With confirmation of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, fans are eager for the games to release. The widely loved fourth generation of Pokemon games brings up nostalgic memories for many fans of the series. With the gameplay shown in the announcement trailer for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, fans can hope to capture the magic that many players will recall from childhood memories. Even with the excitement these games have generated, there are still some question about what features will return and when fans can play the remakes. As of yet, a release date for the games has not been given beyond the window of Fall 2021.
There may be a major reason as to why these games have not been given a specific release date yet. With the global COVID-19 pandemic, many games in the past year have seen their production timelines pushed back. This has been an intrusive aspect life, but hasn’t stopped things like the 25th anniversary of Pokemon. With how the 25th anniversary has been hyped up around the world from the announcements of new games like the fourth-generation remakes, Pokmon Legends: Arceus, and the Pokemon Trading Card Game’s new Shining Fates expansion.
In the early years, the Pokemon games often saw releases for its flagship titles in Japan followed up with international ones. When the Pokemon Red/Green versions of the original game released in February of 1996, it would be over two and a half years before the Pokémon Red/Blue versions were released in North America. The first generation of games sparked multiple media formats such as the Pokemon anime and built a lot of success with the Game Boy. After the release of the series’ Red and Blue versions, the release dates in Japan and internationally began to draw closer and closer together.
The second generation was introduced with Pokemon Gold and Silver and got the time between releases down to just over a year. This efficiency was improved upon by the time the third generation’s flagship titles were released in North America, with only four months between Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire’s releases in Japan and North America. The effort to consolidate the release dates has helped to mold the Pokemon series into the international juggernaut most fans are familiar with now. This has resulted in a very connected community that is heavily invested in the series as well as many of Pokemon crossovers that come into existence and fill the gaps between games.
This trend of close release windows for the main games became even tighter with the series’ first sequel styled games, Pokemon Black/White 2, which released on the Nintendo DS in 2012. While the release of Black & White 2 did not yet have the games release simultaneously through a worldwide format, it is the first instance of the games releasing internationally in the same calendar year. These releases coupled with the popularity of both Black & White games began to bring Pokemon’s community into a more unified fan environment. Players that were eager to experience the new Pokemon in the fifth generation of games and learn all they could were still able to hunt for leaks online. Keeping a tight release schedule, however, allowed many fans to experience the stories in the game around the same time as each other.
The release of Pokemon’s sixth generation of games occurred when the series experienced its first worldwide release and established a specific window for the games unable to be released simultaneous worldwide fashion. Pokemon XY, which released in 2013 on the Nintendo 3DS, was the first Pokemon game to achieve this. It was an important factor as the sixth generation of Pokemon games brought back a lot of cool features and also introduced some new ones to the series. One of the biggest steps up was being able to move not just horizontally and vertically but diagonally as well in full 3D spaces. The third generation remakes of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire built on a lot of the features introduced in XY while establishing the franchise’s November release window.
Since the release of Pokemon XY and Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, fans have been able to experience the games in near unison of one another. Whether that means the game released in the November release window like Pokemon Sun and Moon did or worldwide like the most recent remakes of the series’ first generation with Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, The worldwide release window now looks to have become the standard with the last three main games’ releases being simultaneously worldwide. This sense of community has also been expanded on since with the mobile app Pokemon G0.
The eighth generation of Pokemon games launched on the Nintendo Switch, with Pokemon Sword and Shield with its array of new Pokemon and hard to catch shinies. The system’s online capabilities and the constantly growing popularity of the Nintendo Switch console also makes this release format the most efficient. With all fans able to download and play the game simultaneously, the only obstacle to avoid spoilers becomes one’s own internet access and those who find ways to grab copies of the game early.
This download capability has also allowed presented the opportunity for Pokemon expansions with two released for the current gen to date. In situations with people getting hands on with new games prematurely, Nintendo has been swift with preventing players from streaming or uploading videos of the game. This doesn’t mean the worldwide release is perfect, but it does provide the best opportunity for all fans to play around the same time.
With this worldwide release format and the November window taken into consideration, it seems likely that Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will release around November 18th, 2021. This release would keep it in-line with a second to third week release date in November, and make the game widely available just before the holidays. This also would allow for several months to pass before the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Holiday releases for videogames have a financial incentive for the companies and many AAA games in the last decade have been released in late October to mid-November.
The season has some of the largest weekends for purchases around the world and the United States Black Friday weekend happens only a couple of weeks later. Video games have become a widely accepted and easy to deliver gift for many families. Having one of the big three consoles of Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch is increasingly common for many households as well. This release date, however, is still a piece of speculation, so fans should be cautious and not treat it as concrete fact.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are currently scheduled to release on Nintendo Switch in the Fall of 2021.
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