Pokemon Sword and Shield might feature the national Pokedex after all, if the legitimacy of a conversation between a fan and Nintendo is to be believed.
Nintendo supposedly comment on national Pokedex
The full conversation can be found on Reddit. The upshot of it is after one fan emailed Nintendo to air their grievances about the removal of the national Pokedex, they responded with some encouraging news.
Perhaps the most telling part of the reply is: “Despite this being the current status of things, while we have nothing to announce or confirm as of this moment, post-launch updates exist.” The implication here is that the national Pokedex could be added to Pokemon Sword and Shield after the game is released, via an update.
After stating that including every Pokemon isn’t currently possible, Nintendo apparently went on to say: “After being given time to work out the kinks of putting literal thousands of characters into a single game, the ability to have the National Pokédex may yet still become a reality.”
The poster points out that while the Nintendo Support team and Game Freak aren’t close when it comes to company communications, news such as this would likely filter down through the different departments. However, that’s if it is actually genuine.
Well, Pokemon trainers?
(From: u/StormedTech) pic.twitter.com/Mm16MD5bRz
— Pokemon Sword & Shield (@PokemonSwordNS) June 16, 2019
Accusations the response is fake
While the response is exactly what Pokemon fans want to hear, the vast majority believe the post to be fake – and that could certainly prove to be the case.
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Comments immediately started asking for a screenshot of the conversation which, as of writing, as the original poster hasn’t provided. Other comments pointed to the fact that such a detailed and personal response is very unusual, although it should be noted companies have been known to provide such responses occasionally.
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As a result, it’s probably best to look at this reply with a fair bit of scepticism. It is certainly plausible that the Nintendo Support employee is a fellow disgruntled fan who used the response as an avenue to vent their own frustrations and offer encouragement to the fan who took the time to email.
The message is still clear
Even if these messages have been faked, the point behind it is still true. The national Pokedex could yet still be included in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Firstly, Game Freak may reverse the decision due to fan pressure and put in the needed resource to make it happen. Secondly, in the age of 2019 video gaming, updates allow developers to add content post-launch.
Elsewhere, the Nintendo response also encourages the poster to send feedback to social channels rather than support e-mails. This is because, according to the response, that companies such as Game Freak now rely on aggregated feedback from social media to make informed business decisions.
So there it is Pokemon fans, the national Pokedex may be in Pokemon Sword and Shield yet.