Will the Pokemon Direct Announce the Return of a National Pokedex?

01/07/2020 09:48 am EST

Don't hold your breath on the Pokemon Direct announcing the return of the National Pokedex. While this week's Pokemon Direct will contain news on the future of the franchise, it's very unlikely that the Pokemon Company will announce that Pokemon Sword and Shield will eventually include all 900+ Pokemon species. While many fans are wondering whether the Pokemon Direct will announce some sort of DLC or major patch to Pokemon Sword and Shield, it seems unlikely given the Pokemon franchise's history for such a seismic post-release change to one of its games.

Last year, the Pokemon Company found itself at the center of a major controversy when it announced that Pokemon Sword and Shield would not include every existing Pokemon species, a major departure from past Pokemon games. While most Pokemon games only contain about 400-450 Pokemon species that can be caught within a certain region, past games have included the option to transfer any Pokemon from older Pokemon games, thus allowing players to complete the "National Pokedex," a running list of every Pokemon available. The Pokemon Company cited a variety of reasons for the change, ranging from the need to make brand new animations for the new Pokemon game to a desire to re-balance the games around a smaller set of Pokemon.

While Pokemon Sword and Shield were top sellers over the holiday season, many fans continue to cite the lack of the National Pokedex (colloquially known as Dexit) as a major flaw, and some fans are speculating that the Pokemon Direct will announce a reversal of some kind. And while it seems likely that Game Freak will eventually bring back the National Pokedex in some format, it's unlikely that Game Freak has been working on adding almost 500 Pokemon species to Pokemon Sword and Shield via a DLC or patch. While Game Freak hasn't recently stepped away from longstanding Pokemon traditions (such as not introducing new non-Mythical Pokemon species in the middle of a generation of games), it seems highly unlikely that the company has suddenly embraced paid DLC.

No one outside of the Pokemon Company likely knows what will be announced at this week's Pokemon Direct, so any guesses as to what the announcements will be are just that - guesses. But, the Pokemon Company isn't known for backtracking and the success of Pokemon Sword and Shield seems to indicate that Pokemon games will sell regardless as to whether players can transfer their favorite Pokemon into the game or not. Of course, this will be the longest Pokemon Direct ever, so we could get a ton of news about the future of the Pokemon franchise.

The Pokemon Direct will take place on January 9th at 9 AM ET.

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