Er, allow me to explain what I mean. 

Age of Ultron, by any metric, was a successful film commercially, and it wasn't the worst critically either. However it had a noticeable drop of potential profit levels (being the lowest of the Avengers film commercially), and it was around the time that Marvel films shook up internally. 

AKA Perlmutter and co, who were generally responsible for a lot of the problems that plagued aspects in weaker films, delayed a lot of films like Captain Marvel and Black Panther for a long time, etc, were removed from film influence. Post that most would argue the MCU films have been more solid (Weaker Phase 3 films like Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel would have been top Phase 1-2 films if they released before then, IMO). 

Other factors were involved yes, but that was a major factor in this change.

Pokemon will not flop, we can all mostly agree on that. However I am confident that 'Pokemon Sword and Shield selling well but with a clear feel of it lost a million or so sales due to controversies' is a realistic possibility. 

(It's certainly about as likely as Game Freak agreeing or being made to patch the missing Pokemon in post launch)

Now what the equiv would be in Nintendo is hard to say: I don't think it would be removing Pokemon from Game Freak. That would require an actual flop or something. I could see them taking Pokemon off the yearly release schedule, I could see a change in how development is handled, etc etc. 

Honestly the 'take off yearly schedule' is probably the most likely option: 4-5 year generations instead of 3 year ones, and it seems like the simplest solution. 

And Nintendo/Creatures/Game Freak would realize that it was because of the backlash: between the fact that the issue is being spammed everywhere, the fact at least Nintendo pays attention to the fates of games like Battlefront 2 and 76, and the absence of a secondary holiday game in Animal Crossing to absorb shock, one of the three would not figure out a way to blame it on Fortnite or something. 

Yeah Sword/Shield could be their PS3 moment, where they have not as amazing sales, and suddenly wake up to their arrogance.

I actually want the games to tank, but there's no chance of that happening. I sincerely hope this happens, the design philosophy behind the games needs to change. The developer needs to change too, but that's a whole different story.

I can see them losing a lot of sales because of dexit, but equally, there are people who eat up anything with Pokemon written on it blindly, and heaps of casuals who will jump on the first console Pokemon game.

We live in the world of 'only sold 7 million copies', so frankly I am fairly sure that a million or so lost sales would be a noticeable problem, especially as I am sure that everyone in Nintendo/Creatures/Game Freak knows about the fan backlash. 

Sword/Shield are going to sell 15 million+. People freaked out about Let's Go last year and it will end up selling ~12 million when all is said and done, which will put it at the same sales as FireRed/LeafGreen and HeartGold/SoulSilver.

Gamers on forums/twitter don't realize that franchises like Pokemon, Call of Duty, and FIFA are driven by casuals, and casuals like more of the same. Most COD players only care about playing online with their friends, so the announcement of no single player campaign last year didn't bother the majority of players. COD still ended up being the second best-selling game in the USA, only behind Read Dead.

The majority of Pokemon players care about the single player experience, catching/raising Pokemon, battle trainers, progress through the story, and defeat the elite four and become the champion and hero of the region. All of that will be Sword/Shield.

I’m more excited for sword and shield than any other Pokémon game. I can actually play this on my tv!!! The controversies are dumb, you don’t buy new Pokémon games to play with old Pokémon.

Seeing Sword and Shield get so slammed and seeing people finally hit GF in significant numbers for issues that have plagued the series really since Gen 6 makes this genuinely the most exciting time in Pokemon since I checked out.

Will it change literally anything? I don't know - the criticisms are extremely disorganized, so any meaningful course correction will me just as much so, but I don't think I've ever been so hopeful. Be good to the Platinum Remake, Gamefreak.

Honestly if/when the Gen IV remake comes I can see them just completely removing the post-game island as a whole and gimping the underground (how about no secret bases there too). It wouldn't be surprising or anything, they've been removing shit senselessly for multiple gens now.

Gotcha.

Oh, I haven't. The franchise? Yes. These remakes? Nope.