[55][56] Critics praised the games' simplicity, new elements such as Dynamaxing, and streamlined battle encounters but criticized the incomplete Pokédex and not taking full advantage of the games' potential. [8][9] Pokémon Gyms make a return after being absent in Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon. and Let's Go, Eevee!, the previous games in the series which were released for the Switch. As such, only Pokémon that appear within the Galar region are transferable from previous titles via Pokémon Home. [71], 2019 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, List of generation VIII Pokémon § Design and development, Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Isle of Armor, Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Crown Tundra, "The Pokémon Sword + Pokémon Sword Expansion Pass and Pokémon Shield + Pokémon Shield Expansion Pass | Official Website | Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield", "Everything we know about 'Pokémon Sword and Shield,' the newly released Pokémon games for Nintendo Switch", "Check Out the Natural Beauty of the Wild Area", "Pokémon Sword And Shield Will Have Co-Op Raids (And Everything Else We Learned Today)", "Pokemon Sword And Shield Reveal More New Gen 8 Pokemon", "E3 2019: You Can't Transfer Every Old Pokemon To Sword And Shield", "Everything You Need To Know About Pokemon HOME - What It Is, How To Get It, Transfers, Trade, Price, and More - IGN", "We've seen two new Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Shield", "Z-Moves and Mega Evolutions won't be in Pokémon Sword and Shield", "Pokémon Sword and Shield: Character customization, curry cooking in Camp", "Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are the series' new games for Switch", "The Galar Region In 'Pokémon Sword and Shield' Looks A Lot Like The United Kingdom", "Pokémon Sword and Shield are coming to the Switch this year", "Pokemon Sword & Shield's New Galar Region Looks Very Familiar", "The Pokemon Sword and Shield Interview: "We Knew at Some Point We Weren't Going to be Able to Keep Indefinitely Supporting All of the Pokemon, "Is Pokémon Sword and Shield's region based on the UK? The biggest victim of the new launches was PlayStation 4 exclusive Death Stranding, which dropped 71% in sales and almost fell out of the top 10. [41] The explorable area introduced in The Isle of Armor draws inspiration from the Isle of Man while the area in The Crown Tundra is based on Scotland. [40] Between both expansion packs, more than 200 pre-existing Pokémon that weren't available at launch will be added into Sword and Shield. After traveling to the next city to register for the Gym Challenge, they encounter rivals Bede and Marnie along with Team Yell, a devout group of hooligans who act as Marnie's unintentional fanbase and are determined to stop anyone else from completing the Challenge. [23] One track was composed by Toby Fox, best known for being the creator of Undertale. Remember #Dexit? Ultimate as the fastest-selling Switch games. The idea of strength and striving to be the greatest and strongest was one of the core themes that Game Freak used in designing the games. [34] A second Nintendo Direct about the games was held on June 5, 2019, which revealed some of its new features, characters, and Pokémon, including the legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta, which appear on the box art. [17] An Industrial Revolution-like city with steampunk-style elements populates the center of the region. Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change. We stopped hearing much about that shortly after the game released, as tends to happen, but now we at least have some numbers to indicate why: everyone was playing an absolute ton of Pokémon Sword and Shield. 9 (6) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS) That’s a whole thing. The idea of "growing and evolving" is a core concept of the games—for both the trainer and their Pokémon—stemming from producer Junichi Masuda and director Shigeru Ohmori's experience with the franchise. [11] A new 'Camp' mode allows the player to interact and play with their Pokémon and cook different types of curry to provide bonuses for Pokémon. [28][29] Masuda confirmed that all three companies involved in the development, Nintendo, Game Freak and The Pokémon Company, agreed to cut down the National Dex. Nintendo just released earnings figures, and the two games come in with a whopping 16.06 million units sold, a massive figure for a storied franchise that is clearly enjoying one of its most popular moments in its history. "[52] Joe Merrick, the webmaster of fansite Serebii, considered the controversy to have caused the most unrest among Pokémon fans since the troubled launch of Pokémon Bank in 2013. "Pokémon Sword" and "Pokémon Shield," the latest entries in Nintendo's massively popular franchise, had the highest grossing launch of any Pokémon game to date. though not all of the Pokémon can be caught in the latest games. Sword and Shield take place in the Galar region, a large, narrow expanse of land and one of many regions in the Pokémon world. Sword and Shield were released for Nintendo Switch on Nov. 15 after a tumultuous lead-up — game information started to leak in early November, first with evolutions for starters Grookey, Sobble, and Scorbunny, and then the full Pokédex. and Let's Go, Eevee" were remakes of the original 1996 games, "Pokémon Red" and "Pokémon Blue.". The Isle of Armor. They also said that "there is... a lot in Sword and Shield that doesn't feel like it couldn't have been achieved on the Nintendo 3DS. [46][47] In an interview with Famitsu, Shigeru Ohmori stated that models for Pokémon appearing in Sword and Shield were being made again from the ground up. Pokémon Sword – bigger than ever. New … Ahead of Sword and Shield’s release, a hashtag started to trend in America: #GameFreakLied. Some Pokémon, such as Linoone, even gain regional evolutions.[21]. With over 18 million units sold so far, Pokemon Sword and Shield has raced past the lifetime sales of Pokemon Diamond and Peal in record time. New customization options for the player character have been added, like outerwear and other accessories. [6] A new mechanic called "Poké Jobs" tasks the player's Pokémon with completing requests, such as assisting in construction or cooking, to gain experience or rare items. Sword and Shield only support direct game-to-game connectivity between themselves. Exclusive moves that only the Legendary Pokémon Urshifu can learn! Michael McWhertor of Polygon noted that while Masuda's statement acknowledged the fans' discontent, it "[did not] amount to much".[54]. Despite co-promotions with Microsoft though, 66% of sales were on the PlayStation 4. [42], The decision not to include all pre-existing Pokémon in the games drew criticism from many fans, who referred to it as "Dexit", a portmanteau of Pokédex and Brexit,[43] and used the hashtag "#BringBackNationalDex" to discuss the matter on social media. and Let's Go, Eevee!, to be released on a home game console. 10(8) Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (NS), Ukie Games Charts©, compiled by GfK Chart-Track, Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter, MORE: Death Stranding sales beaten by Days Gone and Call Of Duty in latest UK charts, MORE: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare earns second UK number one – Games charts 2 November, MORE: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare hits UK number one – Games charts 26 October, Xbox Series X loose in the wild, first unboxing video spotted, Fortnite/Apple lawsuit could force changes to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, PS5 controller and accessories will be out before the console in UK, Back in business! as well as other partner offers and accept our, sold about 1.5 million copies in their first two weeks. Furthermore, Pokemon Sword and Shield's sales since its launch in November 2019 are already closing in on the lifetime sales of both Pokemon Sun & Moon (16.18 million) and Pokemon … The presentation coincided with Pokémon Day, a fan celebration of Pokémon on the anniversary of the Japanese release of Pokémon Red and Green. Approximately 1,000 people from multiple companies were involved in the development, marketing, and public relations associated with Sword and Shield. Players can capture wild Pokémon, found during wild encounters, by weakening them in battle and catching them with Poké Balls, allowing them to be added to their party. [7] In addition, Pokémon native to the game's region can be transferred to the games from the Nintendo 3DS app Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Go, and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! More of Telltale’s Clementine, says Robert Kirkman, Baldur’s Gate 3 makers tell players to stop being so basic, Destiny 2’s armor mods are changing again in Beyond Light, Riverdale is in a position to rethink color-blind casting, Innocent beans don’t deserve Fall Guys’ new Wall Guys map, No Man’s Sky’s volcano worlds are now hot real estate. Pokemon Sun & Moon (16.18 million) and Pokemon X & Y (16.44 million). Sales Figures; Sword And Shield Are Now The Best-Selling Pokémon Games Since Gold And Silver . Nintendo sold 6 million units worldwide during Pokémon Sword and Shield’s launch weekend. and Let's Go, Eevee! Ultimate", "Smash Bros. They then are challenged to a battle by the Legendary Pokémon and allowed to catch it, while Hop follows Zamazenta/Zacian back to the Slumbering Weald and calms it down, being chosen by it as its Trainer. had and that it would introduce many new Pokémon and "polished" graphics. The series has sold more than 240 million copies since 1996. But all that's new seems to have come at a cost – and the cost is almost everything else in the game. [70] By June 2020, the games had sold over 18 million copies worldwide. Nintendo sold 6 million copies of Pokémon Sword and Shield, the company announced Thursday morning. 2 (-) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4/XO/PC) [2] The player controls a young trainer who goes on a quest to catch and train creatures known as Pokémon, and win battles against other trainers. Last week was one of the biggest of the year for new releases, although the only other one to make it into the top 40 was Terminator: Resistance at number 38. [2], Several new features for the games are also firsts for the series, including cooperative raid encounters, akin to those seen in Pokémon Go; the Wild Area, a fully explorable open world area with free camera movement and dynamic weather, which has implications on which Pokémon species appear at a given time;[3] and "Dynamaxing" and "Gigantamaxing", both of which temporarily allow Pokémon to grow to larger sizes. and "Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!," which sold about 1.5 million copies in their first two weeks. Unusually, there are no major new releases scheduled for December, which means that Shenmue III on Tuesday is the last major retail release of the year, given that Football Manager 2020 on the same day will see the vast majority of its sales on digital. As with previous games in the series, certain Pokémon are only obtainable in either Sword or Shield, with players encouraged to trade with others in order to obtain all Pokémon from both versions. [44] Alex Donaldson of VG247 noted that feature creep—where an increase in new features over time may lead to removal of previous ones—had finally reached Pokémon, and long-overlooked design shortcomings of Game Freak were brought to the forefront as a result. [60] Casey DeFreitas for IGN also praised Sword and Shield for their fun gameplay and lack of monotonous activities, while criticizing aspects such as cutscenes and lack of a full Pokédex. These are the hardest-core fans of a franchise, and they’re just not going to skip the new titles. Pokemon Sword and Shield. Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram. Nintendo in September released the $200 Switch Lite, Pokémon fans are accusing the developers of being 'lazy' for not including all 1,000-plus Pokémon in the new Nintendo Switch games, The Nintendo Switch is the year's best-selling video game console, and. Subscriber By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Business Insider I cover social games, video games, I'm a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Republic, IGN.com, Wired and more. The sales numbers tell a similar story.