In this series of end-of-year features, we’re summing up some of 2019’s biggest talking points.
2019 was a big year for Pokémon fans, with the arrival of Gen 8 in the form of Sword & Shield. However, for many players, the game was something of an anticlimax; for the first time in the franchise’s history, a mainline Pokémon title launched with an incomplete Pokédex, something which caused quite a bit of discomfort for vocal portions of the fanbase. This led to many fans boycotting the game and review-bombing it on sites like Metacritic.
The great ‘Dexit’ debate threatened to completely overshadow the release of Pokémon: Sword & Shield, but robust sales have proven that even when you’ve lost the support of the most rabid fans of the series, you can still achieve commercial success.
While the performance of the game will have pleased Nintendo’s executives, the team at Game Freak will have been left slightly dazed by the whole experience, and it will be interesting to see how the studio reacts with its next Pokémon release. Will it bow to player pressure and fix the issues highlighted by dedicated players, or will it look at the sales figures and decide that what’s not broke doesn’t require fixing?
What did you make of Dexit? Do you think it will influence future Pokémon games? Let us know with a comment.
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2019/12/...n-in-2019/