Pokémon Gen 9 - Scarlet & Violet announced

[Pemalite]

curl-6 said:

I think at this point it needs to be recognized that no matter how much money it makes, Pokémon will likely never be a system showcase.
By the time this game is out, Gamefreak will have released 4 HD games in 5 years, and they've never been one of the technical top dogs, even back in the old days. Anyone holding out hope for the next Pokémon game to be a graphical marvel is likely just setting themselves up for perpetual disappointment.
It's not ideal, but it is what it is.

It could be worse though; they do still show consistent improvement from one entry to the next, at least.

I think I speak for everyone when they criticize the visuals of Pokemon, we don't expect cutting edge, we don't even expect amazing...

But we do hope it looks better than a 5 year old launch title... And we won't get that without applying pressure on Gamefreak, consumers have been able to turn around policies and company practices with constructive criticism... Which resulted in a better product in the end, benefiting all consumers.

The annoying part is, there are tons of competent game engines and middleware that would allow Gamefreak to take a massive step forwards in visual fidelity to bring the games up to standard.
Even indie games can be more of a technical showstopper when they use Unreal, Unity, CryEngine, idTech and more.

Either way, perhaps Gamefreak needs to take a page out of (ironically) EA's playbook... And dedicate a team to Engine technology? Who knows. But they do have the financial and resource clout to do some amazing things.