Nintendo prematurely announcing a seemingly supposed shadow drop of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen seemed weird, but with only two weeks until Pokopia, Nintendo has played the nostalgia of players masterfully. An opinion piece.
When Nintendo announced one week before their Pokemon Presents Showcase that ports of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (FR/LG) would drop along with the presentation on 27 February, many industry commentators were at a loss for the reason. Had Nintendo been made aware of an upcoming leak and wanted to be faster than the leakers? Looking back on how Nintendo usually handles leaks, that seems unlikely. The company seldom changes their plans in reaction to short-term happenings. So it was likely a planned drop, but why not a shadow drop, announced and delivered directly in the showcase, as Nintendo had done many times before?
I can only speculate, but after playing a lot of Pokémon Pokopia, which released only a week after the Pokémon Presents, on 5 March, I do have a pretty decisive theory. I believe not only dropping FR/LG before Pokopia, but working up a certain amount of hyped nostalgia for these ported remakes of the first Pokémon generation was a stroke of PR genius. Here’s why.
