>>41057957This would honestly make a lot of sense.
Pokemon is such a massive franchise that they can't delay the new mainline game. They have the anime, card game, and a billion other types of merchandise already coming down the pipeline. If ANYTHING bad happens during gamefreaks already short development time then we end up with the unfinished mess that is sword and shield. It makes sense that they would rather tell the public they cut the pokedex down for some stupid reason instead of announcing that they are a bunch of incompetent developers who can't even get a simple importer to work. It's better to have the fans hate you instead of losing your job AND the fans hate you.