>>20828405Two things does not a pattern make, and as I pointed out with HGSS, Red/Blue had zero differences aside from the available pokemon to catch, and Yellow was a cash-grab anime tie-in that still followed the same exact plot, just with a locked starter of Pikachu, appearances by Jesse and James, and a modified Rival team.
In both of those cases the third versions available just added small improvements/amusing bits which were then incorporated back into the remakes of the first two versions. Ruby and Sapphire have drastically varying plots and gameplay with you facing a completely different team in each game, with different rosters of pokemon, dealing with a different persistant weather effect in the overworld that affects battles for a portion of the game. Emerald uses both teams, mixes things up, reshuffles a gym leader into champion and replaces him, has a special event cutscene with Rayquaza, and has alternating weather effects during the awakening portion of the game. It's such a HUGE difference in not only story but gameplay that it makes absolutely no sense for them NOT to release Delta Emerald. I'm not saying that it WILL happen, but I think all the people who are just dead set that it 100% won't are being a bit closed-minded.
As for Z version, I've got no idea. They could do that, they could do AZ, they could do XZ/YZ, they could do anything, I just use Z as a placeholder for whatever the "third version" of gen 6 will be. We know there are two exclusive unreleased Zygarde moves that are variants on his signature move, meaning they might have two forms/megas/whatever for him in two different sequel versions, or maybe they just give you a choice somehow between the two in some kind of similar fusion scenario with Xerneas/Yveltal ala Kyurem. There's no way of knowing.
All I'm saying is that my personal hope is for a Z version and a Delta Emerald release with signature features from both (bases and customization) cross-pollinated.