The document analyzes Game Freak's communication around the launch of Pokemon Sword and Shield, comparing it to how Nintendo and Bandai Namco communicated about Animal Crossing New Horizons and Super Smash Bros Ultimate. It finds that Game Freak's communication was poor - major information was leaked instead of announced officially, and their statements in response to controversies were vague and lacked transparency. In contrast, Nintendo and Bandai Namco clearly and authentically engaged fans throughout development to build hype and understanding. The document recommends Game Freak take a similar approach for future Pokemon games to regain fan trust.

1. An Analysis of Game Freak’s
Pokemon Sword and Shield Pre-
Launch
Landscape analysis of audience
communication, tone, and clarity
Created by Gabby Cushman

2. Goal of this
Landscape Analysis
Pokemon Sword and Shield (a game
created by Game Freak, licensed by
Nintendo)’s lead-up to launch was
considered one of the worst in recent
gaming history. Talks of boycotting the
game, #BringBackTheNationalDex and
#GameFreakLied trending on Twitter, and
angry fan comments in every Pokemon
tweet made for a disaster the gaming
company failed to clean up. I want to
analyze where Game Freak rhetorically went
wrong, and what they can do in the future to
prevent backlash like this.

3. Exigence
In a time where all companies in all
industries need to have a social media
presence, observing situations where social
media campaigns have gone wrong will
establish best practices for future product
launches highlighted on social media. In
this instance, it will specifically help the
gaming industry determine how they can
best create hype around upcoming game
launches.

4. What is Brand
Crisis
Communication?
● A brand crisis communication plan is a
set of guidelines used to prepare a
business for an emergency or
unexpected event. These plans
include:
○ steps to take when a crisis first emerges.
○ how to communicate with the public.
○ how to prevent the issue from occurring
again.
● Focus is on the company’s response
and how it communicates with its
employees, partners, customers,
media, and general public.
● This is important for this landscape
analysis because Game Freak’s
biggest failure in this launch was their
crisis communication.

5. Audiences of Game
Freak (Pokemon
Sword and Shield)
● Nintendo Switch owners
● Long-time Pokemon fans
● Pokemon Go players looking to
play a main series game
● Video game news/review
publications
● “Poke-Tubers” (i.e YouTubers
whose content center around
Pokemon)
● General Nintendo fans

6. Campaigns
Analyzed
I’ll be looking at 3 different game launches
for the Nintendo Switch:
● Game Freak’s Pokemon Sword and
Shield (released November 15 2019,
currently has sold ~16 million copies)
● Nintendo LTD’s Animal Crossing New
Horizons for the Nintendo Switch (to
be released March 20 2020)
● Bandai Namco Studios and Sore LTD’s
Super Smash Bros Ultimate for the
Nintendo Switch (released December 7
2018, currently has sold ~17 million
copies)

7. Attributes Analyzed
● Audience communication,
including audience
reaction/feedback, how much
information they’re given before
release.
● Tone, the representation of the
games in trailers and social media
posts.
● Clarity, if the brand communicated
honestly and in a way all
audiences can understand.

8. ANALYSIS

9. What is good
audience
communication?
To communicate well with their
audience and hopefully sell a product,
brands must: identify their target
audience and know what is relevant to
them; develop a message that will
reinforce the brand to loyal fans and
change the minds of critics; portray
that message in a fresh and original
way; and use media that will attract
interactions from the target audience.

10. Criteria for good
audience
communication
● Game developer must be aware of
their target audience, including
their wants and needs.
● Communicate a core message to
this audience that will influence
them to consider purchasing the
game.
● Portray that message in a creative
way that still fits with the brand,
but stands out from others.
● Use media that will gain the
interest and engagement of the
target audience.

11. Game Freak’s audience communication (game:
Pokemon Sword and Shield)
During the lead-up to Pokemon
Sword and Shield’s release, it was
leaked to the masses that not all
900+ Pokemon would be included
in the game. This led to fan
outrage, as many people were
worried their favorites wouldn’t
be available in the newest game.
Game Freak released a statement
on the official Pokemon website
about the situation, but didn’t
explain why not all Pokemon
would be included. Thus, outrage
continued.
Game Freak’s statement on not
including all Pokemon in Sw/Sh
Fan reactions to what is now dubbed
“Dexit”; the absence of a National
Pokedex including all Pokemon

12. Nintendo LTD’s audience communication
(game: Animal Crossing New Horizons)
Nintendo recently revealed that for
their upcoming game Animal Crossing
New Horizons, players wouldn’t be
able to have an “island” per user; only
one island for each Nintendo Switch
console. This was somewhat
controversial in the Animal Crossing
community because in past games,
you could have multiple towns on a
console using memory cards.
However, Nintendo paired this
announcement subtly with an
advertisement for their new Animal
Crossing themed Nintendo Switch,
which took the majority of attention.
Nintendo reveals in the fine print of a New Horizons
Switch announcement that only one island per
console would be supported.

13. Bandai Namco and Sore LTD’s audience
communication (game: Super Smash Brothers
Ultimate)
In anticipation for the brand new Super Smash
Bros game for the Nintendo Switch, Bandai
Namco released a trailer showcasing every
single character in Smash Bros history returning
to be a part of this new game. This move
immediately hyped fans up and branded their
game “Super Smash Bros Ultimate”, meant to be
the ultimate Smash Bros experience. After this
announcement, they slowly released dedicated
character reveal trailers for all of the new
characters and DLC characters. Bandai Namco
kept their audience in the loop throughout the
pre-launch process so they knew what to expect
when buying the game.
https://youtu.be/jxekvCnttvU
Character reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros Ultimate

14. Takeaways
● Nintendo handled the expected
controversy with Animal Crossing
New Horizons’ limitations by pairing
the announcement with a new
product reveal they knew would take
everyone’s attention.
● Bandai Namco kept perfect
communication with their audience
throughout the Super Smash Bros
Ultimate pre-launch, leading to huge
success on release day
● On the other hand, Game Freak let
controversial information leak about
Pokemon Sword and Shield and
didn’t give fans a satisfying answer
for their disappointment.

15. What is tone?
● A writer/content creator’s attitude
towards the subject being
discussed.
● Best communicated through word
choice, the creator’s viewpoint on
the subject, and visual cues in
certain media (i.e videos and
photos)

16. Criteria for
effective tone
● Portraying the game accurately
and appealingly
● Addressing comments, even
negative ones, in a respectful way
● Building hype through
presentation of game

17. Game Freak’s tone (game: Pokemon Sword and
Shield)
After Game Freak’s vague statement about #Dexit,
they further elaborated that the cut made to the
Pokedex in Pokemon Sword and Shield was due to a
number of reasons, including: improving
graphics/3D models, focusing on other gameplay
elements, and adding additional features not seen
before in other games. Fans and video game media
outlets alike began claiming Game Freak’s
reasoning was “lazy” due to the fact that Pokemon
is one of the biggest companies in the world, and
could afford to hire on additional employees to
assist with the attributes they described. Whether
this was true or not, Game Freak did not do their job
in communicating their passion and love for this
franchise to their audience.

18. Nintendo LTD’s tone (game: Animal Crossing
New Horizons)
Nintendo came up with the great
idea to have their Twitter
account “run” by popular Animal
Crossing character Isabelle,
introduced as the assistant to
the mayor in the last major
Animal Crossing title. This move
really gave their marketing an
upper-hand and specific tone, as
all fans loved getting their Animal
Crossing New Horizons news
from the adorable shih-tzu.

19. Bandai Namco and Sore LTD’s tone (game:
Super Smash Bros Ultimate)
Bandai Namco has started using what has been
dubbed by fans a “Smash Direct”, which is a
variation of the classic Nintendo Direct model of
presenting information for upcoming games
through videos, but Smash Directs only contain
Super Smash Bros information. In these videos,
the director of Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Masahiro Sakurai speaks directly to the
audience about Smash Bros announcements
and most recently, DLC characters being added
to the game. This gives their brand a face their
audience has grown to recognize and love, as
you can see his passion for the game on full
display.
Masahiro Sakurai presents the latest DLC character
for Super Smash Bros Ultimate in this “Smash Direct”

20. Takeaways ● Nintendo and Bandai Namco have clear
brands for their franchises and upcoming
games by using a person or character as
the face of their brand, thus making a
personal connection to their audience. If
a crisis were to occur, fans know exactly
who they’d be hearing from.
● Game Freak is speaking behind the face
of a company- even the official Pokemon
Twitter’s name is “The Pokemon
Company”. Alongside that, their official
statements surrounding the #Dexit
controversy seemed detached, thus
causing more outcry from fans.

21. What is clarity?
Portraying the brand’s message clearly
and effectively, as well as being
transparent with their audience about
issues. To best achieve brand clarity, the
brand needs to have in mind the
foundational elements of the brand,
including its values, story, target
audience, personality, and positioning.

22. Criteria for clarity ● Is the brand being transparent
about issues going on during
development?
● Descriptive titles/headers in media
● Plain language that all audiences
can understand
● Logical information hierarchy-
nothing is revealed in a way where
it wouldn’t make sense

23. Game Freak’s clarity (game: Pokemon Sword
and Shield)
#GameFreakLied began trending in
America and Japan on Twitter. This
resulted from a reddit post that compared
Pokemon Sword and Shields’ 3D models
with the 3D models from the past Game
Freak 3DS games Pokemon Sun and
Moon. This aggravated fans because
Game Freak’s reason for not including all
900+ Pokemon in the newest games was
supposed to be because they were re-
doing all of these 3D models. Game Freak
came out and responsed, saying that
there were many reasons for Pokemon
being cut from the game, not just for
improved graphics. This unfortunately fell
on deaf ears.
A reddit poster
showed
comparisons of
Sword and Shields’
3D models with the
past 3DS games’
models.

24. Nintendo LTD’s clarity (game: Animal Crossing
New Horizons)
At E3 2019 (a gaming convention where
major gaming companies present upcoming
games and consoles), Nintendo released a
trailer for Animal Crossing New Horizons,
announcing the game was officially delayed
until March 2020. Fans were of course
disappointed, but because Nintendo
communicated the reasons why clearly and
announced it as soon as they knew it was to
be delayed, fans were for the most part
understanding about the delay.

25. Bandai Namco and Sore LTD’s clarity (game:
Super Smash Bros Ultimate)
When Bandai Namco
announced that another 6 DLC
fights would be coming to
Super Smash Bros Ultimate,
they made sure their audience
had all the information on it up
front. They released the cost,
timeline for character releases,
and Masahiro Sakurai himself
tweeted that he had already
determined the 6 characters.
Fans typically tweet character
suggestions at him, so this
cleared up any confusion
around that.

26. Takeaways ● Nintendo and Bandai Namco kept the
audience in conversation with them as
updates to their games occured. This
led to the audience having a clear
understanding of what was going on
with the game, making them more
likely to purchase it.
● Game Freak’s game updates always
came from online leaks during the lead
up to Pokemon Sword and Shield. This
left them scrambled to come up with a
response that wasn’t always seen as
genuine.

27. SUMMARY

28. Game Freak’s
audience
communication,
tone, and clarity
Throughout Pokemon Sword and
Shields’ lead up to launch, Game Freak
missed communication marks they
needed to make with their audience.
Majority of their information was
released through online leakers, then
they proceeded to give vague
statements in response to the
controversies, seeming incredibly
ingenious in tone and as if they didn’t
care about the franchise they were
representing. It was no wonder fans
were so upset.

29. Game Freak’s next
steps for future
games
By examining our two other games, Animal
Crossing New Horizons and Super Smash Bros
Ultimate, we see why clear and authentic
audience communication is needed during the
build up to a game being launched. Game
Freak will likely be developing the next few
Pokemon games, despite the anger of fans
towards the game development company.
When promoting their future games, Game
Freak should focus on expressing their
passion towards the project they’re working on
and be excited along with the fans, while also
being honest and keeping them updated
throughout the development process.