>>48617085>or is the branding too powerful to fail?It's been too powerful to fail since GSC my dude.
No matter how "unpopular" the series became, new main series entries were still selling 10s of millions and remakes/third versions were still doing respectable numbers that'd make most big budget releases blush.
ORAS, some of the worst regarded games in recent memory, still did what, 12 Million units sold? SwSh were the best selling pair since GS and XY AND SM both managed 16M on the same system despite releasing a mere 3 years apart.
We were already fucked once Gen 2 solidified the series as a franchise and the franchise had already become self sustaining enough that they could afford to delay DP back in the day. If the dip in popularity Pokemon had during Gens 4 and 5 didn't kill the brand then Gen 4 running on high from the steam of what was essentially Pokemania 2.0 in 2016 then this franchise is going to outlive every single one of us.
