure question of C + V is at least a bit myopic, and does not take into account everything Game Freak must also add to the games. As New Frame Plus shows, the animation and resources of Pokémon games have undergone many changes and a lot of work. I'm sure the suspicion that animations take too much time to legitimate legitimacy, just as I'm sure there's at least one core truth behind these same claims.
A comment that Masuda made about balance, pointing out that Pokémon has not been balanced since … essentially. Obviously, in a more controlled environment where they can freely choose the Pokémon that will even enter the game, they will have much easier to reduce the metagame … in theory. Game Freak does not exactly have a remarkable track record of competitive equilibrium, as most competitive resources (Smogon, etc.) are community based. Of course, it is difficult to see how this will unfold before the game's release. So I can not offer more than careful perspectives – although I would say that skepticism about this case is justified.
But of course, the main one, again, is time and money. If delaying the game is not feasible (as it is), then there are two options: incurring additional staffing or downsizing. The first seems reasonable on paper, considering the transaction mentioned above with Pokémon, but there are too many unknowns at stake (current size of Game Freak's membership and structure of their management, amounting to 90 billion USD of the company actually gets to work, etc.) in order to properly assess the viability of such an option. I hope the latter is irrelevant: it would not only make Nintendo hypocritical after Bowser's comments, but it would be morally wrong because – and I'll say it loud and clear – the life and well-being of game developers are far more valuable than the data bytes they work with. I fully understand the emotional interest of people in this issue – me too – but it's not worth working on them.
This seems to be an impasse. Game Freak can not delay the game because too much of Pokemon's multimedia empire and Nintendo's annual reports depend on his arrival. (Hopefully) does not want to abuse his staff to send the game with all available Pokémon. It is therefore resolved to reduce some losses, which – as Masuda says – should probably happen eventually. The series as a whole has grown since its inception and, at one point, its reach has simply become uncontrollable. In a way, this decision, that it is happening now, in Generation IX or beyond, was inevitable.
But does that mean we have to smile and bear it?
I was pretty devastated to hear the news when it broke out. I transferred each of my main Pokémon teams from every game I've played since the fourth generation. They are all still part of the PC of my Sun file – named after Metal Gear, Final Fantasy IX and Xenoblade castings; several ampharoses and raichus (I like electric types, ok); and my Typhlosion Backburner, whose name was cruelly erased during the transition V -> VI because its name unknowingly contained a French word for an ugly thing (sacred blue!) games for, and an eclectic collection of Pokémon Alolan who formed my first full regional dex. I can not take them all to Sword & Shield, and it breaks my heart.
I am generally quite complacent with the new Pokemon people. When people complain about similarity and lack of innovation, I just change a new Pokémon and I spend a good old time. I appreciate the small nuances and iterations – Gen VII was probably my second favorite game of games in the entire series. Although I was not gaga for Pokémon in the same way as when I was 3 years old, I still enjoy the show. And yet, this announcement was the first one I remember, during my two decades of fandom, which made me think. This made me think about whether to actually take Sword & Shield.
In the end, I will probably, unless they announce another radical omission. But in analyzing the details of this particular problem, I realized more and more of a general malaise that has plagued the franchise for some time. Pokémon keeps growing, and more and more … and people are more and more annoyed by the passing of time. Is not it a flash in the pan? Is there anything deeper, more insidious that has slipped beyond this single issue? Is the Pokémon fan base in an irreconcilable position with Game Freak and himself?
This question will have to wait another day. In the second part, we go further, beyond the symptom, into the disease.
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