>>40158067The main point of trade evolutions is to sell two consoles and two games, doesn't matter if you do or if your friend/sibling does. Same happens with one-savefile system.
Imagine a family with two kids. Both love sonic games. What do you do? You buy a Sega and one copy of Sonic 3, and tell them to share the console (or play coop, whatever)
Now imagine the same situation, but they love Pokémon games. You need to buy TWO gameboys, and TWO Pokémon games. They can't share because there's only one savefile, and they can't "catch em all" without two copies of the game, so that's what the kids will ask their parents. GF made pretty much one game and essentially doubled the income, not only in terms of the cartridge but also the console.
Honestly, it was the fucking smartest move in gaming history, since the trading and battling encouraged kids to talk about Pokémon and play together, "excluding" from the playing group those who didnt have the game (forcing them to buy the game too) and creating propaganda with no effort whatsoever.
