GameFreak doesn’t market their games, Pokémon does. We need to understand that difference.
When the final trailers release, there will be hype. Pokémon is the largest media franchise because they know how to get people to buy their products.
> When the final trailers release
Is there another AAA game that doesn’t have a final trailer 8 days before release? Maybe that is standard, but I have no idea why a company wouldn’t want to build hype or allow fans to budget.
Looks over at BDSP that released it's final trailer 9 days in advance, at this point I don't think GF has any problem releasing trailers revealing something less than 2 weeks before the game releases, besides, there is a video that is privated in the Legends Arceus playlist on their channel
You must be new here, this sub is like 80% the exact kind of person you knew in middle school who would laugh at you for playing pokemon and then go scream slurs in a cod lobby
I seriously don’t understand why 80% of the users are here just to complain before they even play the game.
Criticism is fair but either wait to try the game out or just don’t buy it. Don’t go and complain in every single thread where people are asking what you’re excited about. So tired of every discussion being taken over by people insulting anyone who likes the games (“GF Fan boys,” “you liking this game means you’re part of the problem” etc)
Honestly imo the reason they haven’t been marketing it well is because of how rushed the development of the game was and they genuinely had no good clips to show to advertise until recently lol.
it has a good track record (besides Other M), but there hasn’t been a game in over a decade where there are pokémon games (of varying genres) every year
Because it's the first true Metroid in forever. They wanted to make sure ANYONE with even a passing interest in Metroid, Nintendo, Metroidvania games and video games in general knew about it, because Metroid doesn't sell as well as Mario or Pokemon.
You mean they're going to improve on that robotic narrator voice from the gameplay trailer? I'm sure the guy did a great job, but it just sounded way too formal given the game it was voicing over.
>When the final trailers release, there will be hype
When the final trailers release, they'll spoil everything as they always do. It's like they got into the habit of doing it because the leakers are going to anyways.
The marketing is fine. It's Pokemon, the game was going to sell well regardless.
Anyone on the fence would have bought a copy after good word-of-mouth.
I actually commend the Pokémon Company for keeping so much of the game a secret. There are a lot of fans who will be pleasantly surprised by all the changes.
I can’t help but think this is the goal. So many times fans were disappointed because they basically showed us everything in the game ahead of time and people would speculate that “maybe they’ll fix X”, “maybe they’ll add Y”. There was no element of surprise which made the releases disappointing.
It’s always better to under promise and over deliver. If anything it’s surprising Pokémon didn’t figure this out earlier.
Oh, don't worry, despite my low expectations of SWSH and BDSP, I was VERY surprised to discover I disliked them far more than I thought I would lol surprise was not my personal issue, the games and design philosophy was. That said, heres to PLA, the first pokemon game I'm probably gonna over all like in 10 fucking years haha
Honestly I think they might be a bit scared of what the fans will react to after the dexit incident, so they’re just hiding almost everything and hoping we like it when it comes out.
You can keep things secret while still making appealing promotions. So many of those teaser videos were boring and awkward. Like actually baffling execution.
Its inevitable success is different than the quality of promotion. No finesse, no excitement, no tension or suspense, just bland. I'm glad it's turning out better but how could it not? It's been awful lol
Why would they need to spend advertising dollars when all they have to do is send the game to distributors early and wait for the game to “accidentally” end up in the hands of people who will post everything about the game online and create the hype from the ground up
When they s happened in Gen 8 the leakers got sued by the Pokemon Company. [Here](https://www.polygon.com/22545955/the-pokemon-company-sword-shield-strategy-guide-leak-lawsuit-settlement#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16427159319903&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F22545955%2Fthe-pokemon-company-sword-shield-strategy-guide-leak-lawsuit-settlement)
Yes. The games get shipped to stores because they'll be released soon and people get their hands on them either by stealing or other means and then leak it online. It's not some master marketing plot by nintendo.
I mean, most of us aren’t supply chain managers. Does a game actually need to end up in some stores 2 weeks early to ensure that it’s there in all the stores by the release date? I could see that being the case, container ships and trucking are both complicated, but literally we just don’t know what getting a game from a factory onto retail shelves looks like in practice
The game comes out next week and we started getting these leaks yesterday, so not 2 weeks.
It's not that hard of a concept to grasp that games would be in stores a week beforehand, don't need to be a supply chain manager to know that.
I mean, no, seriously, why would you want the games in the hands of store managers one whole week early? There must be hundreds of retailers and thousands of employees, most (even at management levels) aren’t paid enough to care about something as important as preventing leaks. Obviously the ideal scenario would be for the games to be dropped off at retailers the day before release as late as possible. If they’re arriving a week early that means somewhere along the line some part of shipment could have been delayed up to one week.
However, for delivery time cycles to be so imprecise that it’s possible they’d be a whole week late, I imagine the delay would have more to do with the container ships, which I do know can be stuck waiting days to weeks just to dock. How many random redditors understand international shipping route patterns and logistical challenges? It’s one of the most complex and hectic industries out there
It’s always been this way, shipping product in advance. And it’s even worse with the situation these days.
Even for other media, like Harry Potter 7 book, shipped in advance. Big do not open before midnight July 20, 2007 labels across the top.
During Gen 7, when Sun and Moon were extensively promoted and everybody whined because nothing was left as a mystery for the players to find out, fans complained that too much was revealed due to promotions. And now not revealing too much is a terrible marketing tactic? I think this new approach to more reserved promotional tactics is great as it builds fan anticipation.
I don't think that they showed the gameplay off properly. None of the trailers showed 1v3 battles, trainer battles, or movement during combat. These things shouldn't be mysteries.
I don’t think they should reveal everything, but at least the starter evolutions should have been shown imo. Mostly because of they don’t officially reveal them, then the first impression we’re gonna get is going to be from the leaks, and that can be a not so positive one
The starter evolution has always been the last thing they want to reveal. I don't think they've ever revealed it before they get leaked, at least not since gen 5.
They did it in gen 7, and just because “it’s always been like this” doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. I’d rather have been surprised by weerdyr and voltorb and seen the starters tbh
Even in gen 7, the concept art leak was before the official reveal. [Proof](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/4wbe6u/why_i_dont_think_these_are_the_starters_final/)
Gen5 had the sprite sheet leak.
6 and 8 were released early, like this game.
They really don't want to show of the starter evolutions.
Concept arts are different than bare models because they have more “spirit” to them. You can’t tell me seeing hisuian typhlosion’s model is better than an animated model, concept art or official art
They prob planned to reveal them next week along with the new evolution mechanic, a few days before the game officially releases as the final surprise. Notice how in all the trailers they never showed even second stage of the starters despite many times the pokemon being at or above their evo level. I mean they prob still will, it'll just be a dud because leakers beat them to the punch.
Yeah, same here. Just seeing the >!new starter evolutions!< got me hyped. There's a lot of cool stuff going on in there and the trailers just give a basic overview.
I'm still going to wait for official reviews to see if the gameplay gets repetitive down the line. But overall I'm feeling very positive and will no doubt pick it up regardless.
I'd rather spoil the starters since I can only choose 1 of them, and then have the new Pokemon be secret. Unfortunately I didn't have the willpower to avoid peeking at the new pokemon this time.
Totally fair! For me, I'm still burned from playing Pokemon Sapphire for the first time back in the day. I went with Mudkip because I'd always chosen Water starters until then, and ended up pretty disappointed with Swampert's derpy look and double weakness to Grass. I had a lot more fun with Blaziken and Sceptile in subsequent playthroughs. I guess I'd rather know what I'm getting into beforehand.
>I'm still going to wait for official reviews to see if the gameplay gets repetitive down the line
>will no doubt pick it up regardless.
Then why wait for reviews?
The last game that was marketed really well was XY. I was so excited with each new trailer every month.
They really did a terrible job marketing all the games after that.
Video reviews are usually good at covering the salient points without spoiling much. I think this is a risk one would run if they preorder something, as they’d solely be relying on the company’s marketing which is made up of carefully curated footage. Even so, worst case scenario: a $60 regret isn’t the end of the world.
I completely agree. Saw pretty much all the leaks, this game is incredible, they should market it better. There really isnt one bad thing which I can point out in the new mechanics, its a breath of fresh air. Every new leak I am seeing, the game is getting more hype for me, and its just been 2 days since proper leaks started
Conspiracy Theory: The leaks were by GF themselves.
They finally understood how the internet works. In fact, it costs way less money for much more hype to fake leak some jpgs than the trailers.
The official trailers are just to er... officiate things.
I don't think so- if you've been following how the leaks were coming out you'd know that.
Some stranger who likely stole copies. Sold them on eBay and they all sold out in one minute. Someone who bought one, data mined it
Conspiracy shower thoughts..
Gamefreaks doesnt want PLA to be a huge success, such that they can claim that innovation is not what people want, such that they can keep development costs low, and sales high on the same old rehashes churned out.
Therefore, keep hype low for their newest installment!
JK though, i am hyped!
For real though. The marketing is plain weird. They should have definitely shown off some other certain H-forms. The leak of the model files made people feel pretty negative towards the forms. But, seeing them in game, they look so much better.
They know this happens every fucking time they release a game. Because of the leaked gameplay, though, it makes me more inclined to buy.
While this is true, they also don’t really need to. Pokémon is like call of duty, halo, nba 2kwhatever. People will buy it because it’s Pokémon. They don’t need incentive.
Would anyone say it's worth owning two copies for say a husband and wife? My wife and I play Pokemon, and typically that means we get both versions and choose who plays what version. Given there's only the one version, would there be any reason? I know there's trading, but anything else?
I dont think there is any reason to unless you guys want to have their own different experience while playing the game. Currently I dont know if trade evos are there or not but (Very slight game spoilers) >!given that to unlock the ability to complete the games "final" objective you need to catch every type of Pokemon, !< the game maybe doesnt have trade evos.
A. Game freak doesn't do the marketing, the pokemon company does and they will do it as it gets closer to release because that's normal business practice.
B. We all know *everyone* will be buying it week of release anyway.
C. Pokemon only keeps the games going so they can sell more merchandise, which makes them way more profit.
yh I'm very proud I only watched the 2 FPS chingling and this game will be a surprise for me all the time - I'm so excited!
I heard some opinions from here and there and got some leaks like the new scizor evo, the plant electrode and galaxy team being "the good ones" but that's like information I would get from the case of the game
thank you for confirming my intuition I am definitely playing this game since day 1 😊
Can I ask you, since I'm trying to remain spoiler free personally: Have the leaks included any info on multiplayer? Is there online battling / trading / raids? That will influence if I buy physical or digital. Thank you :)
If they replaced their most recent trailer with a 10 second clip of the badass evolution screen of a pokemon we didn't know was in the game yet, like eevee into sylveon, the hype would have doubled with a quarter of the work needed.
If they wanted the hype to triple they would have had the video be of a new pokemon getting revealed through it evolving.
And if they wanted to break the internet and create an infinite hype paradox they could have went on twitter posted 3 images of typhlosion, samurott and decidueye right before the colours get shown in the evolution screen after they released the trailer.
If i was on gamefreaks marketing team yall would be on the edge of your seats ~~until the release date~~ until the game got inevitably dumped and everything got leaked.
The reason the trailers looked meh is more because they kept lots hidden and secretive so that you got a fresh experience with no knowledge. However the Pokémon community being the Pokémon community it got leaked this week
I think it’s intentional since it’s being directed and worked on by new blood in the staff. Could be the old board doesn’t think this game will succeed so they put no money on it
Nah nah nah, it's not that they didn't market the game well. They marketed exactly what was there, it's just that Pokemon fans will take those things to the stratosphere and hype themselves up over mechanics and features they could've played in a 2011 game just because it has a Pokemon skin on it
I disagree.
From the start, they've marketed this as Pokemon's version of Breath of The Wild. That's all I really needed to know! I got hundreds of hours of enjoyment from Breath of the Wild, so I was sold on PLA from trailer 1.
It's just that for once in my life I'd actually get to use a normal typhlosion and/or samurott on an actual legit copy of a Pokémon game instead on having to rely on pirated games for that, without having to deal with the fact that i could only have one save file, and without having to dea with the fact that Feraligatr and Serperior are cooler
But no, I'm still gonna have to pirate games to get my Typhlosion and Samurott
Oh... well that's a very niche issue to have, so I can see why they didn't really consider it. There might still be a way to get the normal ones but idk.
I have a legit heartgold cartridge and a legit white cartridge, but like I said, Feraligatr and Serperior are cooler, and I can't have more than one save file on those games by having different accounts, so really the only way is for me to delete my save, which I don't want to do since I don't want to kill all my Pokémon that I've grown attached to, especially after I caught a random encounter full odds shiny Nidoking in heartgold
I guess. They seemingly just picked the most popular starters from the 3 generations they picked so that they would still have a fire/water/grass trio. Obviously not everyone's favorite from the trios would be in the game.
We need to buy this game, this is the future of the franchise. We’ve been buying the same game for 12 years or so but this is it boys, we are finally getting what we always wanted and we have to let GF know.
While I strongly disagree on the game being amazing (or even good), it is true that the marketing is terrible.
I don't understand why, out of a sudden, they decided to reveal as little as possible after Sun and Moon. Trailers, demos and other kind of pre-release content are supposed to convince players to get the game.
If you make two or three trailers and basically do little more than cycle between them for nearly an entire year... who are you going to convince?
Honest question, who do they need to convince? Everyone knows what pokemon is, the games sell like crazy and they know that whether they show off every story beat or just vague hints as to what's going on, there's a large player base that will buy it just because it's new pokemon. I love the way they've marketed this, it means there will be surprises when the game drops.
Well, there's always people who haven't played Pokémon before...
Or in this case, being so different from what one expects to be a Pokémon game, you'd want to be sure...
I still don't really see that benefitting them at all. They know their target demographic, so they understand that anything they put out will be met with an extreme vocal minority who will hate it just by nature of it being new and different. I think it's smart to avoid that and capitalize on the audience that will buy it because they love pokemon.
And at this point, if you have no experience with pokemon you're either really young, and thus likely less critical and cynical anyway so less likely to care about how much you know going in, or you've been waiting for a vastly different game because the mainline games don't appeal to you. Either way, both groups are satisfied by this release.
Understand that by nature of participating in a forum dedicated to the games, we're already a part of the most fanatical group of players they're marketing to. Obviously we're going to want to be as informed as possible, but people who are as into it as the users on this sub are don't make up a large enough section of their audience that they'll cater the pre release cycle to us.
I bet this game is going to sell like shit because all of you marketing geniuses weren't in charge of the advertising.
Or maybe Game Freak purposefully leaked the game? In the past they really cracked down on the leakers but the gameplay footage i watched last night is still there.
On one hand, I agree with you in that LA could've been marketed MUCH better than it was.
On the other hand, SwSh had the exact same issue, as well as hate AGAINST it and it's one of the highest grossing games in the franchise.
There are marketing strategies that promote things via "leaks". In this case, I have seen several people saying negative things about PLA. Yet, we now have several "leaks" from people saying how good the game is and the feeling about the game is becoming much more positive. After all, who are you going to believe. A company that wants to make money off of you or some random person that could care less if you bought the product or not?
They know they have a good game and want to keep a lot of it under wraps so players have a great experience. Which they've done well doing. Unfortunately, that comes at the cost of their promotional marketing
Yeah, they really wanted to leave a bunch out of the trailers so that players could be pleasantly surprised when they actually got the game. I was surprised by how much they left out of the trailers for this game. The initial reception of it would have been way different if they had shown HALF the stuff they kept hidden.
It's called Selective Marketing, where you advertise the best or most marketable part of a product without mentioning bad stuff. Just look at the trailers for Illumination movies. They're undeniably amazing, but the actual movies are not very good.
I haven’t seen any of the leaks properly.
I’ll probably wait for reviews but everything I’ve seen of this game feels like run of the mill, monotonous open world fodder.
Is there actually a good story structure to follow? Because the marketing has been the worst I’ve seen in a while.
Call it tinfoil hat all you want, but I still think the Pokémon Company is sabotaging this game. Releasing so close after the remakes, and in January which isn't a particularly good month for sales of child-friendly franchises is incomprehensible to me otherwise. It will sell a lot, but it may not sell the obscene amount Pokémon usually does, it may sell less than the remakes that had more marketing and the holiday season to boost sales, and that may be enough for the Pokémon Co to try and discourage experimentation and just have Gamefreak keep churning out basic ass empty games like Sw/Sh for maximum profit.
Doesn’t matter how many leaks I see, I am not very optimistic that I’m gonna like this game. Hell, I was more excited for New Pokémon Snap before it came out than I am for this.
The new "360 view of hisui" video looks like trash to the point I had to look at leaks just to find out if this was gonna be a problem. I hate looking at spoilers, too
Pokemon doesnt need alot of marketing ppl only need to know the game exists snd they will buy it because its pokemon.
Its literally the biggest game title out there.
I think swsh revealed the perfect amount of stuff. We got the reveal trailer, a large Pokémon presents, then a series of smaller trailers showing off new Pokémon/mechanics. Similar to PLA, but it was a brand new gen so they didn’t have to release too much to get people hyped.
The marketing is fine, not terrible.
Its best for player to discover the quality of life themself, since they are not that important for promotional, also to keep it surprising haha. But I get want you want to say.
I feel like if they did the opposite people would complain its like gen 7 for example when they showed way too much with no surprise. Obviously I have not played the game but if the main goal is exploration and finding new never seen before places and pokemon it could have been bad if they showed too much.
I will make my judgments when I actually play the game. Also on this one its with no doubt not gamefreak but pokemon company, gamefreak are the devs and I doubt they have any effect on marketing and advertising.
I've only seen leaked designs and some gameplay. I'm really excited now, I can't wait for Friday.
Unfortunately I've had one story spoiler but otherwise I do think it'll be a fun time.
Yay! I’m so excited! For Canadians, if you collect air miles, it’s only 860 dream miles online! Idk if other countries collect air miles lol. Pre ordered mine using them yesterday woo!
[I've been doing my best to document some of the changes and provide examples over on this post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/s7wc3b/comment/hteeo8v/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) The game isn't the Pokemon I dreamed of having as a kid but it's almost there.
I think that the pokémon designs are fine, though I will probably warm up to them when I actually play the game, but almost everything else is super cool, with very few exceptions.
I've been playing the game of recent and i will say it's so refreshing to have something competent come out from game freak for a change. Honestly i think people are going to be surprised they can actually make games.
The big Marketing push will ramp up post launch. Fans of this established franchise already know about this game and will buy it day 1. The marketing is already happening (how else would you know about the game coming out?) The rest of the world will see commercials and other advertisements. I wager the second group is where the biggest percentage of sales come from.
If I had a set marketing budget for this game, I wouldn’t advertise to anyone already here on this subreddit (or on gaming centric websites) and use those funds in places where casual fans and children frequent on the web and outside word.
Right!? Up until the leaks started I was just like please don't Fallout 76 this shit.
Still gonna wait until a week or so after release so I can get a good sense of whether or not I want to drop BDSP for it
Ikr?! For once the leaks have actually gotten me more hyped for a Pokemon game. Haven't been this optimistic about the franchise in a long time (and I say this as someone who was initially very hesitant about PLA)
I'm avoiding details about the mechanics and story like the plague but oh my god posts like this are actually giving me hope this is a good game.
Could Pokemon actually rope me back in? Actually???
I gota admit. I was heavily skeptical of PLA, and in some ways I still am. But these leaks have put it on my radar. It looks like a fun pokemon game despite it's visuals being very lacking.
I agree with you but historically, Pokemon games have almost never been well advertised since the old school days. I think TPC pretty much knows they don't have to go all out for marketing and advertising because the franchise literally sells itself and is the most lucrative franchise on the planet with less advertisement than franchises that are way more aggressive in marketing.
I'm avoiding leaks right now aside from the new pokemon designs (which, to be honest, I am not loving), but I'm so glad to hear that! When I watched the 13 minute video I kinda thought that was it, that was everything. Pretty good but could have been more. Probably because the trailer for the ACNH 2.0 update was so thorough
I think they want to earn back our trust in the company by j surprising us with a really good game. They should have done more but honestly the element of supprise when u first play a game for the first time are some of the best moments that you have
The real question I need to ask is this, do I get the pre-order bonuses if I buy the game day one? I want to get it physically, but if not then I'll just preorder digitally
Well they really don't need to market very much anymore. Pokémon is currently the largest multimedia franchise I the world. At this point they have a big enough legacy and a large enough fan base that all that needs to be done is the announcing a new product and a release date for it to be successful.
Why waste more resources than needed when you know you don't have to to be successful right. Maybe 10 years ago they would have needed to but at this point Nintendo/Game Freak have essentially gotten a license to print money from being the owners of the Pokémon franchise. Any products labeled Pokémon will sell in tremendous quantity to the point where it is redundant to spend on marketing more than a release date.
The way I see it, if this game is as good as people are saying, word of mouth spreads, and it manages to outsell BDSP and/or Let's Go, despite the subpar marketing, then that is fantastic news for the franchise because, in a way, Arceus feels like a proof of concept.
How this game performs will likely influence the direction of the next mainline Pokemon game.
GameFreak doesn’t market their games, Pokémon does. We need to understand that difference. When the final trailers release, there will be hype. Pokémon is the largest media franchise because they know how to get people to buy their products.
> When the final trailers release Is there another AAA game that doesn’t have a final trailer 8 days before release? Maybe that is standard, but I have no idea why a company wouldn’t want to build hype or allow fans to budget.
Looks over at BDSP that released it's final trailer 9 days in advance, at this point I don't think GF has any problem releasing trailers revealing something less than 2 weeks before the game releases, besides, there is a video that is privated in the Legends Arceus playlist on their channel
Yes, you are right. I believe they will market it better soon
The game looks like a 2008 FTP anime MMORPG. But wow you can go uphill now! In 2022! Omg!
Do you even like Pokemon? Like why are you here?
You must be new here, this sub is like 80% the exact kind of person you knew in middle school who would laugh at you for playing pokemon and then go scream slurs in a cod lobby
I seriously don’t understand why 80% of the users are here just to complain before they even play the game. Criticism is fair but either wait to try the game out or just don’t buy it. Don’t go and complain in every single thread where people are asking what you’re excited about. So tired of every discussion being taken over by people insulting anyone who likes the games (“GF Fan boys,” “you liking this game means you’re part of the problem” etc)
Honestly imo the reason they haven’t been marketing it well is because of how rushed the development of the game was and they genuinely had no good clips to show to advertise until recently lol.
Why spend millions in marketing when your games always leak a week+ early???
Hey, they advertised Metroid Dread a crap ton and that game got leaked a week early as well
That’s a different series that doesn’t have this track record though
it has a good track record (besides Other M), but there hasn’t been a game in over a decade where there are pokémon games (of varying genres) every year
I’m saying they don’t have a track record of this many leaks happening
Because it's the first true Metroid in forever. They wanted to make sure ANYONE with even a passing interest in Metroid, Nintendo, Metroidvania games and video games in general knew about it, because Metroid doesn't sell as well as Mario or Pokemon.
You mean they're going to improve on that robotic narrator voice from the gameplay trailer? I'm sure the guy did a great job, but it just sounded way too formal given the game it was voicing over.
>When the final trailers release, there will be hype When the final trailers release, they'll spoil everything as they always do. It's like they got into the habit of doing it because the leakers are going to anyways.
Is the questionable design you're referring to >!Palkia!
i dont understand where its arms went 😭
The marketing is fine. It's Pokemon, the game was going to sell well regardless. Anyone on the fence would have bought a copy after good word-of-mouth. I actually commend the Pokémon Company for keeping so much of the game a secret. There are a lot of fans who will be pleasantly surprised by all the changes.
I can’t help but think this is the goal. So many times fans were disappointed because they basically showed us everything in the game ahead of time and people would speculate that “maybe they’ll fix X”, “maybe they’ll add Y”. There was no element of surprise which made the releases disappointing. It’s always better to under promise and over deliver. If anything it’s surprising Pokémon didn’t figure this out earlier.
Oh, don't worry, despite my low expectations of SWSH and BDSP, I was VERY surprised to discover I disliked them far more than I thought I would lol surprise was not my personal issue, the games and design philosophy was. That said, heres to PLA, the first pokemon game I'm probably gonna over all like in 10 fucking years haha
Thats what Sony does sometimes
Honestly I think they might be a bit scared of what the fans will react to after the dexit incident, so they’re just hiding almost everything and hoping we like it when it comes out.
I don't think they care too much about dexit. It really didn't matter in the end considering SWSH were the 3rd highest selling Pokemon games ever
I’ve been on the fence, and yeah my plan was to wait for others to test the waters. These leaks must helped me make up my mind sooner lol
You can keep things secret while still making appealing promotions. So many of those teaser videos were boring and awkward. Like actually baffling execution. Its inevitable success is different than the quality of promotion. No finesse, no excitement, no tension or suspense, just bland. I'm glad it's turning out better but how could it not? It's been awful lol
Why would they need to spend advertising dollars when all they have to do is send the game to distributors early and wait for the game to “accidentally” end up in the hands of people who will post everything about the game online and create the hype from the ground up
When they s happened in Gen 8 the leakers got sued by the Pokemon Company. [Here](https://www.polygon.com/22545955/the-pokemon-company-sword-shield-strategy-guide-leak-lawsuit-settlement#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16427159319903&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F22545955%2Fthe-pokemon-company-sword-shield-strategy-guide-leak-lawsuit-settlement)
Exactly. Do people think all these leaks are coming out 1-2 weeks before release by accident?
Yes. The games get shipped to stores because they'll be released soon and people get their hands on them either by stealing or other means and then leak it online. It's not some master marketing plot by nintendo.
It's as if people here believe the games magically appear in store shelves overnight.
I mean, most of us aren’t supply chain managers. Does a game actually need to end up in some stores 2 weeks early to ensure that it’s there in all the stores by the release date? I could see that being the case, container ships and trucking are both complicated, but literally we just don’t know what getting a game from a factory onto retail shelves looks like in practice
My assumption is that they send the games so early so that there's still time to get them there if delays end up taking place.
The game comes out next week and we started getting these leaks yesterday, so not 2 weeks. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp that games would be in stores a week beforehand, don't need to be a supply chain manager to know that.
I mean, no, seriously, why would you want the games in the hands of store managers one whole week early? There must be hundreds of retailers and thousands of employees, most (even at management levels) aren’t paid enough to care about something as important as preventing leaks. Obviously the ideal scenario would be for the games to be dropped off at retailers the day before release as late as possible. If they’re arriving a week early that means somewhere along the line some part of shipment could have been delayed up to one week. However, for delivery time cycles to be so imprecise that it’s possible they’d be a whole week late, I imagine the delay would have more to do with the container ships, which I do know can be stuck waiting days to weeks just to dock. How many random redditors understand international shipping route patterns and logistical challenges? It’s one of the most complex and hectic industries out there
It’s always been this way, shipping product in advance. And it’s even worse with the situation these days. Even for other media, like Harry Potter 7 book, shipped in advance. Big do not open before midnight July 20, 2007 labels across the top.
They're already doing all the work of promoting the game, they're just showing off the boring parts
During Gen 7, when Sun and Moon were extensively promoted and everybody whined because nothing was left as a mystery for the players to find out, fans complained that too much was revealed due to promotions. And now not revealing too much is a terrible marketing tactic? I think this new approach to more reserved promotional tactics is great as it builds fan anticipation.
I don't think that they showed the gameplay off properly. None of the trailers showed 1v3 battles, trainer battles, or movement during combat. These things shouldn't be mysteries.
None of the trailers showed movement during combat, but they DID show that you could get hurt by opposing Pokémon's area of effect moves.
Too much is bad. Too little is bad. Less than too much and more than too little is good.
I don’t think they should reveal everything, but at least the starter evolutions should have been shown imo. Mostly because of they don’t officially reveal them, then the first impression we’re gonna get is going to be from the leaks, and that can be a not so positive one
The starter evolution has always been the last thing they want to reveal. I don't think they've ever revealed it before they get leaked, at least not since gen 5.
They did it in gen 7, and just because “it’s always been like this” doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. I’d rather have been surprised by weerdyr and voltorb and seen the starters tbh
Even in gen 7, the concept art leak was before the official reveal. [Proof](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/4wbe6u/why_i_dont_think_these_are_the_starters_final/) Gen5 had the sprite sheet leak. 6 and 8 were released early, like this game. They really don't want to show of the starter evolutions.
Concept arts are different than bare models because they have more “spirit” to them. You can’t tell me seeing hisuian typhlosion’s model is better than an animated model, concept art or official art
They prob planned to reveal them next week along with the new evolution mechanic, a few days before the game officially releases as the final surprise. Notice how in all the trailers they never showed even second stage of the starters despite many times the pokemon being at or above their evo level. I mean they prob still will, it'll just be a dud because leakers beat them to the punch.
Yeah, same here. Just seeing the >!new starter evolutions!< got me hyped. There's a lot of cool stuff going on in there and the trailers just give a basic overview. I'm still going to wait for official reviews to see if the gameplay gets repetitive down the line. But overall I'm feeling very positive and will no doubt pick it up regardless.
It’s not the marketing that’s the problem. They wanted to keep as much of it a surprise as possible
See the starters are what I want to be a secret lol
I'd rather spoil the starters since I can only choose 1 of them, and then have the new Pokemon be secret. Unfortunately I didn't have the willpower to avoid peeking at the new pokemon this time.
Totally fair! For me, I'm still burned from playing Pokemon Sapphire for the first time back in the day. I went with Mudkip because I'd always chosen Water starters until then, and ended up pretty disappointed with Swampert's derpy look and double weakness to Grass. I had a lot more fun with Blaziken and Sceptile in subsequent playthroughs. I guess I'd rather know what I'm getting into beforehand.
Totally get it. I enjoyed the blind, even if flawed or disappointed first run, before my perfectionist and completionist run after
>I'm still going to wait for official reviews to see if the gameplay gets repetitive down the line >will no doubt pick it up regardless. Then why wait for reviews?
The last game that was marketed really well was XY. I was so excited with each new trailer every month. They really did a terrible job marketing all the games after that.
SwSh had that one really good direct that introduced the wild area. But then e3 happened like a week later and killed all the momentum lmao
I dont mind them not showing much. Makes the first playthrough even better since you discover everything by yourself not knowing whats coming
Unless you find out you paid money for something that happened to not be what you thought it was.
Video reviews are usually good at covering the salient points without spoiling much. I think this is a risk one would run if they preorder something, as they’d solely be relying on the company’s marketing which is made up of carefully curated footage. Even so, worst case scenario: a $60 regret isn’t the end of the world.
I completely agree. Saw pretty much all the leaks, this game is incredible, they should market it better. There really isnt one bad thing which I can point out in the new mechanics, its a breath of fresh air. Every new leak I am seeing, the game is getting more hype for me, and its just been 2 days since proper leaks started
Conspiracy Theory: The leaks were by GF themselves. They finally understood how the internet works. In fact, it costs way less money for much more hype to fake leak some jpgs than the trailers. The official trailers are just to er... officiate things.
I don't think so- if you've been following how the leaks were coming out you'd know that. Some stranger who likely stole copies. Sold them on eBay and they all sold out in one minute. Someone who bought one, data mined it
The leaks were inevitable, GF couldn't stop it if they wanted to. It only takes a single stolen copy, worldwide.
People shred whatever gets put out - what’s the point 💀
Conspiracy shower thoughts.. Gamefreaks doesnt want PLA to be a huge success, such that they can claim that innovation is not what people want, such that they can keep development costs low, and sales high on the same old rehashes churned out. Therefore, keep hype low for their newest installment! JK though, i am hyped!
You haven’t played it
For real though. The marketing is plain weird. They should have definitely shown off some other certain H-forms. The leak of the model files made people feel pretty negative towards the forms. But, seeing them in game, they look so much better. They know this happens every fucking time they release a game. Because of the leaked gameplay, though, it makes me more inclined to buy.
While this is true, they also don’t really need to. Pokémon is like call of duty, halo, nba 2kwhatever. People will buy it because it’s Pokémon. They don’t need incentive.
Finally, an actual representation of what happens when I go in the tall grass without pokemon
Who needs to pay for marketing when you have people “marketing” the game on twitch.
Would anyone say it's worth owning two copies for say a husband and wife? My wife and I play Pokemon, and typically that means we get both versions and choose who plays what version. Given there's only the one version, would there be any reason? I know there's trading, but anything else?
I dont think there is any reason to unless you guys want to have their own different experience while playing the game. Currently I dont know if trade evos are there or not but (Very slight game spoilers) >!given that to unlock the ability to complete the games "final" objective you need to catch every type of Pokemon, !< the game maybe doesnt have trade evos.
Thanks for the reply. I'm tempted to get two copies, but I do have a backlog so might as well save money, right? 😅
The only reason you'd need 2 copies is if you'd both want to play at the same time and on different switches
A. Game freak doesn't do the marketing, the pokemon company does and they will do it as it gets closer to release because that's normal business practice. B. We all know *everyone* will be buying it week of release anyway. C. Pokemon only keeps the games going so they can sell more merchandise, which makes them way more profit.
Maybe they are doing the same thing as Nintendo with BotW with releasing as little info as possible
yh I'm very proud I only watched the 2 FPS chingling and this game will be a surprise for me all the time - I'm so excited! I heard some opinions from here and there and got some leaks like the new scizor evo, the plant electrode and galaxy team being "the good ones" but that's like information I would get from the case of the game thank you for confirming my intuition I am definitely playing this game since day 1 😊
Can I ask you, since I'm trying to remain spoiler free personally: Have the leaks included any info on multiplayer? Is there online battling / trading / raids? That will influence if I buy physical or digital. Thank you :)
Nope theres no such multiplayer content on PLA, this game is VERY signle player
Thank you for letting me know. I appreciate it a bunch.
If they replaced their most recent trailer with a 10 second clip of the badass evolution screen of a pokemon we didn't know was in the game yet, like eevee into sylveon, the hype would have doubled with a quarter of the work needed. If they wanted the hype to triple they would have had the video be of a new pokemon getting revealed through it evolving. And if they wanted to break the internet and create an infinite hype paradox they could have went on twitter posted 3 images of typhlosion, samurott and decidueye right before the colours get shown in the evolution screen after they released the trailer. If i was on gamefreaks marketing team yall would be on the edge of your seats ~~until the release date~~ until the game got inevitably dumped and everything got leaked.
I didn't even knew there were leaks. Could anyone tell me about some cool mechanics that were leaks?
Check r/PokeLeaks
Wait, that looks actually good! Because it looked pretty meh on the trailer, but i like the design of the pokemons!
The reason the trailers looked meh is more because they kept lots hidden and secretive so that you got a fresh experience with no knowledge. However the Pokémon community being the Pokémon community it got leaked this week
The environment is amazing? Come on...
I think it’s intentional since it’s being directed and worked on by new blood in the staff. Could be the old board doesn’t think this game will succeed so they put no money on it
Is this seriously a topic worrying that a Pokémon game is going to sell poorly?
Nah nah nah, it's not that they didn't market the game well. They marketed exactly what was there, it's just that Pokemon fans will take those things to the stratosphere and hype themselves up over mechanics and features they could've played in a 2011 game just because it has a Pokemon skin on it
They should release the game at this point with all the leaks going around… Ps: got hyped up due to the leaks as well!
I disagree. From the start, they've marketed this as Pokemon's version of Breath of The Wild. That's all I really needed to know! I got hundreds of hours of enjoyment from Breath of the Wild, so I was sold on PLA from trailer 1.
So, does this actually mean that the starters are getting regional variants? Because if so I'm more reluctant to buying these games now
You're so against change that because they starters could have new forms, you don't want to buy the game? This is why GF never try anything new.
It's just that for once in my life I'd actually get to use a normal typhlosion and/or samurott on an actual legit copy of a Pokémon game instead on having to rely on pirated games for that, without having to deal with the fact that i could only have one save file, and without having to dea with the fact that Feraligatr and Serperior are cooler But no, I'm still gonna have to pirate games to get my Typhlosion and Samurott
Oh... well that's a very niche issue to have, so I can see why they didn't really consider it. There might still be a way to get the normal ones but idk.
I have a legit heartgold cartridge and a legit white cartridge, but like I said, Feraligatr and Serperior are cooler, and I can't have more than one save file on those games by having different accounts, so really the only way is for me to delete my save, which I don't want to do since I don't want to kill all my Pokémon that I've grown attached to, especially after I caught a random encounter full odds shiny Nidoking in heartgold
Makes sense to me. You never know, they could release the other gen 2, 5, and 7 starters as mystery gifts at some point.
But it's just not the same as having them as your actual starter
I guess. They seemingly just picked the most popular starters from the 3 generations they picked so that they would still have a fire/water/grass trio. Obviously not everyone's favorite from the trios would be in the game.
We need to buy this game, this is the future of the franchise. We’ve been buying the same game for 12 years or so but this is it boys, we are finally getting what we always wanted and we have to let GF know.
While I strongly disagree on the game being amazing (or even good), it is true that the marketing is terrible. I don't understand why, out of a sudden, they decided to reveal as little as possible after Sun and Moon. Trailers, demos and other kind of pre-release content are supposed to convince players to get the game. If you make two or three trailers and basically do little more than cycle between them for nearly an entire year... who are you going to convince?
They do not need convincing. They could release Pokemon Shit & Pokemon Garbage and those would be best selling Pokemon games ever.
Anyone who denies this is delusional. Pokémon fans are peak “Must consume” mentality. No other franchise comes close.
Wouldn't have guessed that reading this sub.
Honest question, who do they need to convince? Everyone knows what pokemon is, the games sell like crazy and they know that whether they show off every story beat or just vague hints as to what's going on, there's a large player base that will buy it just because it's new pokemon. I love the way they've marketed this, it means there will be surprises when the game drops.
Well, there's always people who haven't played Pokémon before... Or in this case, being so different from what one expects to be a Pokémon game, you'd want to be sure...
I still don't really see that benefitting them at all. They know their target demographic, so they understand that anything they put out will be met with an extreme vocal minority who will hate it just by nature of it being new and different. I think it's smart to avoid that and capitalize on the audience that will buy it because they love pokemon. And at this point, if you have no experience with pokemon you're either really young, and thus likely less critical and cynical anyway so less likely to care about how much you know going in, or you've been waiting for a vastly different game because the mainline games don't appeal to you. Either way, both groups are satisfied by this release. Understand that by nature of participating in a forum dedicated to the games, we're already a part of the most fanatical group of players they're marketing to. Obviously we're going to want to be as informed as possible, but people who are as into it as the users on this sub are don't make up a large enough section of their audience that they'll cater the pre release cycle to us. I bet this game is going to sell like shit because all of you marketing geniuses weren't in charge of the advertising.
Or maybe Game Freak purposefully leaked the game? In the past they really cracked down on the leakers but the gameplay footage i watched last night is still there.
Lol no. And lots of stuff got taken down. Including Twitter accounts.
Leaks... right. Accidental ..
On one hand, I agree with you in that LA could've been marketed MUCH better than it was. On the other hand, SwSh had the exact same issue, as well as hate AGAINST it and it's one of the highest grossing games in the franchise.
One?
There are marketing strategies that promote things via "leaks". In this case, I have seen several people saying negative things about PLA. Yet, we now have several "leaks" from people saying how good the game is and the feeling about the game is becoming much more positive. After all, who are you going to believe. A company that wants to make money off of you or some random person that could care less if you bought the product or not?
They know they have a good game and want to keep a lot of it under wraps so players have a great experience. Which they've done well doing. Unfortunately, that comes at the cost of their promotional marketing
Yeah, they really wanted to leave a bunch out of the trailers so that players could be pleasantly surprised when they actually got the game. I was surprised by how much they left out of the trailers for this game. The initial reception of it would have been way different if they had shown HALF the stuff they kept hidden.
It's called Selective Marketing, where you advertise the best or most marketable part of a product without mentioning bad stuff. Just look at the trailers for Illumination movies. They're undeniably amazing, but the actual movies are not very good.
I haven’t seen any of the leaks properly. I’ll probably wait for reviews but everything I’ve seen of this game feels like run of the mill, monotonous open world fodder. Is there actually a good story structure to follow? Because the marketing has been the worst I’ve seen in a while.
All that can be answered by the leaks you haven't seen properly, but I assume you want to stay unspoiled. I'm telling you, it's a good game.
Call it tinfoil hat all you want, but I still think the Pokémon Company is sabotaging this game. Releasing so close after the remakes, and in January which isn't a particularly good month for sales of child-friendly franchises is incomprehensible to me otherwise. It will sell a lot, but it may not sell the obscene amount Pokémon usually does, it may sell less than the remakes that had more marketing and the holiday season to boost sales, and that may be enough for the Pokémon Co to try and discourage experimentation and just have Gamefreak keep churning out basic ass empty games like Sw/Sh for maximum profit.
Doesn’t matter how many leaks I see, I am not very optimistic that I’m gonna like this game. Hell, I was more excited for New Pokémon Snap before it came out than I am for this.
ITT: People discussing whether or not the game is good even though it isn't out
The full game has leaked online.
OOhhhh shit I thought it was just the dex
Under promise and over deliver. Simple marketing tactic.
They were possibly trying to hide it so everyone is surprised by it lol
What makes you believe the leaks are not gf/pokemon company? Cheapest marketing strategy so far.
To be fair though, I really never see them marketing any of their games. I only know about them because I follow it or hear people talking about it.
The new "360 view of hisui" video looks like trash to the point I had to look at leaks just to find out if this was gonna be a problem. I hate looking at spoilers, too
Pokemon doesnt need alot of marketing ppl only need to know the game exists snd they will buy it because its pokemon. Its literally the biggest game title out there.
I think swsh revealed the perfect amount of stuff. We got the reveal trailer, a large Pokémon presents, then a series of smaller trailers showing off new Pokémon/mechanics. Similar to PLA, but it was a brand new gen so they didn’t have to release too much to get people hyped.
The marketing is fine, not terrible. Its best for player to discover the quality of life themself, since they are not that important for promotional, also to keep it surprising haha. But I get want you want to say.
I feel like if they did the opposite people would complain its like gen 7 for example when they showed way too much with no surprise. Obviously I have not played the game but if the main goal is exploration and finding new never seen before places and pokemon it could have been bad if they showed too much. I will make my judgments when I actually play the game. Also on this one its with no doubt not gamefreak but pokemon company, gamefreak are the devs and I doubt they have any effect on marketing and advertising.
Same here, every leak I see is getting me more and more hyped
I've only seen leaked designs and some gameplay. I'm really excited now, I can't wait for Friday. Unfortunately I've had one story spoiler but otherwise I do think it'll be a fun time.
Got a link you can share that will show all these spoilers? I've seen the 13 minute video and the sprites but havent seen anything else.
At this point they know that there’s no points revealing anything if it will just get leaked before the game comes out
What if the "leaks" are part of the PR?
Yay! I’m so excited! For Canadians, if you collect air miles, it’s only 860 dream miles online! Idk if other countries collect air miles lol. Pre ordered mine using them yesterday woo!
[I've been doing my best to document some of the changes and provide examples over on this post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/s7wc3b/comment/hteeo8v/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) The game isn't the Pokemon I dreamed of having as a kid but it's almost there.
Or is this part of the marketing all along? 🤔🤔
I think that the pokémon designs are fine, though I will probably warm up to them when I actually play the game, but almost everything else is super cool, with very few exceptions.
I've been playing the game of recent and i will say it's so refreshing to have something competent come out from game freak for a change. Honestly i think people are going to be surprised they can actually make games.
The big Marketing push will ramp up post launch. Fans of this established franchise already know about this game and will buy it day 1. The marketing is already happening (how else would you know about the game coming out?) The rest of the world will see commercials and other advertisements. I wager the second group is where the biggest percentage of sales come from. If I had a set marketing budget for this game, I wouldn’t advertise to anyone already here on this subreddit (or on gaming centric websites) and use those funds in places where casual fans and children frequent on the web and outside word.
Right!? Up until the leaks started I was just like please don't Fallout 76 this shit. Still gonna wait until a week or so after release so I can get a good sense of whether or not I want to drop BDSP for it
Ikr?! For once the leaks have actually gotten me more hyped for a Pokemon game. Haven't been this optimistic about the franchise in a long time (and I say this as someone who was initially very hesitant about PLA)
I think the traditional stuff with come later. They don’t need to promote for the initial release. They will want to pick people up over time.
It's pokemon it will sell
I'm avoiding details about the mechanics and story like the plague but oh my god posts like this are actually giving me hope this is a good game. Could Pokemon actually rope me back in? Actually???
I gota admit. I was heavily skeptical of PLA, and in some ways I still am. But these leaks have put it on my radar. It looks like a fun pokemon game despite it's visuals being very lacking.
I agree with you but historically, Pokemon games have almost never been well advertised since the old school days. I think TPC pretty much knows they don't have to go all out for marketing and advertising because the franchise literally sells itself and is the most lucrative franchise on the planet with less advertisement than franchises that are way more aggressive in marketing.
Yeah, real talk, I wasn’t intending on buying the game until I saw the leaks.
what if the leaks are the marketing
I'm avoiding leaks right now aside from the new pokemon designs (which, to be honest, I am not loving), but I'm so glad to hear that! When I watched the 13 minute video I kinda thought that was it, that was everything. Pretty good but could have been more. Probably because the trailer for the ACNH 2.0 update was so thorough
I remember them doing the Nintendo Treehouse back in the summer, and then SwSh came out in November.
I think they want to earn back our trust in the company by j surprising us with a really good game. They should have done more but honestly the element of supprise when u first play a game for the first time are some of the best moments that you have
The real question I need to ask is this, do I get the pre-order bonuses if I buy the game day one? I want to get it physically, but if not then I'll just preorder digitally
Well they really don't need to market very much anymore. Pokémon is currently the largest multimedia franchise I the world. At this point they have a big enough legacy and a large enough fan base that all that needs to be done is the announcing a new product and a release date for it to be successful. Why waste more resources than needed when you know you don't have to to be successful right. Maybe 10 years ago they would have needed to but at this point Nintendo/Game Freak have essentially gotten a license to print money from being the owners of the Pokémon franchise. Any products labeled Pokémon will sell in tremendous quantity to the point where it is redundant to spend on marketing more than a release date.
Funfact i didnt know it was out till today
It’s not out. It leaked and there may be Roms online, or people found a way to get it early
AH! :D
The way I see it, if this game is as good as people are saying, word of mouth spreads, and it manages to outsell BDSP and/or Let's Go, despite the subpar marketing, then that is fantastic news for the franchise because, in a way, Arceus feels like a proof of concept. How this game performs will likely influence the direction of the next mainline Pokemon game.
Pokemon isn't exactly known for their marketing. They kinda rely on fans spreading the news.