Pokemon Sword and Shield: Gamefreak responds to angry fans

In E3 2019, Gamefreak and Pokemon director Junichi Masuda told the world that all Pokemon will not be available in Pokemon Sword and Shield. There will be no national Pokedex like other games.

The new mobile app Pokemon Home allows you to transfer Pokemon from older generations to the newer one by simply transferring to the app. But according to Gamefreak, the only older Pokemon that will be available for transfer are the ones in the Galar Pokedex, the Pokedex in Sword and Shield. They are also not bringing back a lot of old features in favour of the new "Dynamax".

Of course, this decision frustrated a lot of fans. The outrage is still going strong, especially among the fans who have spent over 2 decades with a "living Pokedex" where they ensured completed Pokedexes in every game that has come out since then.

Gamefreak and Junichi Masuda have responded to this outrage. According to the post on the Pokemon website:

Thank you to all of our fans for caring so deeply about Pokémon. Recently, I shared the news that some Pokémon cannot be transferred to Pokémon Swordand Pokémon Shield. I've read all your comments and appreciate your love and passion for Pokémon.

Just like all of you, we are passionate about Pokémon and each and every one of them is very important to us. After so many years of developing the Pokémon video games, this was a very difficult decision for me. I'd like to make one thing clear: even if a specific Pokémon is not available in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, that does not mean it will not appear in future games.

The world of Pokémon continues to evolve. The Galar region offers new Pokémon to encounter, Trainers to battle, and adventures to embark on. We are pouring our hearts into these games, and we hope you will look forward to joining us on this new journey.

June 28, 2019

Junichi Masuda

This statement wasn't particularly helpful. Gamefreak is implying that future Pokemon will only be found in future games. Which probably means they will just shake up the Pokedex a bit to include a different set of older Pokemon in their newer games.

So it doesn't look very hopeful for fans who want to continue to maintain a living Pokedex. Instead, it seems like the older Pokemon will somehow be stuck forever. Many Generation 4 Pokemon such as Luxray, Glameow, Purugly and others have never made it to a regional dex beyond the games.

We don't know if they will implement the models for other Pokemon at some point in the future but given the statement from Masuda, it doesn't seem all that hopeful.