Pokemon Sword and Shield was one of the Nintendo Switch’s fastest selling games despite generating quite a bit of controversy before its release. Game Freak’s decision to skip over many pre-existing Pokemon in Sword and Shield prompted backlash from some fans in the community and calls for boycotts ahead of its release. Though the controversy has long-since settled down, players are still wondering what the implications for not including every Pokemon are, and at what point Game Freak will be forced to address the issue of how many Pokemon there are.
As the number of Pokemon grow with each new game, including Pokemon Sword and Shield, it becomes evident that it’s difficult to port every single Pokemon to a new game, or even most. For now, Game Freak seem comfortable with reducing the number of Pokemon that appear in each game, but at some point in the future, the sheer number of Pokemon will need to be addressed.
Before the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield back in 2019, Game Freak confirmed that not all Pokemon were going to make it to the new game. Not only was the National Dex removed, certain Pokemon would not be transferrable to Sword and Shield. As expected, this angered much of the community and Game Freak drew heavy criticism for the move. To make matters worse, the game’s producer, Junichi Masuda, stated that there were two main reasons for omitting some Pokemon. The first was that the series had begun nearing 1000 Pokemon, and it would have been necessary at some point to start cutting down. The second reason was that limiting the amount of Pokemon was supposed to give Game Freak the resources needed to make the rest of the game polished.
However, fans were upset with Masuda’s reasoning regardless, while the announcement of Pokemon being locked behind DLC and the confirmation that this pattern would continue into future games generated even more criticism. As a result, the controversy raised several significant questions for the future of the Pokemon franchise.
One of the big worries for Pokemon fans is that there will come a time when there are too many Pokemon. The problem is not necessarily the number itself, but rather, what limitations Game Freak might impose to address the problem. As of right now, there are currently 898 Pokemon available across all games, and around 230 Pokemon have not been implemented in Sword and Shield as of the Crown Tundra DLC update. The implication is that as Pokemon continues to grow as a franchise, more and more Pokemon will be left behind or rotated out of a new game. What happens when Pokemon reaches 1500 Pokemon or even 2000 Pokemon? Even the most obscure Pokemon will have fans, and their omission will leave players disappointed.
The precedent set by the release of Sword and Shield implies that Game Freak’s solution to this problem is to gradually cut down the amount of Pokemon that get ported to new games. While this course of action will save the developer time with animations, models, and evolutions, it doesn’t really solve the player’s need to catch them all.
As generations of game consoles improve, so do their storage options and load times. The Nintendo Switch itself has no problem housing 898 different Pokemon on its hardware, and it isn’t a reach to say that future consoles can include thousands of potential Pokemon. Just because it’s possible, however, doesn’t mean it’s feasible.
There are a number of options that Game Freak could take at this point in the Pokemon franchise. If it continues the trend of removing Pokemon from newer games, it could potentially lose out on older players who want to bring their veteran Pokemon from other games. At the same time, though, it can’t just stop creating new Pokemon. Having new Pokemon helps with variety, and it’s always nice for new players to grow up with a generation of Pokemon of their own.
Pokemon is one of the biggest franchises in the world right now and generates billions of dollars every year, and despite some greivances, Sword and Shield was very successful and is still one of Pokemon’s best selling games. Game Freak has no reason to contend with the problem of having too many Pokemon at this stage, but some day, it just might.
There will likely come a time when the Pokemon franchise needs to make a concrete decision on handling the sheer number of Pokemon. As of Sword and Shield, there are around 665 Pokemon out of the 898 that have been ported. That ratio isn’t terrible, and while it was disappointing for some players to miss out on their old favorites, there is still plenty of Pokemon that satisfied the majority of the fanbase. But as the number of Pokemon grow, the ratio will get smaller and smaller. 650 Pokemon in a single game might sound like a lot right now, but in another decade, somewhere down the line when there’s 1500 or 2000 Pokemon, 650 won’t even be enough to cover half of the total Pokemon.
There is merit in these discussions because Game Freak will need to approach this problem one day, and the reduction of Pokemon in Sword and Shield is just the start. As more generations of Pokemon games are released, the number of Pokemon that will need to be cut will increase as well. Whether Game Freak will continue this trend or decide to spend more time porting every single Pokemon remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though, it can’t ignore this forever.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are available now on the Nintendo Switch.
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