Update 2 (Fri 26th Jun, 2020 07:35 BST): The video has once again reached 150,000 dislikes. Here's a look:
Update (Thu 25th Jun, 2020 17:55 BST): The number of dislikes appears to have been rolled back on the main Pokémon presentation video. At the time of the update to this story, the dislikes now total 134k but are rising again.
At least 25k dislikes have disappeared. Below is evidence of what the dislike total looked like earlier today, courtesy of Twitter user @HxCDragonRush. As can be seen, the number of dislikes had surpassed 160,000. According to comments over on YouTube, the dislike count went well beyond this until a sizable amount went missing.
Original story (Thu 25th Jun, 2020 05:15 BST): Yesterday, The Pokémon Company revealed its brand new team-based battle game Pokémon Unite for the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. The game is being made in conjunction with Tencent Games' TiMiStudios and is a free-to-start experience.
If you were present at the time of the game's reveal, you'll probably already know how the announcement was received by fans, but in the age of the internet, often 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' speak louder than words. The presentation video - at the time of writing - has now surpassed 150,000 dislikes in less than a day, with the number of likes at just 70k.
A commenter by the name of finalsurvivor1 notes how this latest reveal by The Pokémon Company has managed to outdo Nintendo's E3 2015 reveal of Metroid Prime: Federation Force for the 3DS. Ouch!
Metroid Prime: Federation Force’s reveal, which was around five years ago, is the most disliked video on Nintendo’s YouTube channel, at over 90k dislikes. In less than a day, this got to 150k.
The UK version of this presentation has also accumulated more dislikes than likes, and the standalone trailer for Unite already has more than 50k dislikes. Despite this, the presentation is still one of the top trending videos on YouTube right now and has already been viewed more than two million times.
Obviously, when The Pokémon Company's president Tsunekazu Ishihara teased a 'big project' last week this is not what a lot of trainers had in mind. What was your own reaction to this announcement - did you give it the thumbs up or the thumbs down? Tell us in the comments.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 127
Good... anything Tencent is bad news.
Also I’m afraid The Pokemon Company is going this route.
If they don’t fix their ship, Pokemon will become an over saturated franchise.
We need quality control already, not quantity.
And LMAO at the irony that this is called Pokemon UNITE.....
It had about half of its likes before the stream even started too.
"What was your own reaction to this announcement - did you give it the thumbs up or the thumbs down?"
Thumbs Down !! 👎👎👎
Worst Direct Ever. 😒
Yikes, but at the same time, something has to happen to call to attention their tone-deaf attitude lately. I still remember past interviews where Masuda specifically said that the mainline games were purposefully being made easy because people in the mobile era don’t want to play long games. He also said no one really plays postgame content, so that isn’t a focus. We’re now at the point where they are charging us $30 to have post game content in a $60 game, when past games had the same amount of content for $40.
I hope they get the message through their thick skulls finally: No more mobile pandering, give us REAL games again.
I needed to grow extra thumbs to down for the level of disappointment with this one. And I already had no expectations.
Thumbs down? So? It'll still make millions...oy...
@fafonio Will become? There's a toothbrushing game. We've passed that point.
I forgot that there was going to be a second presentation today. I woke up at my normal time and saw the aftermath and I honestly couldn't help but laugh. They really thought THAT was going to go over well.
When the presentation begins, I think it will be a Pokémon Trading Card Game for the Switch (like the Game Boy Color version).
Side note: I buy Federation Force! It’s a good game. Not in the same level of the others games on the serie, but it’s not bad.
😉
Living in SE Asia, I'm surprised how popular this style of game is. Pre-COVID saw a guy on a crowded subway wearing a headset and calling out activities to his team while playing this style of game.
It's not my style in the slightest, but I'm sure it'll go over gangbusters in the region on the license alone. Then, with the muscle of TenCent behind it, PRC will let it through its strict game control board meaning it'll have 100 million players by this time next year...
Honestly, the reception to this presentation is due to a multitude of things, but it can be summed up in three parts: it was overhyped by fans who expected too much, the second presentation was lackluster compared to the first, and the game was poorly presented by The Pokémon Company.
Fans expected too much, like wanting Gen IV remakes or Let's Go for Johto (both of which would also have been met with skepticism for their own reasons, if we're being honest). Not saying those are bad ideas, but they're not appropriate at this time as Sword and Shield DLC seems to be intended to take the place of this year's game. Announcing a main series game would've been a poor move right now.
Second, the presentation was overhyped. After a surprisingly decent first one, people expected the second to be similar, and weren't pleased when it wasn't.
Third, The Pokémon Company shouldn't have given this its own presentation. They should have appended the info to the first presentation, taken out the recorded match, presented it before they did the Isle of Armor bit, and foregone the second one altogether. What drove them to take this strategy is only up to speculation. Did they really think it would work? Did they overestimate the appeal of a MOBA? Did Tencent tell them to present it like that? Who knows.
So truthfully, both sides are to blame here. But the way I see it, the controversy will die down and the sour taste will be left over. This game will probably perform poorly in the West, but excellently in China. I'll try it when it comes out. Maybe I'll like it. Maybe not. But ultimately, it's just Pokémon trying something new. At least they're still experimenting.
Honestly? As much as I'm really NOT interested in a Pokemon MOBA, and as disappointed as I am that Nintendo and TPC are teaming up with Tencent, I think it's for the best that this wasn't another major in-house project like Let's Go or a mainline game. Sw/Sh demonstrated a great need for a longer development cycle, and I hope they take it. Maybe their next game will actually be worth buying then.
@KingBowser86 hahaha to be honest the toothbrush game looks better than this. At least it was a stroke of genius.
This is just LoL made by a well-hated company
"It just got review bombed by TROLLS! Nothing to see here!"
I can agree that the Pokémon Company overhyped this announcement and should've included it with the previous Direct.
That said, the negative response to Pokémon Unite seems ridiculous, even if Tencent is attached. I'll acknowledge that I'm not a hardcore Pokémon fan, but I have never felt this level of indignation for any game franchise. The Pokémon franchise is no stranger to spin-offs, and this is just another one. Personally, I'm interested in playing this one!
I didn't mind it either way, but considering I am not a huge Pokemon fan, I doubt I will play Pokemon Unite regardless. Also, even with the huge criticisms of Sword and Shield, they still sold well. That being said, I understand though, that those are main entry games, and not spinoffs. Perhaps people's expectations were just a little too high, coupled with the fact that The Pokemon Company saved this game announcement for last over a game like Pokemon Snap 2, that caused such a negative reaction.
This is officially the most disliked Nintendo-related video in YouTube history.
They brought is as a big thing. I thought they would anounce a new pokken or a new mainline pokemon haha.
So its not strange that people disliked it.
I will get it, but where not hyped about it.
I just commented elsewhere that it seems odd that this would get so many dislikes.
Hearing that some of it might have to do with the Tencent partnership does hold water, but I can't help but think most of it is due to simple disappointment. But to that extent... what were folks honestly expecting??
We're still in the middle of Sw/Sh's lifespan (a game where folks were complaining that short dev times likely effected its quality), and 2.5 other Pokemon titles were announced just last week. And one of them is a sequel people have been begging for over 20 years!
Honestly, good. I've never invested into anything Tencent and I most likely never will. TPC made a massive mistake putting this in it's own presentation; if it were part of the previous one this probably wouldn't have happened.
@graysoncharles Yes, and they shall not be named because we all know who they are. But at the same time, this is a spinoff, and fans are largely concerned with main series games more than anything.
I'm not surprised, the MOBA genre is filled with top tier titles like Defense of the Ancients 2 and League of Legends. So a MOBA version of Pokemon even if it's in it's Alpha stage is lackluster and the fact that it looks shady doesn't help it as well.
What else would they think? They announce a big project and it's a free to start mobile game! Remember when Blizzard did this on blizzcon and annouced some mobile game? People are going to be dissapointed and you start your press off the wrong way this way. It's federation force all over again. Start with the announcement, we're getting you this or that pokemon game, then you show off this game, we will like it. Don't say, yeah here's a game in your favourite franchise you didn't ask for, we wont tell you if other games are coming, but here, take this game which has nothing to do with the main plotline. Sorey, this strategy has blown up in the faces of other companies, they should have seen this coming.
They should've made this exclusive to China.
Kinda figured this is where things were going. Hate to say it but I'm glad I jumped ship when I did. My interest in the current Pokemon games couldn't be less right now. The fact that Pokemon Let's Go looks the most appealing Pokemon game to me right now speaks volumes.
I mean, it looks kinda fun, I guess. I definitely think people had their hopes too high, and I think that contributed some to the backlash, but it was probably mostly the Tencent deal. I really don't see a need for this partnership besides trying to make a break in the Chinese market (a market with TPC is doing just fine without, by the way). TPC could've easily funded it themselves and hired an indie studio/asked Nintendo for help with development, yet they chose the option that they probably know would anger a lot of people. Ultimately, TPC doesn't care, they want Chinese money, and they will get it no matter how many people they anger.
@Barbara001
On one hand, hyping this up as a "big new project" probably wasn't a great idea as it is nowhere near as big as a new mainline Pokemon entry or Pokemon Go. New Pokemon Snap being one of many announcements in the last Pokemon Presents made it seem like this Pokemon Presents would be bigger than it ended up being.
On the other hand, there was no way Let's Go Johto or the Diamond/Pearl remakes were releasing this year given Gamefreak's current work on the Sword/Shield Expansion, and those are the only two possible announcements that could be considered bigger than Pokemon Unite, so expectations should have been set accordingly.
GOOD. Bad company, bad genre, and bad direction for the future of Pokémon.
Dang, I didn’t think it looked THAT bad. I’m curious at least and will give it a try. I haven’t really tried MOBAs anyways (and intentionally avoided the bigger ones due to the well known toxicity) but I’m guessing this won’t even have a real chat system (for better or worse), if we go by Pokémon’s track record, so at least I won’t have to worry about seeing/hearing kids cuss at me while I’m trying it out.
I cannot wait to play new Pokemon MOBA Game Free to Start developed in partnership with Tencent Holdings Ltd. 腾讯 on my Huawei Phone in the People’s Republic of China or affiliated Nations united under Xi Jinping! Gotta Catch Em’ All! 💯
@westman98 no, they said, big announcement. Bigger then Pokemon Snap. And why couldn't there be a remake, there are gallons of companies working on different projects at once. You can't tell me that THE ENTIRE GAME FREAK COMPANY is working on just those two silly expansions. And even if it's on the long run, Ys IX was announced for 2021. Do you know when BOTW 2 will releas? Games are announced way before their release date (FF7 REMAKE anyone). So my expactations shouldn't have been set accordingly.
There were no expectations before they said, big announcement. Then there was no big announcement. This is just bad marketing. And it's showing. Marketing is not about letting people think on their own. Actually, the idea of marketing is the opposite. So no, this is just their bad marketing, not my faulty expectations. And it's showing in the results of said marketing with the abbundance of dislikes. It's the double ammount of the likes. They killed the project with bad marketing. Like I said, that happened before. Or do you know many people playing Diablo Immortal???
Thumbs up!
As I love mobas.
The dislikes are obviously from those who arent very strategic or from those who were expecting a new mainline pokemon game or remake
If they'd just announced it with all the other crappy spinoffs instead of hyping it up like it was an actual big announcement, people probably wouldn't have cared so much.
Disliked to show my support, I'm not too into Pokemon games but if this is what the fans want to hate then I'll hate it too.
As others have said, the problem here was giving it a separate presentation and labeling it as a big project. I mean, from the Nintendo/GF/TPC side of things, it probably is a big project, but they have to realize that no one else is gonna really see it that way. They let the anticipation build for a week, and then the first words out of their mouth were "free-to-play," "mobile," and "Tencent." They should have seen the ensuing bloodbath coming from a mile away! Maybe the Tencent stigma isn't as big in Asia as it is in the West, I don't know...
That said, looking at the game in a vacuum, I actually think it looks alright, dare I say pretty good even. I'll be getting it and giving it a shot, but I think it would have gone over much better had it been included in the first presentation.
It's made by Tencent. That company will steal and mine any and all information they can from all of your devices.
I really like the look of this and the gameplay.
I’m excited for it!
Haven’t played a game like this before so the genre is new to me, and I like the cell shaded art style.
I’m in!
(By the looks of it I am in the large minority)
Now you went and made Ninty cry.
In reality, the notion of fake internet points "speaking louder than words" is a joke even among fans, seeing as they never forfeit the abundance of latter either. But since the Reddit travesty about EA didn't teach anyone anything, here we are again.
Me? I'm not keen on the genre (already tried Arena of Valor but didn't stick with it), but I'll toss it into my library upon release anyway and might try it with more likelihood than Smite. While not Pokemon Warriors I jested about, this is also the very kind of a left-field genre crossover I discussed. In the end, it's a satellite work that will possibly lure in more audiences into the franchise... and, if such newspieces are any indication, hopefully destroy even more of the fandom at a time. No sarcasm implied.
Not really a fan of Moba games, but people who are might like it. I'll at least try it.
@playstation_king
Uhm...the dislikes were mainly because the game actually looks terrible and needs more time in the oven, but mostly because they partnered to make this game with Tencent. Tencent is well known for being corrupt, low quality, and extremely shady
this could have been received well if it was included in the previous stream, the decision to hype this up as a "big project" and a standalone focus of a Pokemon presents feels incredibly out of touch and tone deaf.
Pokemon lost its way a long time ago. The games get more and more bland with each iteration. This is a new low, though. Something needs to give.
@playstation_king No. You're being too presumptuous.
The dislike was also from me, someone who hates the moneygrabbing business that is called mobile games, where you will never be able to get the full experience without spending a ton of money. Especially with Tencent games sadly.
And I've played a lot of LoL and strategic games, so don't push me into a pocket I don't belong.
Can someone give me the abridged version of why Tencent is bad please?
I mean, I've no intention of playing this game, but not because of Tencent. It just doesn't look like my cup of tea.
All they had to do was shove this into their Pokémon presentation last week and we’d all be happy.
I get that they probably had a deal with tencent to have an exclusive announcement of some sort, but come on guys!
At least air this presentation BEFORE you announce Pokémon Snap 2!!
Good tencent is pure trash nothing more nothing less.
That's not a surprise. What did they expect by delaying this announcement one week and saying to people they had something special to show?
That présentation should have been done last week. A trailer of two minutes would be sufficient.
My bet is that Nintendo was trying to please their new partner in business.
Bad move Nintendo, bad move...
Yeah... there really isn’t any charitable way to read this. It’s just League of Legends with a Pokémon reskin. It looks like a soulless cash grab.
You've seen the game what did you expect? At least federation force was a quality game, just a bad metroid game
On the scale of stupidity, this game is on par with Diablo Immortal
It's a mixture of reasons. The big announcement separate presentation had excitement building that it was bigger than anything revealed the previous week. They then proceeded to fart out a boring presentation about a free to start(aka get ready for microtransactions) mobile game that looked bad for more time than spent on new pokemon snap. Like sticking pokemon into some rip off of league of legends eh ok but like I could just play that . People dont like ten cent as a company either. Poor decisions all arround. Slapping pokemon on to any old game doesn't make me want it.
The problem with this game is that it's not for us. It's not for western fans or even Japanese players. It's for China. This is Pokemon trying to break into the Chinese market - and the Chinese market is different.
They led us to believe with this video, that we would be getting something very different. The western audience and the Japanese audience did not want this game.
Thank you for picking a comment that actually means something and listing who wrote it. Most other news sites pick comments that have no significance and could have been said by anyone else and label them as from "one commenter/another commenter"
If they hadn't made a separate Presents for it and teased it as a "big project", I'm pretty sure they could've avoided this (didn't make it better that the presentation was simply chaotic). They should've known better than being so secretive and teasing that fans get too high expectations.
On the other hand, their tactic COULD be to give fans false hope so that as many people as possible would watch the reveal and get as many as possible to know about the game and perhaps download/buy it... we know that fans will get their Pokemon injection despite their own negative feedback. However, that would be a double-edged sword if that was their intention because they never know when fans will get fed up of being treated that way.
Metroid Prime Federation Force is at least a fine game that got dislikes for a different reason.
This however... yeah I don't even want to waste my words on this... the first 2 things that came into my mind was that mobile Diablo game that never came out, because just like that mobile Diablo (Diablo skin on a random NetEase game) game this looks like a "Pokémon skin on a random Tencent game"
Second thing was the presentation of that mobile Command & Conquer game presentation from EA, that guess what also did not launch.
It reminded me of that because of how Pokémon Company presented it, over the top positive with "fake action".
Both Diablo and C&C mobile game presentations I see as negative, and most people did (both got a huge backlash from their respective communities for a reason)
@-Juice- exactly this, I fully agree
@shazbot I already imagine Pokémon Company calling this a succes because it gets millions of players in 1 region, while ignoring the true story.
Awww, babies got their feefees hurt.
While a Pokémon MOBA might be a good thing in the long run, I think I see the exact problem here - and it's the same as it's ever been with Pokémon in the latter half of the franchise's lifespan so far.
Say it with me--communication.
Talking about it as the next "big project" means hyping it up to an unrealistic degree, while at least mentioning Game Freak wasn't behind it would have set the bar for fans. That's point one.
Point two is, well... it's one game - one - while the previous presentaton had several. Hell, fans might be wondering "THIS is what got all the attention while all New Pokémon Snap got was a passing mention?" (it wasn't meant to rhyme, by the way).
Communication is key. Always has been, always will be. It's a fact The Pokémon Company needs to accept. Also, quick note for everyone: when a stream (Nintendo Direct or otherwise) starts lingering too long on something, make sure to quickly (and accordingly) rearrange your expectations. I'm not talking about game-specific presentations (such as Sakurai's for Smash), I'm talking about general Directs (for example, a game is announced and most of the Direct's runtime goes to interviews with the developer and whatnot - which is what happened with Pokémon Presents Part II).
@Xiovanni
CCP?
Why is this a wonder to anyone?
The Pokémon Company changed it's company course the moment Pokémon Go became the most profitable mobile game in the history of mobile games and made more money than anything they had ever done up until that point.
Their business strategy and their overall direction changed after that.
I mean, can anyone really blame them?
For an example, just imagine. They can make 2 billion by catering to that market and 1 billion catering to our market.
As the owner, what would you do? It's that simple.
This is what happens when they waste a presentation on a mobile game. I wonder if this is how Diablo players felt a couple of years back.
The problem is, they hyped this as huge. But it's not what people were hoping for, and that's part of the reason behind the dislikes. People were hoping for a Let's Go Johto or something similar, but got this. Nintendo must have missed the Diablo scenario a while back.
Does nobody have their own opinion anymore, I watched a video and made my own decision on how I felt. And that won't be changed in anyway by those BS numbers!
Pokémon Communism!
My desire to play is definitely soured by Tencent's involvement. Simply removing their name from it entirely would make the game look 10x better.
Get why people are disappointed it wasn't something bigger than this, the way the presentation was announced definitely suggested so. Although I do find it funny how people complaining about the lack of a mainline game or remake are a lot of the same people lambasting Game Freak for short development time on SwSh
Even then, GF have no involvement in this game, so idk why they're getting hate from some for this.
@Barbara001
I dont think anyone's playing Diablo Immortal....
I'm sure there will be once it's actually released though.
I do keep trying to play it but it's difficult when you can't install it....
@ROBLOGNICK they work for the Chinese Communist Party and help them to implement censorship on their population.
The company is just one of the many state run enterprises. Ultimately it's owned by the government, no matter what name is at the door.
@Noisy_neighbour isn't that game out yet? My bad. I just know the blizz con boo conference from 2 years ago, I thought it was gonna release soon after (not a mobile gamer, so my interest stopped there). But maybe it was good thing for them to wait, now that everyone knows 4 is coming, people will be way more accepting and happy about Immortal. If the pokemon company is smart, they wait this one out as well and don't release unite two weeks from now, but after they announce an actual big announcement.
And even that wouldn't have went over so bad if it hadn't been the only reveal in the presentation. Or if they even just switched Unite and Snap.
Headline: "Stupid People Amass Dislikes on Benign Video...Again."
It obviously was going to be disliked, the stars didnt aline and every one of those stars was a point against it.
@fafonio Totally agree with everything! I said they should have announced this last week and Snap yesterday. I also don't feel that unless you can talk to each-other on the game it will fail in terms of team work. Personally I'm gonna leave it! Would have preferred another re-release of old Pokemon games
This was cleary TPC/Gamefreak’s own doing. Had they simply included this announcement in the original presentation instead of this “big announcement” nonsense, it would have been a non-issue.
Side note: If you are known for making console games, it’s probably best to never hype up a mobile phone release.
Here we are end of June with almost no 2020 games scheduled. And Nintendo/GameFreak is announcing mobile games. Yeah, a lot of Switch owners don’t like that. What’s coming in the Fall Nintendo? Anything?
@Gauchorino,
Exactly, people who complain are always far more vocal.
I didn’t rate the vid... but I felt like the game looked like a mess. ...You couldn’t tell what character was doing what.
I'm one of the people that thumb it down on all videos not because of Tencent, China, mobile, or that it's a MOBA game but because we were promise something big from the Pokemon maker and did not get it.
You know the game itself looks alright, not fantastic but I'll probably download and play it, might even spend a few quid on it if I really like it...
However, it should have been part of last weeks direct, or just released today without any announcement, not given its own over-hyped one and I think that's where a lot of dislikes have come from... Sadly nintys actions have left a bad taste in peoples mouths so the game/app is destined to fail
This has already been said here probably a million times, but the extreme dislike is from the way it was presented. You don’t show off a handful of small side games, especially one with a new Pokémon Snap that fans have been clamoring for for years, promise “something big”, and make a whole mimi presentation about a mobile game crossover with a genre that doesn’t really mesh well with what the fans look for in a Pokémon game.
But, had they just stuck this somewhere in the middle of the last one, it would have been burried and mainly forgotten by those who don’t like it, either because it’s not what they want, who’s making it, the F2P model, and other valid-ish complaints. It just wasn’t going to go well no matter WHICH of the previous direct games they showed.
EXCEPT Pokémon Snap. That as a stand one trailer would have been much better received, just because it’s specifically been requested a while. Also, it’s graphics look waaaay better than Sw&S, which wouldn’t hurt any hype.
With how Tencent treated AoV on switch, I would say this game will be better supported on mobile and out side the initial release won’t be touched again on switch (all depending on how well it is received by mobile gamers, always possible to just flop). With it being a Tencent moba game and with the Pokémon name slapped on it, chances are this game will be successful. I enjoy AoV on mobile and if this game has a similar build, I’ll enjoy this one as well.
I’d love to know how far their jaws dropped looking at the dislikes. Also, not sure how they can’t announce another new thing. I’m willing to bet this fall’s DLC is nearly completed anyway...
@PBandSmelly I wonder if Meng Wanzhou will be playing.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meng-wanzhou-schedule-court-extradition-1.5623965
This idea is awesome, pokemon needs more routes, and a MOBA is perfect for that. I have been playing pokemon since when Blue first came out, all you new kids don't know anything. I don't want anymore remakes I want something new and fresh, and this is where it's out, pokemon is extremely competitive, so of course the mons are going to work in one. If you all think that this is not a good idea, then in my opinion you guys are idiots, all 150k+
@nhSnork If I understand you correctly, your thesis is that adverse reaction online (or adverse public reaction in general) has no effect on organizations like EA, or Nintendo. I'm not so sure. Reputational damage is something most businesses in most industries are concerned about, at least in my experience, monopolies notwithstanding.
There are undoubtedly technical reasons underpinning the absence of EA's core money-makers from the Nintendo customer base (like 3.5 GB of available RAM on the Switch, and heavy offline use in handheld). Yet I still wonder - does EA perceive that they will make poor inroads with Nintendo players due to their notoriously bad image, or some sort of cultural clash with a company that does not rely on microtransactions?
Developers are already, gradually, starting to back off the loot box model. Shuntaro Furukawa has been de-emphasizing the mobile market. Given those two headwinds, the details of Unite are pretty surprising.
But it only has ver 130K dislikes...?
EDIT: People are reporting that dislikes are disappearing. Probably due to many of them being made by bots and then removed by Youtube.
I ain't surprised they hyped this game up as something big and then underdelivered.
@Barbara001
No one should have expected Gamefreak to talk about anything outside of their current project, which is the Sword/Shield DLC. The inevitable Diamond/Pearl Remake (or Let's Go Johto if you believe it exists) likely won't be released until holiday 2021, while Pokemon Gen 9 likely won't be released until holiday 2022. Much like Nintendo, Gamefreak doesn't usually announce games that far ahead (18+ months) of release; indeed, every Pokemon game since Pokemon X/Y was unveiled and released in the same year.
Meanwhile, The Pokemon Company and Tencent announced their partnership some time ago, and while I don't agree that Pokemon Unite was some earth-shattering announcement worthy of its own presentation, it's clearly a big deal as it involves one of the biggest entertainment IP partnering with the biggest new gaming company in the world. I could see why any company would treat Pokemon Unite (F2P Area of Valor reskin created by the developers of PUBG Mobile) as a bigger deal than New Pokemon Snap (sequel to a 20 year old spin-off that sold below 4 million copies), even if hardcore fans may think otherwise.
It’s not so much the game, but the fact that it’s a ‘big project’.
@westman98 first off, don't tell me what I or anyone else for that matter should or shouldn't do. It's not respectfull. Second, I'm tslking about marketing strategy here. There are a lot of non die-hard fans, who won't insta buy pokemon games. Those are the people they want to attract through their announcement. And they got hyped, they got dissapointent. It will cost them customers, and hence money. It' bad marketing. Period. And you can tell everyone what they should expect if they did research and know how development works en are knowledgeable of the works of tencent. I shouldn't have to do aaaaallll that work to watch a youtube clip. Thnq for your opinion, I've taken note of it, but marketing wise, this is a disaster. And that's showing, as you can see.
Change your release schedule and give us the release based on the conclusion we all jumped to right NOW! STOMPS FEET
@Barbara001
I'm not telling you what to believe. You can believe that Gamefreak will release Diamond/Pearl Remake and Pokemon Gen 9 tommorow for all I care.
Pokemon Unite was going to be a thing no matter what. The only thing that could have been different is how the game was announced, as it should have been one of the many announcements in the first Pokemon Presents rather than its own separate announcement in its own Pokemon Presents.
@Barbara001 Considering Game Freak only employs around 140 people, it does seem possible that their entire team is dedicated to making expansions. Games development is so different these days. You’ll have one member of a team work on even just a single asset. I remember reading a variety of dev diaries on an assassins creed game and one guy said his job was to model the boots for the main character.
@westman98 that was my point. The whole time. See, we can agree. Very good!
@inenai I did my due diligence and watched their out of touch presentation and left a dislike. The rep from TenCent looks like a villain from a Pokémon game or something. Even his translator sounded overly terse, making him appear more villainous!
I went in not even knowing what to expect and still left a dislike, because a) I hate TenCent, and b) I am against the direction Pokémon games are going, in general so I don’t support them. EZ
@TG16_IS_BAE I know, and I'm quite sure that's the case, I was just saying working on different games as a developer isn't impossible, because the other guy was saying that I should have known that it was impossible (which it's not). So I didn't agree and in that light made my statement. And then there is the fact that apperently there are 27 new job openings since last week, that certainly sparked my hope for another development project. But you are absolutely right. That makes it all the more amazing that a game like hollow knight was developed by just 3 people.
@PrincessAzunyan Why are you surprised that people on a public forum are voicing their opinions?
@Barbara001 Hollow Knight was an achievement, to be sure. I gave it a go and it wasn’t for me, but it does make me happy that their small team had such great success. I wonder if they expanded for their newer game?
@Barbara001 On another note, I miss the older DS and GBA Pokémon games, and would be a remake or even just a direct port of any of those. Fun times.
Anyone thinking it was going to be an announcement for Diamond/Pearl remakes of the next mainline title deserve whatever disappointment they feel. Sword and Shield aren’t even 1 year old yet and we know they’re working on the dlc. They don’t care how many dislikes the video gets because Unite will make tons of money regardless.
@ThePirateCaptain Very sad but true. They can present Pokémon Trainer Dating Simulator and people will just lap it up thoughtlessly, because it says Pokémon.
@TG16_IS_BAE wasn't my cup of thea eather, but my husband put 80 hours into it. And for as far as I could tell it's still the same three making silkson, which is an even bigger game. Extraordinary! But I would also love to see some remakes! Pokemon Lets Go Eevee to me was a remake of Pokemon Fire Red, and I was hoping there would be a remake of Pokemon Gold and Silver, cause I never really got into the vibe of those games (even though I have Silver, Crystal and HeartGold and SoulSilver). I hoped the Let's Go mechanic wpuld bring me just the thing to enjoy the games at long last. I would also love another remake of ru y and sapphire, but that would be to soon I guess. Or my favourite, Pokemon X and Y. Aaaah, a girl can dream...
I stopped reading after I saw "Tencent" I trust them about as much as Facebook...
@Barbara001 Hey, it could happen. People have been clamoring for a Demons Souls port and we got a full blown remaster, so thank god for that. Hopefully the gaming gods hear our pleas for more Pokémon ports/remakes lol
You know what makes this even worse? It's not above 150k dislikes anymore because some of them were removed, and the like counter also got inflated. This article needs to be updated with that.
Old fans who jumped ship and new fans want a GOOD game.
@TG16_IS_BAE aaah the gaming Gods giveth and the Gaming Gods taketh away.. They already gave me Ys IX to look forward to, I'm sooooooo happy about that!!! And I'm still hoping for that 35th anniversay Mario collection with Super Mario Sunshine (oooh, the memories of Sunshine)! And Horizon Forbidden West was FINALLY announced (now that's how you announce a game btw). So maybe, just maybe, the Pokemon Game Gods will listen and give us remakes (in my head there is giant Pikachu dressed like Zeus with a thunderbolt staring down on us).
I assumed it would be a bad idea to have any kind of expectations for this announcement but they still managed to disappoint. That takes serious skill.
@Shepdawg1 I appreciate all of your points on why this announcement has been received so poorly, but it's worth noting that the promotional literature The Pokemon Company used to excite fans for this announcement was "our next big project". Most would reasonably assume a big Pokemon project to be a new full-fledged game based on that description, meaning players went in with expectations set by TPC and were disappointed because they were made to be excited for a big Pokemon project only to be met with a freemium China cash-in mobile app developed in partnership with the CCP, not because they had unreasonably lofty expectations on their own. It was a text book bait-and-switch, which is so disappointing and anti-consumer that it's not even surprising to see it coming from The Pokemon Company post-2017.
First Blizzard caves to China and now TPC. The early Pokémon games, like Diablo, were soo good because they actually required the player to think and had interesting lore; now since gen. 6 the games have been tediously easy with little to no postgame content. Oh well, TemTem looks fun, at least and we already have Cyber Sleuth and FF Worlds
I’d maybe dislike it less of the Pokémon models didn’t look like they were straight out of Smash 3DS. On switch.... woof.
@SeantheDon29 THIS
maybe people wanted to like but their screens were upside down
They're going to need some stronger damage control than that, good luck.
@fafonio Lets face it, The Pokemon Company is scared to do much new and show little value in their own brand. They make the same games over and over with minimal differences. Then when they try something kind of new they put minimal effort and budget into it.
Just look at Sword and Shield. Every chance to blow everyone away and do a true pen world..then cut corners at every chance. They know they can phone it in an still make a profit.
I don't think I have ever been so disappointed by a game announcement. This just looks TERRIBLE and it feels like they completely ignored what players wanted. I didn't expect much anyways but wow...
@Anti-Matter Well, that's because it wasn't a direct...
The moba community is hideously entrenched and guarded about the validity of its own specific games... Who knew.
Update: the numbers shrank even further! Now it's just 20k Likes to 25k Dislikes.
Tencent or TPCI REALLY wants this game to look good.
@COVIDberry it bears giving the umpteenth reminder that reputational damage is a risk coming from entities that don't suffer from reputational damage themselves - which, in the case of fandoms and internet rioters therein, is pretty much inherent. As for MTX, Nintendo has had a fork in that pie at least since 3DS era (from Pokemon freemiums to the Badge Arcade), even before upping the freemium ante on mobile platforms. They have no qualms about FIFA's FUT and many other examples on Switch either. The plans to dial back on new mobile endeavours in favour of the console business (not that the latter hasn't remained a priority all along anyway) are fresh in the face of market profit fluctuations, but they don't mean just pulling the plug from an already developed project like Unite, especially when this project clearly aims to put more of Nintendo's foot in China's door with a local developer, a locally popular genre and a locally omnicloned popular Nintendo-associated IP.
On a side note, portable online experiences on Switch are hardly an issue (and the plethora of freemiums finding home on the console seem to concur). It's not streaming - most multiplayer and "browser-like" menu transitions with frequent saving (which the F2P market has long adopted to try and thwart cheaters) consume negligible amounts of data and can run on comparatively weaker signals, so a phone hotspot normally suffices.
Is everyone really surprised about this decision from The Pokemon company? This will be the 7th mobile Pokemon game and that's not including the non-games like Home, sleep, and smile. It's clear that the people running the company are only interested in gaining more and more money and the only way to combat that is for them to have a huge loss in the player base which won't happen, at least any time soon. We are a minority here, even the amount of dislikes are just a tiny chunk
Well. It's not the announcement anyone wanted or expected that's for sure, But maybe it wont be too bad. Some Pokémon spinoffs were actually great! Conquest anyone? That being said I've never played a Moba game? And have no idea who Tencent is.
At least they didn’t announce it in front of a live audience on a dedicated company convention. That would have been a bloodbath.
This is a smart move for the Pokemon Company, but the west is not going to understand it. Tencent has the most popular mobile game out there, Arena of Valor. Whether the west likes it or not is irrelevant because the Chinese market loves it. So a MOBA designed by the company that has the most popular game in China makes sense.
The Switch version is probably targeting the Western audience, but the primary target for this game is China.
@Darknyht oh boy... Are you aware that even CHINESE GAMERS hate this game?
@Saro well since it hasn’t been released it is probably a bit premature to say what will happen. I tend to dismiss the over vocal minority that can only measure life in absolutes that bother to like/dislike videos. This game is neither the best nor worst thing ever, and it is unfair to judge it without having played it in such simple binary terms. I am not fond of Tencent, but it is a long way from the distaste I feel to the hatred this seems to be getting.
@playstation_king I myself have a preference for pokemon depicted(?) as pets, tools (that are animals), or catching them, even if that makes them as secular as the fire-breathing dragons employed in the world of the Flintstones.
I will never buy or play a Tencent game. Don't feel like supporting the Chinese dictatorship.
At least the pokemon designers didn't invent the pokemon equivalent of bishoujo (pretty girls), even though they based pokemon designs on virtually all sorts of animals (dogs, cats, rats, seals, etc. and esp. birds and fish); in other words, no pet (sic) girls.
@fafonio "If they don’t fix their ship, Pokemon will become an over saturated franchise."
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha
Sorry, had to get that out. You said it "will become" an over saturated franchise? As a franchise, Pokemon is well past that by now. I'm a mega Pokemon fan but, dude, the franchise is very over saturated.
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