>>33130321It's slated for 2018 with "or later" tacked on just in case something happens, which is unlikely.
Switch development has probably been ongoing for GameFreak ever since XY came out, which prioritizes pretty much everything else since that's the next platform, even surpassing the Big 20th Anniversary Deadline for SM. Nintendo's also likely pushing for Pokemon Switch because as far as we know, they don't have any other big System Pushers once Super Mario Odyssey is released.
Even compared to other third versions, USUM news is nonexistent compared to other Pokemon media as of late, even fucking Generation 8 got more news than USUM considering the aforementioned Release Date News we got.
GameFreak knows full well Japan's mixed responses to the games regarding Non-Lillie aspects, and USUM isn't likely to fix these given it's coming out a year after SM.
If Gen 8 doesn't come out next year, Movie21 won't have a Mythical to shill, thus they won't be able to sell tickets for Japanese screenings as well unless they blow their load early like they did with Magearna, which left them with a single Mythical for all of Gen 7's run. This has a lot more to do with the generation as a whole than you think, since the movies are a yearly thing that brings in quite a profit in Japan if only because they're the only way to get a Mythical without waiting for a ridiculously long time for a standard Online Distribution to come along.
