Pokemon Sword & Shield Annoucement

Are we excited!!! What a big moment for Nintendo, Game Freak and Pokemon fans. This has been a long time coming, and has certainly lived up to the hype. The game looks gorgeous and we got some amazing starter Pokemon. This will be the prettiest Pokemon game when it comes out and it's gonna be big. The first main series Pokemon game on a console and in HD? Pokemon Sword and Shield have a lot to live up to and I have 120% confidence that Nintendo and Game Freak will deliver.

Let's dive in. Starters. So cute. After browsing the internet for my all my years I am glad to find people who share the same passionate opinions about starters in this game. Please, please, please Game Freak, make Scorbunny's final evolution not a total let down. I'm looking at you every fire starter after Blaziken. Sobble and Grookey are absolutely adorable too and I am excited to see how their final evolution will look.

From what else was in the trailer, the game looks beautiful! Now, it could look better but this is Pokemon we are talking about. I'm not sure whether it's I've been playing with the same sprites and graphics since 2004 or that Pokemon doesn't need to be so detailed to be good. Probably a mix of both but it brings up some good points. Pokemon is very "cartoonish" (hate that word) and cute. So the design of the world in the games is very that. Visually pleasing, but also simple. It looks similar to the Let's Go graphics. To me, it's strange. I feel like XD and Colosseum had a better aesthetic than Let's Go. Now, the games are 10+ years apart, but the animations and graphics in Let's Go (bottom) seem much more cartoonish (once again I hate that word) compared to the more gritty visuals of Colosseum/XD (top).

I'm interested to see how Nintendo and Game Freak will promote this game. Pokemon is already very popular and a new region always adds to the hype. In all honesty, Pokemon has nothing to lose with this. It's going to be so big and I wonder how the sales will be compared to the other first generation game on a new console. Going to exclude Red/Blue/Green from this because they are the exception. First Pokemon game ever so the 31 million they sold will have everything pale in comparison. Gold/Silver came out on the Game Boy Color and sold 23 mil. Ruby/Sapphire was released on the Game Boy Advance and sold 16 mil. Diamond/Pearl came out on the huge Nintendo DS and sold 18 mil. Black/White also came out on DS so I'm going to exclude them. X/Y was the first title on the 3DS and sold 16 mil. 

For comparisons sake, let's assume Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee was actually the first main title Pokemon game on the Switch. It became the fastest selling Switch game by selling over 3 million copies in its first week. By the end of December 2018, it has reached 10 million sales. That's impressive and I expect Sword and Shield to smash that record. I might be a little ambitious for saying this but I'm predicting at least 15 million after the 2019 holiday season report. It may even break 20 million depending on the hype Nintendo creates around this game. I know plenty of people who are going to buy a Switch just to play the next mainline Nintendo game. Honestly, just announce new Eeveelutions and I promise I'll buy multiple copies of each!

Here's the announcement video.