Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@Heavyarms55 I try to be excited, but they ruin it every time

@DarthNocturnal Honestly, they should do away with the third version, or rather, third and four version as is currently the standard, and offer the content as DLC. It's already bad enough that they're splitting content over two versions. I don't see why they can't just offer it as DLC. The first two games kinda become redundant after a year when they introduce the new version with three new Pokemon that aren't compatible with the base game. It's just kinda stupid. But they get away with it.

@Heavyarms55 I'd prefer it to be the DLC option but think it'll be a release like Ultra Sun/Moon in 2021 (2020 being some kind of remakes).

Honestly this forum is pretty chill compared to 99% of areas on the internet talking about the game. Heck just go on YouTube and read some of Gamexplains comments and you’ll see people regularly attacking each other’s character and being incredibly mean spirited regarding the game.

Basically everyone here is pretty consistent with their views regarding the games and talk in good faith and are respectful about it.

According to the SWSH leaks discord the first hard copies of SWSH are being produced and send to warehouses(?). Datamines are inbound.

Cool. Just remember to be respectful of the users in here who may not want to read spoilers.

That goes to everyone.

Wasn’t even planning to spoil 😅
Was just a heads up that datamines are inbound.

EDIT: just realised the way I worded it seemed like me threatening to spoil it. I meant datamines will soon spread across the internet so be warned.

I wonder if Walmart is going to break street date with Sw/Sh like they did with Witcher 3 and Link's Awakening. I still doubt they are doing it on purpose, but I fully expect they'd turn a blind eye to it. They know Nintendo or any game company can't touch them.

@Heavyarms55 I can't wait for Walmart to collapse under their own weight honestly. I haven't shopped there since I was a kid (with one emergency exception) for a reason. Amazon's in that same boat, both companies are dangerous just by virtue of existing.

That said, I feel like Pokemon's one of the few games they might actually enforce the street date for? It's just too big not to at least pretend to care.

@link3710 The thing is, Walmart is so big that companies like Nintendo or Game Freak would be hurt more by opposing Walmart than by Walmart not enforcing street date. Even if they took Walmart to court and won, forcing Walmart to pay even several million dollars in fines, Walmart could laugh off a fine like that. Further Walmart could threaten Nintendo to stop selling their products in their stores. Walmart would lose a fraction of a percent of their profits, but it would devastate Nintendo sales in North America! Nintendo might be doing real well right now, but it was only a few short years ago that they were at their weakest in decades. Nintendo really can't take that risk.

Further, I fully expect Walmart would turn a blind eye to it, let the rumors of their stores selling the games early drive some extra sales, and then if Nintendo or Game Freak pushed, Walmart could just throw a handful of grunts under the bus and claim it was just a few workers breaking the rules that Walmart "cares so deeply about". From Walmart's perspective, letting the rumor of early Pokemon games spread and actually allowing a few stores to sell them, would be good for business.

At least Sony and Microsoft have much larger product selections - If Walmart tried to mess with them, they'd potentially lose more than just some video games.

@link3710 Well Europe got a few Pokemon 3DS games a week late (OR/AS and Sun/Moon) all because GAME broke the street date for X/Y so I'd imagine Walmart would enforce Sword/Shield street date if only to prevent them being the reason future Pokemon Switch games get delayed in the US.

@Heavyarms55 It's not Nintendo they wouldn't want to mess with, it's TPC. Walmart carries all sorts of Pokemon products from the card game to toys to the games and various other accessories. Sure they'd win, but if you were in charge of Walmart, what would be a better long term deal- keep TPC happy to make it easier to negotiate better prices on all their products, or piss them off and make all their negotiations a slog. Do you really think the publicity of early releases of a Pokemon game would be worth the money they'd potentially lose in negotiations by sacrificing their goodwill with the owners single largest multimedia franchise in the world?

And yeah, what happened with GAME in EU is a good sign as well, especially since Walmart is honestly less important to NOA than GAME is to Nintendo UK to my understanding.

@link3710 The thing is, games and toys are only a very small portion of Walmart's business - it would hurt TPC far more to lose Walmart as a distributor than it would Walmart to lose Pokemon products. Although where TPC and Nintendo have leverage is with the bad publicity it would bring. Walmart is already widely scene as the big evil corporate giant on the block, while Nintendo and Pokemon are well loved companies, in a public opinion war, Walmart is likely to lose badly so that may be motivation for them to stay in line.

Though I still say that Walmart hasn't been directing these breaks of street date, it's underpaid workers who don't care, and Walmart turning a blind eye to it. I'm sure Walmart is aware of it, will happily take advantage of it, and will throw those workers under the bus immediately if it becomes a problem.

Is there something you can't buy at a Walmart? The concept sounds so foreign to me.

@Octane Adult entertainment, Confederate flags and Fireworks are among things you cant buy at Wal-Mart

So... Galarian Ponyta is psychic type. It's also now called the Unique Horn Pokemon, probably to avoid the fire part in Fire Horse Pokemon of the original Ponyta.

I would have though Ponyta would have been a fairy type since unicorns are mystical creatures.

Psychic’s always been a sort of anything goes type of thing. So I’m not too surprised.

It could still gain the fairy type as it evolves.

@StableInvadeel I dont care about dexit, or tree's textures or static wingulls at all. But if Galar Ponyta does'nt evolve to a Fairy type i riot.

It would make too much sense for Rapidash to be Fire/Fairy or Fairy/Fire. Especially since either type combo has not been used yet.