I've already expressed my thoughts about Dexit at lenght in the previous have-it-all topic, I'm here just because if I eventually purchase the game (still on the fence) I need as much technical information as I can get (on which GF is extremely stingy about) while going in as blind as possible. So I have a few answers I think I can get here without spoiling the game content too much (knowing what mons will NOT be in the games is one of the aspects I am basing my "to buy or not to buy" on. It's also a topic that widely interests me as a business developer IRL.
So for a TL:DR:
- I think it was a bad move;
- I think it was dictated on time constraints, self-imposed to boot;
- Development problems to keep all mons is understandable, but not in the face of little-to-no disruptive improvements, only incremental ones;
- There is no new feature that justifies it nor anything that a whole Dex would be a detriment on (for the time being).
Hence:
From this point of view, why would GF care about Dexit? The people they’re marketing the games to aren’t using Twitter. This would seem to explain why all of their responses seem to miss the point altogether - they don’t expect their target audience to care and the fans who have been buying the games since the start can just go home.
Also announcing Dexit right after announcing Home, Outstanding Move
Starting from last: a lot of AAA companies gets announcements completely wrong (see: Bethesda, EA, Bungie...), so that's not too surprising to me. A "push" based business approach (necessary in industries such as videogames with, comparatively, long product development cycles), combined with some boards having grown complacent with delivering okay-ish content (some of it is to blame on us gamers, myself first, who sometimes are okay with half-baked products and PR) has created in recent years a well-documented "try to get the slope as slippery as possible" attitude.
The first bit is a little more troubling, if we think about it. While is it true that the majority of the audience is not us dedicated fans who know the ins and outs of every single game, it is also true that we are the most passionate part of the playerbase, the most vocal, and the ones who have stuck with the franchise most. Why does this matter? Because the most loyal fans of some IPs are the ones more likely to influence outsiders whether to become new customers or not: gamers wondering "should I try this?" are likely to look to peer players that know the franchise well to base their decision on. Moreover, a bad impression by an informed player is far more likely to widespread than a good one (a 10:1 proven ratio). In the most remarkably similar case I can think of, the transition between Bungie's Destiny 1 and the launch of Destiny 2, Bungie ignored the most loyal fans in an effort to cater the game to literally everybody, and resulted in a 78% playerbase drop (as far as documented sources go), a half-assed game with no structure (my opinion, but a shared one), and a year worth of being the joke of the industry (very well documented). To get back on track (and never on the same level of success as Destiny 1), the game had to basically be rebooted. I just have the feeling that we are floating on similar waters as I type.
And it's not like having a 1:4 like to dislike ratio on your main E3 gameplay video is helping.
they don’t expect their target audience to care and the fans who have been buying the games since the start can just go home.
Watch out then, because the rest of the audience is more volatile. And a volatile audience is... well, volatile. Good luck with that.
Of course, this raises another question: CAN they have more time? Or is all the merchandise thing preventing them?
I'm misinformed, what is the "whole merchandise thing"? Just out of curiosity.
I am astonised that with the exception of the chamander line (favourarism on full display) all of the previous starters are unavaliable. After all, its the starter that we naturally get most attached to and is used to get us though the game. I can imagine the horror on little kids faces once they realise that none of the gen 7 or bulbasaur/squirtle (from Lets Go) can move into sun/shield, and the amount of backlash that will create. If Pokemon Home does not allow for proper battles or a sword/shield dlc is not offered, then I could see an equal or greater level of rage that was shown when Dexit was first announced. Unless GF are very careful with their marketing (which they are generally terrible at), then Dexit could rock the Pokemon franchise to its foundations.
Goodbye to all Apricorn Ball HA Starters I've bred en masse in Gen VII, I guess. And I'm not alone.
So, I don't know if any of these questions are out of place (if they are, just delete the post and I'm good), but I would like to know, if possible:
1) from the leaks,do we have any idea about how large the dex is (simply, how many mons are in the game)?
2) Do we have any idea, even a broad estimate, about how many of those are new?
Thanks and feel free to delete if off topic.