Pokémon Was The Second Most Pre-Ordered Title At GameStop During E3

Cod still making bank it seems. Not that I really have a problem with that.

Pokémon beating out FF7 remake though is funny.

Mario maker is lower than I expected it to be.

Link's Awakening ranking above Star Wars Fallen Order and Gears 5 is quite the surprise.

I don't think it's that surprising at all to see Pokemon place that high on the list. If anything, I'm more surprised to see where Mario Maker 2 placed, then again most people probably pre-ordered that prior to E3.

@westman98 Such is the Power of Nintendo!

@graysoncharles
Pokemon fans: Smash the dislike button on the Pokemon Treehouse video and riot the Pokemon subreddit.
The same Pokemon Fans: Preorder the two games... Twice

yeah, people still complain a lot about the national dex "problem" but it will become the number one selling pokemon game to date for sure.

Second most pre-ordered game at gamestop? So like... 20 copies?

@Xelha Yeah it sucks that there nothing being done.
But that just means I can just buy a better game.

Lol I'm getting Fire Emblem and Marvel Alliance 3 anyway

I would've pre-ordered Luigi's Mansion 3 if there was a release date!

There might be an "uproar" over the Pokedex thing and I count myself in the group who was unhappy about the choice BUT in the end it's like getting a scratch on your cool new car. Yeah, the scratch sucks, but it's still a cool new car!

But I see no reason to pre-order so far in advance. It's Pokemon. They aren't going to fail to ship enough to stores.

@ReaderRagfish There is always a new COD coming out. lol

What about...BATTLETOADS?
No, seriously, think about it. The old gamestop battletoads is NOW REAL

Are people really surprised that Pokemon is that high?

Most consumers either...
1) Don't know what a Pokedex is
2) Don't care that the game won't have every Pokemon because the game will have plenty of Pokemon anyways
3) Do care that the game won't have every Pokemon but will buy the game anyways because it's the newest Pokemon game

Switch has the strongest engagement levels and American software sales of any Nintendo platform barring the original Wii; a new Pokemon is going benefit greatly from this.

The same applies with most COD controversies as well ("Oh no, Black Ops 4 won't have a campaign!!!", but it becomes 2nd/3rd biggest COD title of this generation anyways despite stiff competition from Fortnite).

@Xelha How do you know they aren't putting effort in to make the games the best they can be? Perhaps this will be the first title where they really pay more attention to balancing and multiplayer. Aside from this one issue, everything about SwSh shown so far honestly look really cool. It's traditional Pokemon adventure, in HD, portable or on TV, with a free moving camera, raid battles and that awesome looking BotW-like wild area.

I'm not pre-ordering it, and maybe I won't even get it at all.

As for pre-order, the whole game overall aside from the fact it lacks Pokémon doesn't appeal to me, it looks like they grabbed the Let's Go engine, tweaked some stuff and put new world in it (Switch is more capable than that, even the Wii U was)

Dynamax Pokémon feels like another quick gimmick, it's Z stones but now without the silly dance but with big Pokémon now.

And I could go on and on without even mentioning the lack of some Pokémon, even without that the game looked rushed so I'll wait until they release it, if it's better in the end I might get it, otherwise I skip is fully (I learned my mistakes after copy paste job called Ultra Sun & Moon, and the for me dissapointing Let's Go games)

Plenty of other stuff coming to the Switch that I want, not even counting other platofrms I game on.

Not surprising at all, the momentum of franchises like CoD and indeed, Pokemon isn't gonna stop that easily. Anyone remember "Call of duty: infinite dislikes"?

However, even if they sell a ton (and it most likely will) it doesn't mean the s**t storm will not take it's toll.

Call of Duty infinite warfare and Battle field V were both caught in tons of controversy, and while they undeniably sold a LOT, their total sales were undeniably down from previous titles.

I really hope this happens with Pokemon as well, those lazy bums at GF need a wake up call.

I had sword pre-ordered before E3 cause I got a great deal on a trade in offer at GameStop. If I had known about the Dex blunder I wouldn't have done it.

Please can somebody tell me, how many and what Pokemon will be in this game(s)?

@MrBlacky We don't even know to both of those.

@westman98 yep, because the majority of the buying public who buy these games don’t even know these dramas even exist or just don’t care that much.

@SilentHunter382
Really? That's odd.

@MrBlacky It’s odd and yet one of the reasons I think so many are blowing the Pokedex issue out of the water. We don’t know how many pokemon are in the games (Masuda himself said the Pokedex for the region would not be an easy feat to fill) and what pokemon are in and what are out. I have a full living dex and have transferred from game to game but I’m not going to let what I consider somewhat trivial in the grand scheme of it all stop me from playing the upcoming games. My kids didn’t even give a crap when I told them they might not be able to have all their favorites in the next games. They just shrugged and said they cared about the new pokemon and region and new features more than anything else. I mean, I get the upset to some degree, but it’s totally not the end all be all...

I suppose my kids and I are just excited and going to go all in with open minds. And of course as a gaming enthusiast, I will keep tabs on any and all information that comes out for the games. We don’t know everything these games will entail and we’re less than five months away from release. There’s still much to learn before everyone truly raises their pitchforks

@Xelha sigh here we go again. There is perfectly logical reasons to why they don’t have EVERY Pokémon in the dex. They can’t do that indefinitely. Every time they change to new hardware, they have to create the engine again and program, model, texture, animate, and balance all the existing Pokémon in addition to new ones, new mechanics, and a new region. At some point it becomes too much. Name an RPG with as many playable characters as Pokémon. X and Y really pushed it, having around 650 returning Pokémon on top of new ones. Sun and Moon had the luxury of reusing the same engine. Now there’s well over 800 existing Pokémon on top of new ones. Even assuming a 3 year development time (which means they would have started these games before the originals Sun and Moon released), factoring in actually making new content on top of making the engine from the ground up on a new console, if you assume they spent 2 years just on returning Pokémon alone, that’s over 2 a day assuming they don’t take a single day off. Did you see what a three month delay to Animal Crossing did to Nintendo’s stock despite the public announcement that it was for employee health? The game industry is toxic enough for employees without consumers making increasingly larger demands. They can’t keep bringing back every Pokémon every gen, at some point it’s too many to implement for a new console. Where do YOU feel that point is? 1000 Pokémon? 2000? I mean yeah I’m sad that my favorite Pokémon is highly likely going to be cut but I’d rather they focus on a more solid package than them overworking employees (who are people too) just so the handful of Dunsparce fans get to transfer it to Sword and Shield. We don’t even know how many are cut but people are already demanding Game Freak “fix” it. I sincerely hope they ignore those fans, because the lives of their employees are more important than the latest entry in the series that will be relevant for only a year or so before the follow up game comes, likely with even more returning Pokémon anyways.

Every gen will bring new Pokémon. The line for enough had to come somewhere. It’s not like they just press a button to transfer each Pokémon. It takes time, and even with a team implementing 2+ Pokémon every day is crazy. These sort of fan demands is why designers like Sakurai work themselves into health problems trying to satisfy everyone. We can’t just have everything. And if that’s not enough for people, well it’s a good thing Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon continue to exist so people aren’t forced to buy the next gen.

@ShikabaneHime13
Well said. But get ready for some heavy downvoting from the "fans".

Before everybody goes "Lol, they'll buy it anyway" (Oops, too late), how many of those were before the National dex announcement?

@ShikabaneHime13 my favorite Pokémon is Malamar. The chances of it being cut are pretty high IMO, it’s not super popular or widely used and it has a very unique evolution method that would have to be specifically programmed to use the joycon accelerometers just to evolve. Of course I’m disappointed that I might not be able to take my shiny Malamar to Sword and Shield but it’s also crazy to expect Game Freak to continue to bring EVERY Pokémon along indefinitely. There has to be a limit. I wish people would just accept that as easily as you have, because the ones who will really suffer if Game Freak is pressured into changing things is the employees. I sincerely hope they ignore that pressure, the game seems like it’ll do fine despite the outcry.

@ShadJV: Well, at the end of the day everyone does have their right to their feelings. I just hope that in time some of the ones spewing the hottest fire will at least wait to hear out any and all pertinent information before wanting to but GF to the ground... Like I said, I get it... GF is not a perfect company and they still have a ways to catch up to the modern standards of game development. I mean, just look at the newest Yo-kai Watch on Switch (which I’m playing at this very moment). It looks gorgeous and has so much going for it that GF should be taking notes on graphics and gameplay-wise. And I’ve held these sentiments since the very first YW game as Level 5 has taken great care to put detail and effort into their titles. But I still will love and play both

@MrBlacky: Meh shrugs Let the chips fall where they may.... At the end of the day, my entire household will be playing Pokemon at launch (while mom has a full weekend away from the kids and attends the inevitable launch party at Nintendo NYC)

@ShadJV
I see your point... But gamefreak has been stated that they have been working on this game since XY. Whether it's working or planning this game... Who knows.
They could of used the engine from Let's Go and developed on that. The models pretty much are just higher quality of the handheld games. (I am in no way an animator or game mechanic so I'm pretty much speaking from my limited view and from different opinions I have seen from all the points)
I don't want the employees to overwork themselves. But gamefreak is a billion dollar company, we shouldnt be releasing a mediocre performance. Hire more people, manage your time, don't announce something that isnt ready. Don't give your second team this game that many pokemon fans have been waiting for years, while the main team works on Town (or whatever)
I think national dex is just the tip of the iceberg of problems Pokemon has.

Pokemon has been giving us new mechanics then ditching it the next gen and acting like it never happened. Why not improve on them, improve on the animations. There are many things that the demo had wrong with (it's the demo so let's hope that the final game is better, but from past experiences.... Won't change to much).
No animations for attacks, graphics are good but nothing special, nothing crazy amazing of jumping from handheld to console. There are so many problems with gamefreak, and I think the people who are angry at what they see happening to the franchise shouldn't be silenced. We are paying for this game, I don't want to spend $60 on a mediocre game. I for one killed my hype at E3 seeing it become an okay game while Zelda, Mario, animal crossing get amazing looking games with imrpovements from past games.

Sad to say that I was one of those numbers that pre-ordered during E3. But I have since canceled that pre-order. And not for the reason that people are thinking initially, I canceled it because of GameFreak's bait-and-switch with their trailer. When I pre-ordered it, I thought that Random Encounters were still in the game. Finding out that such a crucial aspect of RPGs has been stripped out of the game has effectively made me lose all interest of ever buying a Pokemon game ever again. They want the hype up such a stupid action because people don't want to "grind" and now the same people are saying that Pikachu and Eevee are some of the hardest Pokemon games ever created... I wonder why.

@ShadJV @ShadJV I'm not going to like or dislike your comment because you are misinformed.

They don't make new models, animations or textures for these games, they re-use the high quality models they made for X&Y and those are also high res too.

Aside from that I at least hope the performance will be fine, all the 3ds games have poor performance and even Let's Go for how simple it looks has performance issues.

But I guess the chances for a new F-Zero THIS year are higher than GF doing their job properly, I've seen indie studios doing it better and Nintendo themselves does a splendid job in most of their games (dear Nintendo dump GameFreak and start making Pokémon games yourself)

Ah well unless they screw it up even more, there is still a chance I could get the games few months after release, Ultra Moon&Sun + Let's Go games learned me to stop pre-ordering Pokémon games that I did since diamond & pearl.

I only preordered Spyro. I already had Fire Emblem.

I also had Shovel Knight preordered, but the date has been pushed back once more, so it is cancelled for now. I do hope it comes out before September

A major storm goes through the Pokemon community, almost everyone is highly upset with the new games and quantifiable numbers are released showing Sword and Shield to be the most hated E3 game. Amazon listings show a significant drop in comparison with previous titles.
NintendoLife: cricket noises

Sword and Shield takes second spot in preorders made at a physical retailer in 2019, in a single country, no hard numbers given.
NintendoLife: BIG NEWS!

This is some next level journalism.

Pokemon fans are the only reason we are playing the same game for years and Game Freak is putting in minimal effort. They are just buying/defending anything.

I am surprised Link's Awakening is so high and Cyberpunk so low. Pokemon Sword and Shield make sense since it is the very first non-spinoff entry on home console

I'm genuinely surprised Cyberpunk 2077 was lower on the list than Call of Duty. Even as someone who isn't that much into shooters and the like, you can tell that game has flare.

@Preposterous
This is too accurate I dont think NL know where they were just smacked from. Its disturbing how delusional they are a lot of pokemon fans are.

The people who don't like the change are the loudest but they are still a minority. I personally buy new games for the new stuff.

I have Pokemon, Cyberpunk, Borderlands3 and Fallen Order on that list.

Crazy March/April 2020 already have 2 hits with Cyberpunk and FF7... Talk about planning ahead 😂

well its got two systems to be played on and is coming out sooner, pretty good showing from N

@Timsworld2
You see, that's the problem with those "fans" like you. They think, they are the one and all and everything should catered to them. In reality most people don't care about such trivial things and just want a game with new Pokemon, new region and new gameplay elements. And if you really don't like most of the game, then don't buy it. That is how it works.

@MrBlacky At least he cares about the franchise enough to voice his concers and encourage others to do the same, instead of mindlessly consuming products without asking any questions.
If you don't like people complaining, don't engage with them and don't read their comments. That is how it works.

@Preposterous
But maybe, the majority don't care about little things like that and also aren't afraid if things change? And also maybe, they don't like everything about a game, but they don't say anything because in the end it doesn't really matter.

Three Switch exclusive games in the Top 1p sounds good to me

Pre-ordering a game 10 or so months away from release just seems crazy to me but what do I know.

(Talking about Cyberpunk and FF7 Remake).

Surprising considering the backlash they're getting for essentially being too lazy to re-texture the other existing 3D Pokemon models...

To be expected

If you ask me, that's like an article saying "People report seeing the sky today. This just in: it's blue."

Not saying the article shouldn't have been written. It should. I'm just saying we all knew Pokemon would sell well, so don't think anyone would be surprised by this news.

@MrBlacky You don't really seem too sure of it yourself. But I'll say that one thing is certain: it's the complaining fans who get things done. Whether it's backlash from Metroid Federation Force telling Nintendo to go back to proper Metroid games or people pointing out how stupid would be online multiplayer without friends in Mario Maker 2, someone had to bring attention to the issue at hand. So zip it and be grateful that there are still people willing to take the heat and say how it really is.

This article is stupid. These pre-order numbers have already changed. It's like reporting that it's raining outside but in reality its already stopped.

This isnt to say backlash wont hurt game sales - COD Infinite Warfare is by far the lowest-selling COD game of the decade because a lot of people didnt care at all about the game's setting and premise. It's reveal trailer has like 3.8 million dislikes.

The National Dex controversy is tiny compared to that.

@LordGeovanni Um.... Random
Encounters are still very much a part of the game. It shows you have a choice in random or running into the overworld pokemon in the Wild Area....

@MrBlacky well last time i checked right after E3 over on Pokemon database i counted 168 and that's only with 12 new confirmed Pokemon.

@KawaiiKitsune13
Those are actually not random encounters. If you are referring to the encounters you can see oh, they are only referred to as visible encounters. If you're talkin about the exclamation marks in the grass, those are elective encounters so they would really be more like symbol Encounters. Neither of these options coerce unsolicited Random Encounters, and therefore do not work for the function of an RPG effectively.

Still boggles my mind why people pre-order in an age where, thanks to digital downloads, these mass-produced releases never really sell out.

Save your money. Wait for the reviews.

COD will always be at the top of pre-orders because they are constantly innovating with each and every release! Same with EA's Fifa. They are always stellar installments that push the gaming industry towards their standards and trends each and every year. Why do you think GTA now has guns in it after all this time? Or what about those random soccer balls you can kick around in ForkKnife? That's right! It's all Activision (vision is in the name people! They are creative masterminds!!) and EA baby.

So if new comers like Pokemon or Super Maerio ever want to take top spot they need to start introducing these amazing new concepts. Pokemon needs to add guns and a battle royale system to compete with Fifa. And Subpar Mario needs to add exploding soccer balls into its next 4K shoot-em up game.

But seriously... no one will really ever compete with those two companies. Why do you think they're constantly adding more and more studios daily that make amazing games?! Every developer I have ever heard of loves working for those companies because everything they touch is a passion project. The consumers realize this which is why they continue to sell these games after 100 years!

I remember my great-great-great grandfather telling me about the first time he played Call of Duty. Did you know they didn't even have online co-op battle royale air strike multiplayer bazooka joe mad max curly flip achievements back then?! It's crazy how much that franchise alone has changed games.

Good going Activision and EA!!! We are all forever yours!!!

@MrBlacky there’s a place for legitimate criticism and here is a good as any to do it. If you don’t like the criticism, then ignore such comments.

This top ten list shows addiction and nostalgia go WAY farther than most gamers will admit.

Gamer: "I want an original game/series!!!!"
Devs: Releases new IP
Gamer: Buys FIFA, CoD, and FFVII for millionth time

@ShadJV I think the reason people care is due to the fact many believe Game Freak is reusing models and animations from the previous generation. The animations at the very least certainly do.

@graysoncharles There's two potential outcomes either people have ordered the game despite the outrage. Or the outrage is so small it does not reflect the overall opinion of the game

Since Pokemon has great casual appeal something like having ever single Pokemon playable isn't likely to concern most. For any new players its of no concern.

Dynamax battles will destroy the world. "Got these stadiums tickets really cheap.....is that a giant electrode?..."

@Preposterous
I don't think Amazon has ever provided post-E3 pre-order rankings like how Gamestop just did. And Amazon is kinda irrelevant in terms of judging the success of video games anyways - by that metric, COD would be a failure as it isn't charting at all even though it will be the year's biggest game.

Also, physical sales still make up the majority of video game software sales across the world, especially for single-player driven Nintendo games. A significant proportion of new video game retail sales come from Gamestop.

Pokemon is performing very well by all pre-sale metrics, even if sentiment among the hardcore fanbase isn't very good.

@Preposterous moving the goal post are we? also amazon means nothing when judging the success of the game and people who wanted to pre order through Amazon would've done so already (it was charting very high at one point for a reason) and a lot of people are upset but most of the people will still buy the games regardless as it is a new Pokemon game on the Switch. also something like an Amazon listing is not newsworthy unless there are actual numbers or an official listing given which there is not

@Rayquaza2510 it looks nothing like Let's Go graphically so no it's not using the same engine, and the game isn't "rushed" at all.

@MysticX the National Dex announcement happened on June 11th, the FIRST Day of E3, this is for the entire week following that so that announcement clearly didn't affect much

@ShadJV I mean I don't think Pokemon are getting in based on on popularity as one of the most forgettable Pokemon ever: Avalugg is in the game.

@LordGeovanni Sword and Shield DO have random encounters as well as overworld Pokemon

@PikaPlayz Hm, a week ago i would have launched into a "Typical consumer sheep..."-tirade, by now i calmed down a bit, although i stand by my assertion that the way Gamefreak and Nintendo are dealing with the whole thing is pretty poor...

@PikaPlayz
Sorry oh, but you're going to have to prove what your saying. It's already been mentioned multiple times that there are no longer Random Encounters. If you feel I'm wrong with this information you need to provide proof. And as I stated above oh, if you are referring to the exclamation mark in the grass, that is a symbol encounter not a random encounter. Which makes it an elective encounter, you merely walk in a different direction to ignore it.