Topic: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!

The logos resemble Pokémon X & Y a little too closely, unless of course they happen to be sequels and/or ports of Pokémon X & Y for the Switch, but I doubt that TPC will be releasing another sequel so soon after Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. I call bogus on this, though I wouldn't mind a port to tide us over for a full-fledged Pokémon experience on Switch.

I think the tentative logos are throwing me off more so than anything else. Pokémon 0 and Pokémon 1 sounds completely within the realm of possibility, though you'd be sure to hear a lot of Digimon jokes (incidentally, I think a "Digital" type is long overdue, and Porygon and perhaps even Genesect can have their typing altered along with a few others that aren't springing immediately to mind, though there have been only very few Pokémon that can be considered "digital").

The logo 0 & 1 were look Fake.

As good a concept for new games as any other. Better than xy, for sure.

Still, my gut says fake. Isn't it a bit too early for them to have decided on a title?

@MarcelRguez : Not at all. If, for example, the game is slated for a late 2018 release, then the bulk of the game should already be completed by now with titles already decided. It's not as if these games take only a year to throw together. Pokémon Switch would have been in production since the wrapping of production for Sun/Moon at the very least. As reported earlier, a significantly smaller team, mostly made up of junior programmers/artists/designers etc. were tasked to work on Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon since the bulk of the work was already done for them, and it should prove to be a valuable experience should they move on to work on larger scale from-scratch projects.

@MarcelRguez If it's a 2018 title, you can expect the first teaser soon. I believe they usually tease something around February, about nine months before release.

@sillygostly @Octane My mistake, then. I thought titles were decided around the time the game goes gold, and that bugfixing and testing usually takes ~4-6 months with games such as these. Which means, if it's a, say, November release, the title wouldn't be finished until late Spring/early Summer

@MarcelRguez X & Y and Sun & Moon were revealed on January 8 and February 27 respectively. Interestingly, both were revealed in a Direct.

@Octane A Pokémon Direct, right?

@MarcelRguez : "Going gold" means that the game is ready to be manufactured/pressed, which usually doesn't happen until very close to the game's scheduled release date (I was surprised to learn that South Park: The Fractured But Whole went gold mere weeks prior to release!). The bulk of the content would be (or at least should be) completed months ahead of time, but last minute testing, bug fixes and additional content (such as side quests and say, extra trainers on the field) can be added right up until the point that the game is ready to go gold.

@sillygostly Really? All this time I thought it meant the dev team was done with the bulk of the content.

I guess it makes sense, since that's the point at which it can actually be sold. Suits the metaphor better.

In this age of the Day 1 patch, 'going gold' doesn't really mean anything (although, in this case, Nintendo would be the publisher, so it'd usually be in a pretty good state at that point) ..plenty of work will be done on a game after 'going gold' - even post-release in many cases - so that particular 'development milestone' has rather lost its significance over the years

@MarcelRguez : After the bulk of the content is completed, the game will then need to be fine tuned, so bug-testing, localisation, marketing (such as trailers; and don't forget the existence of multiple markets), and God knows what else, so there is still quite a lot of work that needs to be done. This may not be the case for indies and throwaway eShop titles, but for major AAA releases, the bulk of the content would have been completed a fair while prior to release.

@NaviAndMii : "Going gold" is not an indication that a game is 100% complete. It simply means that a retail-ready build is ready to be pressed/manufactured. Even ARMS, which is now finally considered to be "complete" (as of version 5) will continue to receive updates for the foreseeable future. Even older titles, particularly popular 3DS titles such as Mario Kart 7 will require staff in order to moderate and maintain the servers for the purposes of online multiplayer, for example. There are a lot of hidden and ongoing expenses in game development nowadays that we take for granted and I'm saying this as a person who isn't in the know by any means.

@NaviAndMii Game Freak Pokemon games are an odd case because updates are still rare and a lot of event Pokemon still involves going to a retailer to pick up a code. So in a way Game Freak are still in the pre-Day 1 patch era.

@sillygostly All I was meaning was that you were implying that even all of the testing (etc) was finished by that point...with Nintendo published games, that seems to often be the case (with perhaps some minor tweaks/alterations between then and release) - but, with other publishers, a game can 'go gold' simply because the deadline is looming, with plenty of work still to be done - so 'going gold' seems to mean different things to different publishers (no longer just a blanket term - a game isn't necessarily in 'x' state because it's gone gold - but, you're right, a Nintendo published game is usually pretty polished by that point...and, yeah, I guess it could be argued that game isn't even properly 'finished' until all of the additional content etc has been added post-release )

...but, since we are talking about a game that will be published by Nintendo, the point I was getting at isn't all that relevant (to this particular discussion) really!

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, that's true - I wonder if they'll keep that going? ..there's something quite unique about going out to get a code from your local retailer to get an event Pokemon - it'd almost be a shame to see that tradition die out!

Also, just a word on these rumours - they are pretty convincing, aren't they? ..I won't allow my hype level to go above 'cautiously optimistic' until I hear something official - but, if these leaks do turn out to be fake, the level of fakery is pretty impressive! ..if they're true though, I'll be getting '1' - because '1' is for heroes and '0' is for zeroes!

@NaviAndMii
I do hope it does out. If you don’t live in Japan, the US or some European countries, getting that code is a pain. Specially if they are retailer exclusive!

Seconding that codes should go, they're pointless. Go back to Wi-Fi/wireless events please, they're far more convenient.

That's a good one. Why not just patch in new events?
Why not give players a reason to explore new places with a reward for doing so? Adding in far-off islands wouldn't be that difficult, or even take an existing location and add a new story element to it. Maybe even a mini-region that holds significance for a mythical trio.

@NaviAndMii A 40-minute drive to the nearest store that got the exclusive rights over the distribution of an event Pokemon? No thank you.

Ah - yeah - I guess it's easier for some than others...forgot that not everybody has a games retailer on their doorstep! Doh!