Nintendo is doing big numbers with Pokémon Sword and Shield. Despite the controversy over the game's graphical quality and the number of included Pokémon, gamers the world over have been embracing the newest generation of Pokémon.
The series is on Generation 8, and with each new generation comes hundreds of new pocket monsters for players to play with - and for developers to deal with. As the number of total Pokémon continues to exponentially grow, does Game Freak realize that this is their biggest issue moving forward?
Literally Can't Catch Em All
The official number of Pokémon at this point depends on how you look at it, but it's large either way. As of Generation 8, the Pokedex includes 890 unique Pokémon. If you start including all the Alolan and Galarian variants, along with gendered forms and alternative mode forms this number goes well over 1000.
These Pokémon are stretched across several dozen games, and there are tons that can only be acquired via special events or promotions. So the prospect of a player actually catching them all, as the series catchphrase pushes them to do, is a daunting and virtually impossible task for most players.
Pokémon Centered
So there are 1000 Pokémon, and the number is growing. Players cant collect them all even if they wanted to, and yet every new generation is expected to add hundreds to the roster. Game Freak attempted to only include a partial list for Sword and Shield and was met with vitriol and outrage throughout the community. Do the players actually want all these monsters or just their favorites?
Every generation has a lot of "trash" Pokémon that nobody uses and nobody likes. They go straight to the storage box as they are too weak to fight with and too boring to look at. When the new game was announced, people realized many of the Pokémon from previous entries wouldn't be in it and players were furious, but only over their personal favorites. The argument that they wouldn't be able to catch them all isn't realistic since you can't catch them all anyway. These people just wanted the popular ones to make a return. That needs to be key to Game Freak's plans moving forward.
Quality over Quantity
Game Freak could do nothing, and let the pile of unwanted Pokémon grow, and rope themselves into coding useless monsters into every one of their future games. Or Game Freak could adjust course just a little bit and help the problem solve itself.
All future Pokémon games need to cut the amount of new Pokémon by A LOT. No more trash monsters that nobody will use, only ones that are competitively viable for players. Game Freak can also take a page out of the real world's playbook and establish some Pokémon as extinct. Making the less popular, or just the trash Pokémon go extinct from some sort of in-game event would be the perfect way to clean up the Pokémon. These Pokémon would still be recorded, but they wouldn't have to be included in each and every new game, with a clean, canon explanation for their disappearance. With the latest entry in the series going a bit topical and having climate change being a part of it's story, it's not crazy to think they could add some mass extinctions into their series as a way to teach kids about the dangers of deforestation or something along those lines; and have the series put on a better path moving forward.