Pokémon Roadmap and next gens.Goodmorning! In the last years there have been a couple of important discussions regarding the future of the series, of which i will report here a synthesis.This that follows is an important reasoning around Indonesia as Gen 10 and it concerns multiple future generations: since Gen 8 Game Freak has made peace with the idea of putting multiple nations in a single game, if geography calls for it, especially thanks to DLC that allow to add countries in proximity without requiring a game for each one. In the case of Gen 9 this was almost irrelevant since Portugal and Spain were essentially joined inside Paldea and the DLC was set far away, but the location picking has become somewhat more free in recent years. Hence why they decided to pick the entirety of Indonesia, also taking advantage of the hardware technological progress. Indonesia was picked because it is an expanding market and is quickly becoming ecnomically relevant, but also because certain themes important to the plot are well suited for the region, considering the damage caused by climate crisis in recent years and Game Freak feels that ultimately the messages of their games are still somewhat relevant regarding the relationship between humans and nature.The abundance of water will also save some development time as water areas will require less environmental work overall, compared to land terrains. They pose their challenges, but are less heavy for the overall amounts of models required or terraforming, but especially regarding texture variety.From gen 10 we move to what’s in there in the future and currently the plan is to release Italy as Gen 11, however there are a couple of issues often talked about: developers feel that Italy has to be a “twin” generation that needs to be paired with Greece and they feel like they need to come one after the other one, similarly to Johto coming immediately after Kanto given their proximity.
This comes with its own issues because while Italy has been quite defined in great detail, in terms of plot, locations, Pokédex, even legendaries, Greece and other Balcanic countries are still up in the air even considering their political instability. Meanwhile however the other development main game theme has been working on Mexico region and while it is not as well defined as Italy it is much more defined than Greece and it is a candidate for gen 12 in place of it. Currently the idea for the setting is to move away from only Mexico and expand to the Gulf of Mexico countries, also because of the Chicxculub crater, and that would include some USA nations as well as Cuba, which is somewhat a hot topic and it seems Nintendo doesn’t like the idea too much. On the other side there are some market aspects: Mexico is projected to grow and Pokémon is increasingly more popular there, while Italy is a solid market, but stale and somewhat flat. Of course the individual country isn’t the only aspect to consider, but while an Italy centric game would most likely all revolve around Italy, a Gulf of Mexico game would attract the attention of many more countries and in general somewhat address directly many more people, so ultimately there is the possibility that Italy falls back in the queue and Mexico takes the spot for gen 11.This said also the Gulf of Mexico generation is a “twin generation” as they believe it needs to be paired up with a Caribbean sea region, essentially being composed of all the Caribbean islands and the Northern part of South America, but the region has had its political issues recently and Cuba would be an issue once again. On this front Italy is more stable overall.
Both Game Freak and Nintendo still want to “finish” Japan, but they also feel that at this point in development creating a generation for the remaining portions of Japan isn’t that optimal or worth the effort. It could be done for a special anniversary and be postponed for the 50 years of Pokémon, but that doesn’t really address the issue of the generation that could ultimately feel limited, moreover considering that the portions of Japan not yet used are separated from each other, one to the west, Shikoku and the western portion of Kyushu on one side, with the northernmost part of Kyushu and the southernmost part of Hokkaido on the other side. They could be connected via the northern shores of Kyushu, but outright ignoring Johto and Kanto being right there would still feel weird. In short they want to do it, but they don’t exactly know how to. The idea of joining all the Japanese regions together, adding the missing parts has been circulating and there have been smaller bridges throughout the series, with Sinjoh and lately Kitakami so it’s still a hot topic.Another idea is to enlarge the scope, including all the countries on the Japan sea, but there are the issues of North Korea and Russia. Since in case they probably want to tie it to a big anniversary it’s not a pressing matter, but it’s always up there and a recurring topic in meetings.Aside from that here are the regions that are more often brought up:Scandinavia and Denmark, but Russia’s situation is an issue for now. It could be ignored, but that doesn’t really sit well. Time will tell.Iceland plus possibly Greenland. It is a very loved idea, but it has some issues regarding the market, in a way the same ones of Italy, but much more relevant.Madagascar and Central East Africa, essentially Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya. It’s really loved as an idea, but it poses some geographical challenges:
Australia and New Zealand: they are often talked about together, with the idea of placing New Zealand closer to Australia and using them together for a single region together with the islands on the North East. Australia itself is often split and there is the idea of using only Eastern Australia together with the rest as the West isn’t considered extremely attractive for game design and using it in its entirety could be an unnecessary effort. It will probably also depend on hardware capabilities down the line. Speaking of Australia, Papua New Guinea will be in the gen 10 DLC, together with more of mainland Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam etc..Alaska is loved, as well as the Okhotsk region, but both have market issues.China is always brought up, but there is the issue of Taiwan and they don’t feel like they have a way to ignore or solve that. Possibly they could do Northern China together with North and South Korea and a portion of Russia, but there are political matters there as well.India is often brought up and it’s possibly the next down the line afer the four mentioned at the beginning. It doesn’t have major issues and it’s a growing market so it is just a matter of when, not of if.Another region that is often loved is the Black sea region, but the situation with Russia and Ukraine has really halted any major speculation. Finally southern Argentina, Quebec and the Great lakes region are other candidates that don’t have major issues ongoing so they could be picked as well.
I know you probably think this is fake, so i asked for some more immediate information: i can tell you that in Champions we’ll have the mythicals coming, not all of them, the cute ones will remain mostly out of the game as well as Arceus. We’ll have Cresselia though.In the more distant future i can tell you some Pokémon of gen 10. Mantis Shrimp and Fighting Fish, rival Pokémon, both water fighting, fairy flying Paradise bird coming in various shapes. You already know of the Komodo dragon, so there isn’t much point in telling that. There will be more towns than the ones you have currently informations upon.Well if you want to know something else about non mainline games, including legends games, which sit in a weird limbo in the inside talks. They are not considered mainline, but they are not considered spinoffs.
Can you tell us what they plan to show in December 1?
>>59705320that's why they are making the multiregion mmoit's gonna be the entire pokejapan
>>59705372I don't really have info on the short term as that's marketing, but i can ask around.
>>59705379that's one of the ideas regarding covering the entirety of Japan, but there is still debate regarding having a mainline game in classic style set in another Japanese region.
Nothing about Brazil?
>>59705539Brazil has been brought up multiple times, but cental America seems to be a priority compèared to it. The main issue is that at first glance the shape of the country doesn't help too much because it's a huge chunk of a continent, so while it has its own habitat variety it is difficult to implement without scaling down the size. One thing is for sure, most of the game would revolve around the Amazon river. Similar reasoning for Egypt
>>59705561>most of the game would revolve around the Amazon riverDoesn't sound good but nice to know. Thanks.
>>59705266What’s that scrappy-looking monstrosity in the middle of the map called?
>>59705640that's Sulawesi, but you already know it's coming for gen 10.
>>59705593i mean it's not coming soon by any means.
>>59705292>mexico regionI don't see much that they could do different from Paldea since Spain and Mexico share quite a lot of culture, unless they go full prehispanic and "wewuz pyramids n sheit" which would be interesting but probably won't happen.
>>59705326I assure you Pokemon company doesn't care about Taiwan with how they're shilling in China. A china region is more likely
>>59705779In actuality there are a lot of differences between Spain and Mexico, especially regarding native history and culture. More noticeably, as i said, they have drifted away from focusing solely on Mexico and they are moving towards the entire Gulf of Mexico states, so there will be much more ethnic variety as well as environments (even only for the southern part and the Yucatan peninsula)I can tell you they plan on having bug types resist fairy types and this could become factual in the next or next two generations, but the event that causes this change will be a lore, in game event that will take place during the story of the Gulf of Mexico generation. So if it comes into effect before then, just know that whatever game there is where that happens, such game will be set at the same time of the Mexico games.Also, Mew will play a secondary part in these games as they will have deep ties with prehistoric, prehuman environments and then first humans interactions with Pokémon and what this led to.
>>59705812it's not that simple. Japan isn't in extremely good relationships with China, especially over sea waters, international waters, islands ownerships and the Taiwan situation.It's complex because if they put Taiwan as part of China they expose themselves to strong internal critique, as well as many other nations critics. On the other side, if they do not put Taiwan under China while making a China set game... yeah.And if they leave out Taiwan entirely, they won't make anybody happy. Hence the situation.
>>59705819Paldea might as well have been Mexico in look and feel, at least as far as Gamefreak's gonna get into. I say this as a born and raised mexican who's also got family in spain. Paldea even covered the ecosystem variety: mexico has a deep crater, a few snowy peaks, deserts, a lot of mountain, the place where the ninja guy's base was located might as well have been the mexican jungle. Perhaps you could argue they left out mariachis and day of the dead stuff, which in my opinion wouldn't justify using it as a new region.I mean, I won't cry if they make a game inspired by Mexico, I just wish they did something different with the franchise. As I said the prehispanic angle would be super cool, but GF won't go for it.
>>59705869Still me, from phone.They will partially go for Prehispanic. While they won't directly touch human to human colonisation they will touch human arrival and ecosystem disruption in ancient times with a difference between the Pokémon world before humans arrived and after they did. This will carry a lot of native culture and history of the relationships that will be merged in one single ancient civilization comprosing of prehistoric humans and prehispanic ethnicities. The region will atill feel and be post hispanic coded, but the story and the art and the environments and the lore will mostly be prehispanic or prehistory based as some Pokémon were gods for Pokémon and humans alike and then they were actively chased away. It's a really interesting structure they have already set. The legendaries are some of my favourites, the two Queens.
>>59705887Ah nevermind I misread your post, surely including the caribbean region would make much more of a difference. Assuming this is true, I guess it's still up in the air and years and years away. I was (wishfully) thinking something more in the lines of full on native cultures, which I'm sure would inspire cries of cultural appropriation and trivialization, specially because it would set a nice precedent of other bygone cultures being explored.Assuming, again, you're being truthful. It's nice to think about, anyway.
>>59705906It will depend on how Gen 10 will be received in that regard.Anyway it's not necessarily many years away, it has a discrete chance of being Gen 11 and if not either Gen 12 or 13, but not later than that. A lot of things have already been set like plot, locations and Dex, although not to the level of Italy and it wil depend on hardware capabilities as well.If i were to give my percentages it's gen 11 60% Italy to 40% Gulf of Mexico with gens 12 and 13 to be decided later on.The work on the game set in Italy is roughly 40% complete, the work on the game in the Gulf is at 15%. But they can move more resources to it if they want it completed before Italy.
>>59705779That's like saying Galar and Unova are the same because one is Britain and the other is the US, for starters, Spain doesn't have Mayan / Mexica or Olmec ruins, insane climate variety (Deserts, snowy peaks, tropical jungles, rainforests, beautiful beaches), not even mentioning the fact that the Asteroid that killed the dinos fell there and caused a bunch of underground and underwater cavern systems, most of which remained unexplored, and so on, that alone gives world-building a lot of potential.
>>59705869Ah, we already have THREE yuro regions that are already too close to each other IRL.Also, regarding Mew, a South America region could be cool, mostly Brazil because Guyana is a little to small, maybe?
>>59705945Chicxulub will have an important role in the lore. And yes it could be a repetitive one perhaps, but it fits well and it will also be way more directly relevant than how it was in the past.Add to it some "Hollow Earth" style worldbuilding and you can see how much the area will be heavy and dense.A mixture of far prehistory, recent prehistory and prehispanic ethnicities and i can tell you they are cooking extremely well. It's mostly a matter of when, not a matter of if.
>>59705950Brazil has already been addressed.But it's likely Mew will be relevant in either Gylf of Mexico or Caribbean Sea Gen. Depending if they want to link it more or less with prehistoric Pokémon Earth
>>59705945I answered the OP before he clarified that apparently they might get into prehispanic cultures. Also, Spain indeed does not have all of those environments, I agree, so why did gamefreak put them in Paldea? as I said in >>59705869, paldea has snowy peaks (which Mexico has), a jungle-like environment (which Mexico has), a lot of pretty beaches (ditto), forests (ditto) and deserts (ditto), and as you mentioned, the great crater of paldea which has a parallel in the Yuacatán peninsula crater. I imagined GF would be going with a merely contemporary environment, and on that level Mexico and Spain do not differ much, since OP has clarified that point I stand corrected.
