The mainline Pokémon series of video games is finally making the jump to home consoles with Pokémon Sword & Shield after nearly 25 years. The main reason it took so long is that developer Game Freak wanted to make sure that the social aspects of the Pokémon experience weren't lost in the transition.
The first Pokémon games outside of Japan were Pokémon Red & Blue for the Nintendo Game Boy, where they became the second best-selling games on the system. The Game Boy hardware allowed two systems to be connected via a Link Cable, enabling players to battle and trade Pokémon. This level of social interaction in gaming was almost unheard of at the time and it meant that players had to seek out other Pokémon fans in order to get the complete experienc💝e from their games.
It's this social interaction between Pokémon fans that prevented the mainline series of games from jumping to consoles for so long. In this month's issue of Game Informer magazine, Junichi Masuda recently spoke about the reasons why it took so long to bring the Pokémon games to consoles.
"We do that so you can go there to that location and you may run into a friend or meet somebody that you didn't know before and connect through the game...those moments turn into memories and add value to that Pokemon you get; every time you see it, you'll remember that exp🅷er﷽ience, and we think those experiences are valuable."
The social interaction aspect of Pokémon has been diminished somewhat since the days of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl as the ability to trade and battle over the Internet made the need to meet other people to complete Pokédex obsolete. Game Freak even sta✨rted distributing event Pokémon onli𝓡ne, giving players even less reason to journey out into the real world for Pokémon.
The hybrid nature of the Nintendo Switch console means that Pokémon Sword & Shield can be taken outside the home in the same way as the old Nintendo handhelds and used for battles and trades. The social scene for Pokémon has been revived in the form of Pokémon GO, which has prompted players from across the world to travel across the land, searching far and wide for Pokémon. These aspects, coupled with Switch's portability, means moving the mainline Pokémon games to a home console won't spell the end for going outside for Pokémon ad𒆙ventures.
Pokémon Sword & Shield will be released for the Nintendo Switch on November 15, 🔯2019.
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