TOKYO — Marking the series’ 26th anniversary, Nintendo and GameFreak announced several new projects during the latest Pokémon Presents, due in no small part to the fact that they have not released a new entry in the Pokémon video game franchise in well over one whole month.
“We hope that you are all enjoying our latest release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, as well as Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon: Shining Pearl, and that you are also looking forward to Pokémon: Scarlet and Pokémon: Violet releasing later this year,” said Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company. “We apologize that we have given you time to think about things other than Pokémon for a moment, but are promptly working to correct this mistake.”
Following the presentation, reception of the announcements was divisive, with some fans believing that this was oversaturating interest in the series.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love Pokémon. It will always have a special place in my heart, and I’ve been playing the games for almost as far back as I can remember,” said Reddit user GoodraGodra87. “But I’m an adult now. I’ve got a wife, a baby on the way, so I just don’t have time to play all of these games anymore like I did when I was a kid. Hell, half the reason I’m having a baby is so that I can get it into Pokémon and spend less time feeling guilty that I’m playing the games all year.”
Other fans were excited at the news, while feeling upset that they have to wait so long.
“I logged 100 hours into Legends: Arceus within the first week. I’m still filling up my shiny dex, but that won’t take more than a few months,” explained Twitter user @im_getting_chariz_hard. “What am I supposed to do in the meantime between that and gen 9? Go outside and catch the new Pokémon in Pokémon GO? I don’t think so.”
At press time, Nintendo has still chosen not to capitalize on the growing interest in Pokémon games by making the massive back catalog available to play on current hardware.
