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Pokémon Sword and Shield DLC Announced

At the recent Pokémon Direct event Nintendo and GameFreak announced some additional content for Pokémon Sword and Shield which will be released throughout 2020.

We speculated some time ago at what Pokémon 2020 would be and beyond. Our predictions included a enhanced third game (think Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum), a sequel (think Black and White 2) or an Ultra edition, like they did for Sun and Moon.

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But no, this time we’re getting 2 separate expansion packs. One will release in June and the other will release Q3/4 for 2020, which is the time every year when Pokémon games tend to get released. Players will be able to purchase a ‘Season Pass’ to save money on both packs. From a price point of view, this is similar to what the price of a brand new game would be, so we hope the packs are substantially loaded with fun things to do.

The first expansion pack will be called ‘The Isle of Armor’ while the second will be called ‘The Crown Tundra’. Each will offer new locations, characters and Pokémon. The expansions will also bring at least 200 older Pokémon back into the series.

If you recall ‘Dexit’ was in relation to GameFreak’s admission that they didn’t have the time to include over 700 redesigned Pokémon sprites for Sword and Shield. We speculated that they would rectify this in time, which they are doing, but there are still lots of Pokémon from older generations waiting to be seen on the Nintendo Switch. We think in time all will be updated and fans just need to be patient.

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We also believe that this is the right call by GameFreak. They needed to take steps to resolve ‘Dexit’. After all, don’t create characters for us to fall in love with then tell us to forget about them! We also think two expansion packs to the current gen instead of any of the other options we listed above is the right move.

Many fans felt alienated by Ultra Sun and Moon. They were essentially playing the same game again but with a few hours of extra content. That content should have been DLC not a re-release. Ultra Sun and Moon were not an entirely new games like Black and White 2 were, and really if you had already played the base Sun and Moon, then the Ultra games were a pointless waste of time and money.

Check out the full reveal here:

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