>>48328939Many people believe Gen 9 is coming on late 2022 because of Legends Arceus's early 2022 release date and both Gen 6 and 7 lasting 3 years. I, however, believe late 2022 is for LA DLC. I've said before that I don't think Game Freak can handle both LA, their first ever open world game, and Gen 9, which would require a completely new region, lots of new designs, and maybe need to look better than SwSh to feel like an upgrade. In fact, since they went the unprecedented route of outsourcing BDSP, which seems to be an 1:1 3D recreation of DP, at least in terms of the map, I think LA alone is already making their hands full.
So, I really don't think Gen 9 is coming in 2022, and, in my opinion, this arc's current pace proves it. Kusaka doesn't seem to be in any rush to finish SwSh in 2022, and that implies he knows he has no reason to finish it in 2022. Let's go back to the XY and that November 2014 chapter. Up until that point, Kusaka was doing what he did with every other arc: The characters were going from location to location following nearly the same order as the games. Following that chapter, there was a quick transition from "let's follow the game's order" to "let's invade Team Flare's HQ", with the Sky Battle that ends in Cyllage and the forest battle being that transition. Kusaka accelerated the plot to get to the climax faster.
And SM was a BIG RUSH after the Iki Town tournament. Seriously, they even skipped Ilima and arguably the entire Island Challenge. It's almost like Gen 7 was also shortened midway (cancelled DP remakes?). Meanwhile, SwSh shows a lack of urgency in finishing the story, almost like it's supposed to take time. And since Kusaka apparently knows when he's supposed to start the next region's arc, I think we're supposed to trust him, and this slowness might actually be indicative of Gen 8 actually being longer than 6 and 7 were. Perhaps we're back to 4 year-long Generations.
