>>46126914There likely weren't any delays developing BW, no. But as I said, they likely wouldn't have wasted the time developing Platinum and HGSS if they knew they didn't want more than 4 years to go by between a new gen. So development on the BW games would have likely been prioritrized to get them out faster. And since they were all on the DS system, Gamefreak wouldn't need to adapt to new hardware.
Personally May also leaving after only 3 years wouldn't sit right. If AG just ended with the Hoenn league, May's development would have felt unfinished. She really needed that extra year of BF to finish her character arc and rivalries with Drew/Harley properly.
>>46126945They knew that after we got to mid-Hoenn and May was a success. Again if May bombed, I do think the original trio would have been reunited after Hoenn ended. The writers would have viewed the Misty/May switch the same as the Brock/Tracey one, and then Misty would have been kept for a long time like Brock was before they would think of removing her again.
I mean do people really think Misty would have stayed gone if May failed? I don't think so, since they had no problem keeping Brock around for two extra gens.
