>>49297040GameFreak was not affected by the coof. The rest of the franchise was, yes, but GameFreak was astonishingly capable of running at full capacity even during pandemic times.
Gen 9 WOULD be next year while Legends gets the much more generous Holiday '22 release, but the thing is, Nintendo is ready to release BotW2 so shareholders will shut up about how Holiday '21 had nothing except BDSP to reel in profits. Nintendo also doesn't want Legends and BotW2 to cannibalize each other considering the former's marketing really, really, REALLY wants you to think it's "BotW with Pokemon", so they pushed GameFreak to release it this month, and both them and TPC want GameFreak to push Gen 9 to join BotW2 in the Holiday '22 release zone to maximize the year's success, potentially alongside Mario Kart 9.
