Pokemon Scarlet and Violetwere released amidst harsh critiques and negative reviews due to the many, possibly game-breaking performance issues that Gen 9 games have as of patch 1.0.1. Someplayers' complaints even culminated with them refunding Gen 9 gamesbecause of the technical issues and the graphics, which seem to be caused by a memory leak for which the only workaround seems to be to reboot the game every few hours. However, this didn’t stop the franchise from hitting another major milestone with the newest set of mainline games, asPokemon Scarlet and Violetsold 10 million copies in three days, which is a new record for any Nintendo software and The Pokemon Company as a whole.
This means that there is a lot thatPokemon Scarlet and Violetdid well before launch and are still doing well now, and that’s not hard to believe considering all the general improvements that Gen 9 brought to the table, especially counting all the new pocket monsters. Gen 9 has the largest national Pokedex since Gen 5, with a total of 103 new critters that populate the Paldea region, including interesting new concepts like the so-called “regional fakes” and Paradox Pokemon. Yet, there is a chance thatPokemon Scarlet and Violet’s saleshave a downside, which is tied to how much of Gen 10 and future games will be revealed before launch.
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Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Sales Could Mean Fewer Details About Gen 10, Pokemon Legends Sequel
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s final trailer revealed Paradox Pokemonfor the first time, despite the fact they had been leaked months before then, and this is just one of the symptoms of The Pokemon Company’s new marketing strategies. In fact, the reveal cycle for Gen 9 games was actually quite dry compared even toPokemon SwordandShieldandPokemon Legends: Arceus, for which a new post-Gen 7 approach was likely already in place to prevent too many bits of information from being shared.
Gen 7 possibly had the weirdest reveal cycle of modern games due to The Pokemon Company sharing many new designs, features, and characters for the games way before launch, which led to trainers knowing a good chunk of whatPokemon SunandMoonwere all about.Pokemon SwordandShieldwere very different, and not much was officially revealed before they were released, a trend that was later passed ontoPokemon Legends: Arceus. The general approach towardPokemon Scarlet and Violetwas not only similar but to a degree, even more secretive, as only around 20 new pocket monsters were revealed before launch.
What followed is thatPokemon Scarlet and Violet’s leaks acted as Game Freak’s marketing team in a way, as fans of the series knew much more before launch thanks to leaks than they could possibly have grasped from the scarce official updates. This is problematic because The Pokemon Company’s approach with Gen 10 and future games, such as Gen 5 remakes or a potentialPokemon Legendssequel set in another region, could be that of revealing even fewer details than it did with Gen 9.
Considering how successful Gen 9 was just three days post-launch, it’s easy to see how The Pokemon Company could see this success as a byproduct of the hype generated by not revealing much aboutPokemon Scarlet and Violetbeforehand. While there may very well be a subset of fans who like to see just a few teasers about upcoming games, many longstanding fans want to know more. Ultimately,Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s rumored DLCcould be a testament to this, meaning that if not much is shown before release then it’s also likely that Gen 10, newPokemon Legendsgames, and other projects will likely not be showcased much moving forward.
PokemonScarlet and Violetare available now on Nintendo Switch.
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