Patrick Hynes

Professor Alyssa Burns

COMM 210

10/22/19

Pokémon and the National Dex Crisis

On February 27th, the Pokémon Company and Nintendo announced Pokémon Sword and Shield,
the first instalments in the eighth generation of Pokémon games. Fans were excited around the globe,
because the Nintendo Switch is powerful enough to run better graphics for Pokemon, and it would be
the first time since 2016 that fans would have a truly original Pokemon game. The way Pokemon does
games is that there are two sets of games in a generation, the second set is usually the first set with a
new coat of paint and a few new features, such as Pokemon Sun and Moon and Pokemon Ultra Sun and
Ultra Moon. Ultra Sun and Moon released in 2017, and in 2018 Pokemon released what people feel was
a nostalgia-fueled money grab called Pokemon Let’s Go, the third version of Pokemon’s original Kanto
region within the 20 years the company has been around. People were all very excited for Sword and
Shield when it was announced, since it would finally be the new game people had been waiting for.
Pokemon Let’s Go had reduced the number of Pokemon available back down to the original 151 first
available in Kanto, so people were wanting to play with their favorite Pokemon from outside of
Generation One. Then… E3 2019 happened.

E3 is an annual gaming conference that takes place every June where the biggest companies
such as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Rockstar, Square Enix, and more come to show off their upcoming
games. Nintendo released the first look at gameplay footage, and the response was underwhelming.
During the live gameplay segment, producer Junichi Masuda, a man beloved by fans (even having a
Pokemon training method named after him by fans- the Masuda Method), crushed the hopes of
millions. He revealed that Pokemon Sword and Shield would only have about 500 Pokemon available,
and that the trademark slogan, “Gotta Catch ‘em All” would be officially dropped. The news divided the
Pokemon community immediately, with many fans calling for a boycott on Pokemon. This wasn’t that
you just wouldn’t be able to catch over 300 Pokemon, but they wouldn’t even be coded into the game.
There wouldn’t be any way to use cheat codes or anything to obtain them. People were even more
outraged when the Pokemon Company and Nintendo denied the fans a roster of Pokemon that would
be in the game, causing people to panic since their favorite Pokemon might be on the chopping block.
During this, the most outraged of fans created #BringBackTheNationalDex , a hashtag that is still being
unleashed on every single social media post that Pokemon creates. The people behind the hashtag are
arguing not only for the inclusion of all Pokemon, but that the new games don’t show significant
improvements from the old games. The graphics aren’t better, the attack animations are still being
reused from 2016’s Pokemon Sun and Moon, and the only Pokemon that seem to be safe are the
original 151, with Nintendo trying too hard to pander to nostalgia rather than focusing on new content.
Fans have swarmed every social media platform, flooding Instagram comment sections, YouTube
comment sections, and Twitter replies with the hashtag.

The Pokemon Company did not handle this well. About two weeks after E3 was the first time
that anyone responded. Masuda tweeted that they were, “focusing on character models and
animations,” and that was why they weren’t programming in all the Pokemon. Some fans had already
pointed out a lack of improvements, but this tweet made people furious and intensified the online
backlash, actually garnering support for the hashtag rather than diffusing the situation. Masuda also said
that he appreciated the love and passion showed by fans, and the removal of certain Pokemon was a
difficult decision but they will be available in different games in the future. That statement made people
even angrier, because this could be implying that each game could become like Sword and Shield,
becoming a random chance as to whether or not certain Pokemon make the cut.

The Pokemon Company has not done a good job handling this crisis. Fan backlash has been
enormous. People are rightfully angry about a large change coming within a franchise that has been
consistent for 20 years. Their responses have been lackluster, and the company as a whole hasn’t
officially addressed it, and instead chose to use Masuda as a way to quell the outcry. This backfired,
creating more problems and has tarnished Masuda in the eyes of fans. The lack of updates and
seemingly poor quality of the games from trailers released by the company has angered fans, and the
Pokemon Company needs to figure out a way to fix this.

I have two ideas for how to fix this. First, they could delay the game until March of 2020. This is
less than ideal, seeing as how the games are less than a month from release, but it has worked well for
other companies. Bethesda, another video game company, just delayed Doom: Annihilation (one of the
most anticipated games of 2019) back to March of 2020 two weeks ago, and it had the same release
date as Pokemon Sword and Shield. Bethesda said they wanted it to be the best possible experience,
and were sorry for the delay but would rather make a great game over more time than release a bad
game. Fan response was overwhelmingly positive, with people praising them for not wanting to release
a half-baked game. The Pokemon Company could do the same strategy, take the time to code in the
extra Pokemon. People would be much more understanding and praise The Pokemon Company for
listening to fans’ voices.

The second idea would be to release them as DLC (Downloadable Content). Pokemon and
Nintendo have never really been big on releasing things as DLC until recently, with Super Smash Bros
Ultimate having an ever-growing number of fighters available. Having Pokemon as DLC would be tricky
though, because the company may try to get greedy by asking people to pay for these Pokemon. That
would make the situation so much worse, escalating backlash and hurting the company even more. It
would need to be free DLC so everyone could get it. While it wouldn’t be ideal since people wouldn’t be
able to get it at the games’ release, but it is better than nothing and also shows that they listened to
fans and tried to give them what they want.