>>50409949It's a clear-cut case of too many games too close together.
So they have 2 "Safe Bets" (BDSP and Gen 9) that they know will sell because both play it safe and don't really do anything experimental.
Then they have this other game that is a bit more experimental and actually takes risks trying to shake up the pokemon formula and try new things. It's not quite finished yet, needing some content and some polish, the dev team says they'd love to have this one out by November 2022 because that would give them time to really make sure it was finished properly.
The execs basically have a choice, push the safe bets, making sure they have a 'by the formula' pokemon game coming out each year for the holidays. Or they can take a risk, push Gen 9 back to 2023 holidays and give the dev team the breathing room they need to make this new, experimental game the best it can possibly be.
Being execs at a big company, they obviously choose to play it safe. Legends was a sacrifice on the altar of corporate orthodoxy in the name of pushing safe, reliable profits.
This can be clearly seen in Legends Arceus, not just in the form of the choppy, unpolished graphics but also there's indications throughout the entire game that there was originally a bunch of other gameplay content and features planned that were ultimately cut to push the game out about 6-9 months before it was ready (including a bunch of trainer battles, the movable camp mechanic, elements of the town expansion/customization mechanics, underground areas and probably a bunch of other stuff).
Still, PLA has already sold over 12 million units as of the March 31 report, which is very good.
Hopefully it succeeding in spite of their lack of faith and setting it up to fail will convince the execs that more games like it are worth investing in. Especially if those sales numbers can maintain trajectory long enough for it to pass the limping BDSP numbers.
