I don't think there is a reality in which Smash Ultimate and BotW DLC did the numbers they did, and this company not cave to post-release expansions. Best argument I see against it is third version but they haven't done one of those since Platinum. The more I think about it the more I predict no third version, and instead a straight up expansion pack to the game.
I'm pretty cynical and kinda feel like money was a driving force somehow. Wouldn't be suprised if the missing pokemon can be obtained from a new game or something like the next Lets Go to incentivise people to buy the next game which is dumb as fuck because they are always top sellers anyway.
Agreed. Absolutely it was money in the end. There should not have been any compromises to content, period. There's no way it was a director suggestion, it was a product management decision based on limited resources, which can only have been set by TPC, certainly the market didn't ask for a smaller roster of Pokemon. This isn't a mobile game with a minimum viable product, there should not have been any compromises on what to put into the final product unless they planned on doing DLC from the start, justifying leaving some things out (like managing a mobile release), or are blatantly fine with giving consumers as little as possible for as big a short term ROI as possible, which would be incredibly greedy and shortsighted, and I don't believe.
Idk , so much to unpack , it's honestly a bit worrying.