Because if they didn't your thread would be titled "Why hasn't Pokemon jumped to 3D?".

3d with less Pokemon is way more preferred. I think Pokemon looks cool. I don't get all the hate.  It isn't like the game is shipping with half a dozen Pokemon, the game has plenty.

The "controversy" around this is probably going to make about 10 people not buy the game, all of whom are still playing Gold or Silver on their gameboy colour anyway. As @Cerebralbore101 pointed out both here and on the front page article if you want each extra model in the game you've got to do so much more work for every feature in the game. It's not like a Mario or Zelda where someone in the design part of the game says "what if we added a mode to add a different hat to each character? In Mario you got one model, you line up the gear so as to not clip through his design or cull off parts that would clip, if you then turn around and want to apply that same hat into something like Pokemon with 1000 3d creatures you're talking about going through each model and seeing where you can place such an item, if it clips parts of the design, if it works correctly with the model and of course consulting what the F you do with certain models which aren't upright.... would you put the hat on Hitmontops ass? or have it glued to his head?

It's just tons of work and at the end of the day I would rather a game come with a functional amount of Pokemon (I mean, what % of people actually go and get them all in each new game? I would wager it's probably less than 1%) and then have tons of features that you can do with all of the creatures who've made it to the game.

If there is any fantasy that this "controversy" means that there wont be millions of copies of this game under the tree on Christmas morning, people are kidding themselves. If their choice is Christmas / Full National Dex so that Jimmy can use the same Gen 1 pokemon he did 20 years ago..., you know the game is coming out in time for Christmas, with the potential that missing pokemon will be added in a future patch.

Or do the Gran Turismo thing I guess, add in the 3ds models of a bunch of pokemon and have them flagged as legacy pokemon who will look a little rougher and cannot take part in certain things where model work would be required? Even have the ability to disable those Pokemon from appearing in game / wild if you don't want to see the older models and just enjoy the game their creating for the last number of years.

I like your post and think it is spot on.

Lots didn't in the condensed version on the front page article :D appreciate the thumbs up though, you should post around here more often, there is plenty of room!

It's downright insulting to even propose that people need to choose. It's 2019 and we're talking about a multi billion dollar company that refuses to make a few more low detail models because they're afraid their multi billions could become multi billions minus 2 dollars. This isn't Sophie's choice. We're not talking about anything impossible here. We're talking about spoiled brats that rather motivate their fanbase to fight for their right to be lazy than to do actual work.

This thread is enabling bad behavior. Bad behavior of a company that already heavily profits from keeping expectations as low as possible.

By calling people who just point out terrible behavior of a company an "internet mob" you have already joined this fight. You could've been neutral but apparently you already chose a side.

Digimon Cyber Sleuth, a game that sold... 500k? Maybe less? Had 240 Digimon.

Pokemon Sword & Shield, a game that will sell 15-20m: Will probably have 300-450 Pokemon. "Oh no it's too much work!" Not only will it sell 15-20m but they'll release a third version to milk the same work for at least another 5-10m.

So we have a game probably making roughly $20m in revenue vs a game making at least $900m in revenue... and if you're lucky S&S will have twice as many creatures. Nice. We're not going to do more work, but we will make more money than we know what to do with.

I would very much like to see what the budget for Sword and Shield is.

Where did the $2.5 Billion + money from Pokemon Go disappear to?

The amount of effort/work and budget should scale with sales. If a game that makes $20m in revenue can manage to have 240 high quality animated creatures than a game that makes $900m+ in revenue can manage much more. Pokemon has never appeared to have a large budget while being one of the biggest earners in gaming.

From my understanding Sword/Shield is decked up to have over 800 Pokemon. I do not understand how this is a small number. I can't fathom wanting to catch more than a hundred or two.