>>33686886They don't even need to change the gameplay or anything, just experiment with how Pokémon games are played ans perceived and treat it as an experiment to see what they can do. Gen V almost did that, toying with morality (in a children's game no less) and introducing a controversial roster of mons for the region (consisting of only new ones.) While it was resolved in a standard fashion (muahaha it was a ploy all along blah blah blah) it shows that they could still innovate and experiment.
Then they decided that it would be best to not care at all and put only enough work to make it easy to sell (even if gen 6 and 7 aren't all bad.)
