Pokemon Sword and Shield Will Not Support Other Generation Species

Countless Pokémon fans are excited for the upcoming generation, Pokémon Sword and Shield. Well, they were. A recent detail revealed at Nintendo's E3 Treehouse Live presentation has people chuffed in the bad way. The game will not support other generation Pokémon.



According to a statement by game producer Junichi Masuda, the team spent a lot of time thinking about this and decided that the game will not support the complete collection of Pokémon. The game will only have the Galar Region's Pokémon available. This means that players will not be able to transfer Pokémon from other generations into the game.

This also means that the upcoming cloud-storage service, Pokémon Home, will be rather limited in its abilities. While players can still transfer Pokémon from Sword and Shield onto Pokémon Home and back, players cannot transfer from older games forward.

Masuda cited two major reasons for this decision. One was the development crunch. The Pokémon franchise has over 800 different creatures. With this being the first Pokémon for the Nintendo Switch, they needed to ensure that every model they made was a high quality and well-animated creation. With limited development time, they had to make a decision.

He also cited gameplay balancing as a concern. With so many Pokémon, it can be hard keeping the game balanced for competitive play.

Understandably, people are upset. For many folks, collecting every Pokémon and bringing them together is their favorite in-game activity. Making what's called a "living dex" is their primary end goal. To be told that they can't achieve that can be terribly upsetting.

Not everyone is being very nice about it, though. Pokémon forums and social media have been rife with angry and aggressive commentary. People are claiming that Game Freak has grown lazy or calling them dumb or incompetent.

Masuda tried to reassure upset audiences, explaining that they gave special attention to having a good mix of Pokémon in the Galar region, the land Sword and Shield is based on. While they didn't go into much detail, it also looks like all of the first generations Pokémon will appear in the game. This is quite likely due to the game assets already existing in the Pokémon Let's Go game.

While we sympathize with those unhappy about this development decision, we do not condone the rude behaviors of other folks. Those still interested in the game can purchase it for Nintendo Switch on November 15.