Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s launch has ushered in a new generation of the Pokémon franchise as it begins its transition to Generation 9, but the launch hasn’t been flawless. With performance issues, numerous glitches, crashes, and functionality problems sprinkled through the game, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s grand adventure and ambitious open world have come under scrutiny for collapsing under its own weight. The enormity of the Pokémon franchise, however, is both one of its greatest strengths and its largest flaw.

While Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s reviews have been mostly positive, the performance issues have put the games under significant scrutiny. However, it is impossible to overlook the influence the other facets of the Pokémon franchise may have had on the game’s release, as the many other releases potentially force the games to launch within a certain window for the purposes of merchandising or coinciding with the anime’s release. The breadth of the Pokémon franchise, from anime to video games to toys and even the Pokémon Trading Card Game, force all parts of the multimedia project to release in tandem, ensuring that the games will never get the time they need in development.

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Pokémon Itself Hindered Scarlet & Violet's Development

Pokémon's Gotta Catch 'Em All! logo with a Poké Ball over a map of Scarlet & Violet's Paldea region.

The bizarre glitches of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet aren’t entirely unheard of in the history of the game series, but the sheer level and prevalence of the performance issues are a step beyond previous entries in the long-running franchise. It’s to the point where it feels almost inexcusable, but the Pokémon series’ mainline games are also released to coincide with the ushering of the next generation in the anime. The Pokémon video games tend to release just before the conclusion of Ash’s journey within his current region, with rare exceptions seeing the game releases within a few weeks of the new season. This allows the game and the anime to synchronize their releases to promote the upcoming Pokémon generation, but with developer Game Freak’s increasing ambition colliding with the promotional deadline set by the anime, it may no longer be sustainable.

Since 2019, Game Freak has developed the games for Pokémon Generation 8, their DLC, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet to begin Generation 9. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, prior to Generation 9 and the story of Scarlet and Violet, could be seen as the most ambitious step in the franchise, eschewing the traditional gameplay for something more focused on the original “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” slogan. However, the release of Legends: Arceus coming only 10 months prior to Pokémon Gen 9 while also coming off of the heels of the completion and support of Gen 8 paints a worrying picture regarding the studio handling too much at once, and with the strict deadlines imposed by the release of the anime and other facets of merchandising, the quality begins to suffer.

The Pokémon franchise has always been massive, with the games all having their fair share of glitches over the years, but the glitches plaguing the open-world exploration of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are among the most prevalent in the history of the franchise. With Gen 9 released so soon after Pokémon Legends: Arceus in an effort to tie into the anime’s finale in the Galar region, little time is left for polishing. With the mainline games tied in to the release schedule for the larger multimedia project that is Pokémon as a franchise, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet exemplify a series that may never be allowed to reach its full potential under the constraints of its current release cycle.

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