This news was first announced at E3 and led to fan outrage and a severe backlash towards both Game Freak and Nintendo. In an interview with Game Informer, producer Junichi Masuda reiterated why the decision was made. Essentially, with over 800 Pokemon having been made over the last two decades, it just became increasingly difficult to keep every new entry balanced, and maintaining this status quo meant that new ideas and features had to be abandoned.
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Masuda also explained how the team decided which Pokemon would get to appear in Sword and Shield and which wouldn’t. There was apparently “a lot of debate over which ones would be the best in the game.” A lot of different criteria had to be met, such as which Pokemon would make the most sense to be living in the new region of Galar.
Masuda didn’t elaborate on how many Pokemon wouldn’t make the cut or which ones they would be (though recent rumors suggest that a Galarian version of Kingler will be appearing). However, Masuda did confirm that cut Pokemon wouldn’t be gone forever and would return in future installments, plugging the upcoming Pokemon Home as well.
Masuda had previously confirmed this earlier in the year, but reiterating the information may help assuage some fans’ worries that their favorites might be cut forever. For those who may not know, Pokemon Home is a new cloud-based service that will launch next year and allow players to store all of their Pokemon from the previous games in one place so that they can carry them over to future titles.
In addition, it has been officially confirmed that the new games will have an auto-save feature - a first for the series. However, it will be optional and can be turned off should the player desire.
Pokemon Sword and Shield will release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on November 15th.
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Source: Game Informer
