Pokemon Sword & Shield Producer Says National Dex Will Not Be Expanded, Despite Controversy

After weeks of fan outrage and anger, the producer of Pokemon Sword & Shield, Junichi Masuda, released a statement yesterday addressing the decision to not have all Pokemon move forward into Sword & Shield. The statement is fairly short and the main takeaway is simple: They hear all the anger and disappointment, but they aren’t changing their plans to only have some Pokemon return from previous games.

Earlier this month at E3 2019, during a Nintendo stream, Masuda confirmed the bad news to viewers. Unlike previous games in the franchise, Sword & Shield would only allow some Pokemon to be imported from other generations and regions. This news spread fast across the Pokemon community and many fans were upset over the news. For some players who have been importing their favourite Pokemon for years from game to game, they were fearful this would no longer be possible.

In the statement released yesterday and during that initial announcement, Masuda assured fans that this wasn’t an easy decision to make.

Masuda feels that moving forward, this was for the best. Masuda also added that just because a Pokemon doesn’t appear in Sword & Shield, doesn’t mean it won’t appear in a future Pokemon game.

He also ended his short statement with a simple message to fans:

“We are pouring our hearts into these games, and we hope you will look forward to joining us on this new journey.”

This is something to remember. The people at Gamefreak who are working on this game are spending months and years of their lives developing this new Pokemon adventure. It’s ok to be disappointed or even a bit upset about the National Dex news. But don’t attack, harass or insult the people making this game. That accomplishes nothing and is a shitty way to treat people.

We still don’t know the full list of Pokemon in Sword & Shield and which creatures have made the cut. Until we learn that information, players will have to hope their favourite Pokemon has made it into the upcoming game.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


39 responses to “Pokemon Sword & Shield Producer Says National Dex Will Not Be Expanded, Despite Controversy”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *