What happened to Pokemon Z?

[The Mega Champion]

Okay... so... seriously...

What the hell happened to Pokemon Z? All other regions got a third game.

Kanto: Yellow
Johto: Crystal
Hoenn: Emerald
Sinnoh: Platinum
Unova: Black 2 & White 2

Why isn't Kalos getting a third game? Why are they seemingly going straight to 7th gen?

This makes no sense to me whatsoever and if I could get an explanation I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

P.S.: Yes this is the same exact thread I just posted on Serebii. I want to see two different forum opinions on this.

 

[pkmin3033]

We don't actually know what Sun and Moon are yet, remember - there is a lot of speculation that they're the second half of Gen VI, because of the small number of new Pokemon introduced in X and Y. I wouldn't start screaming about a lack of another Kalos game until we get some more concrete information on Sun and Moon. They could just be set in another part of Kalos and act as differently named sequels to X and Y.

 

[Sopheria]

In my personal opinion, I feel like a continuation of Kalos was planned in some form or another in 2015 (most likely Z), but it got dropped due to reasons we'll likely never know--e.g. unexpected budget constraints, technical limitations, etc. All the evidence suggests that it was planned, but just never ended up happening. I'm pretty certain someone's going to mention this to Masuda in an interview in the coming months, so maybe we'll get a definite answer on this soon :)

 

[Hikamaru]

I think Cathy's theory is what I suspected is the case. Maybe they did plan a Kalos third version but they must have somehow scrapped the project at some point and instead started work on what would be the 7th Generation instead.

 

[The Mega Champion]

In my personal opinion, I feel like a continuation of Kalos was planned in some form or another in 2015 (most likely Z), but it got dropped due to reasons we'll likely never know--e.g. unexpected budget constraints, technical limitations, etc. All the evidence suggests that it was planned, but just never ended up happening. I'm pretty certain someone's going to mention this to Masuda in an interview in the coming months, so maybe we'll get a definite answer on this soon :)

I hope you're right because I just can't get into Sun and Moon without an explanation as to what happened to Z first.

Can someone post it when this happens? I'd appreciate it and would feel much better if someone were to post that...

 

[Sopheria]

I hope you're right because I just can't get into Sun and Moon without an explanation as to what happened to Z first.

Can someone post it when this happens? I'd appreciate it and would feel much better if someone were to post that...

Yep! There's no shortage of people here keeping their eyes and ears on every bit of info we get from Nintendo so I'm sure someone will catch it and posted if it does happen ;) Keep an eye on PC Daily for updates too!

 

[The Mega Champion]

Yep! There's no shortage of people here keeping their eyes and ears on every bit of info we get from Nintendo so I'm sure someone will catch it and posted if it does happen ;) Keep an eye on PC Daily for updates too!

Um... which area is that? Sorry... I don't really post in here that often and felt like I had no choice due to this "incident"

:3c

 

[Sopheria]

Um... which area is that? Sorry... I don't really post in here that often and felt like I had no choice due to this "incident"

:3c

That would be this, PC's official Pokémon newsletter :)

If there's any news in the coming days on Pokémon Z or what happened to it, you'll find it there. Granted, that's if we even hear anything about it. It's possible we won't hear anything about it at all and GameFreak will just sorta sweep it under the rug >_>

 

[COOLTRAINER♂]

It would have been very foolish to use all of the time spent hyping up the 20th aniversary of Pokemon just to release a barely changed version of a game from 2013 and I think Game Freak realise that they can't justify that practice any more since Black/White 2 were made.

 

[FennekMaster]

I like to think of ORAS as a remake/3rd version pokemon game. I am pretty surprised that they decided to ignore pokemon Z but from a marketing standpoint it kind of makes sense because it would be awkward to cerebrate the 20th anniversary by making a 3rd version that almost everyone sees coming. I am kind of glad that they took this route cause TBH I was kind of getting bored of 6th gen outside of the competitive battling and even then I am probably gonna get bored of that in a few months too.

 

[Megan]

I like to assume that if they had intentions to release a third version and they decided against doing so, the fans themselves had some influence in it. After all, there was a lot of complaining about the games, so GF might have decided that creating another game in said region wasn't really worth it and they might as well focus on the next gen.

 

[COOLTRAINER♂]

They would've seen the year 2016 coming for a while now, I think the big marketing blitz must have been talked about for a while between all of Nintendo, The Pokemon Company and Game Freak.
It's possible OR/AS was chosen as a better idea to work on alongside X/Y, then they could dedicate the rest of the time they need into making a new game for the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon.

 

[The Mega Champion]

Then they shouldn't have made third games for regions and started the pattern in the first place if they were going to just break pattern.

:|

 

[Imperator161]

Since they broke the "typical" third game problem with BW2, I've been unsure of whether to expect a third game anymore or not. I recall seeing an article stating that they wanted to surprise fans and break tradition, and I wonder if a step away from third versions is part of it. It's a bit confusing, especially as this set of games lends itself so well to a third version name-wise, and it feels like there is so much they haven't done with Kalos.

I'm not completely counting out Z at this point, and I do wonder whether there will be some connection to Kalos in future games (e.g., in Sun/Moon). Maybe it just didn't seem big enough for the twentieth anniversary? I still think they'll release something smaller (maybe more re-releases) between now and holiday 2016, as it seems like there's a lot of time to capitalize on the twentieth anniversary this year, and I can't see them wanting to squander that if it doesn't take away from their main project.

Around the time a lot of people were expecting a Z announcement, there were also terrorist attacks in Paris. Maybe GF thought that would hit too close to home for a return to Kalos, so they decided to move on for the time being.

 

[The Mega Champion]

I don't mean to sound insensitive but that's kind of a ridiculous excuse.

:|

 

[Hikamaru]

Around the time a lot of people were expecting a Z announcement, there were also terrorist attacks in Paris. Maybe GF thought that would hit too close to home for a return to Kalos, so they decided to move on for the time being.

Interesting theory you came up with, although I likely don't expect it to be the case. I do like how they did away with third versions entirely because it can be a bit repetitive returning to the same region not very long after the first games.

 

[King Elizabello]

Maybe Pokemon Z went for..... Sleeping to find more Z or they thought that there is Dragonball Z and if we create a pokemon z then it's sounds like copywriting lol. Anyway, let's see for more updates what pokemon sun and moon has to offer.

 

[BH]

Toriyama didn't liked the idea of a official DB/Pokemon crossover game so he said "screw you Tajiri!"....oh wait, never mind

 

[Mapleseruhp]

Honestly, I don't think it was ever planned by gamefreak (Pokemon Z). Lets be real, does X and Y really need a 'polished' version when its pretty good by itself? I'm starting to hope now that we skip all of these third versions because Nintendo shouldn't be making games if they think it would need polishing in the future.

 

[Elysieum]

GameFreak is not actually bound to the pattern of releasing games that it has established in the past. It may upset fans that have become used to a third release in the same region, but at the end of the day, GameFreak will make its decisions based on whatever will make it more successful.

I was looking forward to a new imagining of Kalos too, but the chance of that happening seems to be minimising.