 Good news everyone, Pokémon Sword and Shield are getting DLC. The upcoming expansion pass, which allows access to new Gaelar areas, the Isle of Armour and the Crown Tundra, does something that Game Freak previously claimed they weren't going to do. Add previously missing National Dex Pokémon into Sword and Shield. Even as recently as two months ago, Sword and Shield director Shigeru Omori said, We now have no plans to make the Pokémon that are missing in the Gaelar Pokédex in-game available. Clearly, something has changed behind the scenes for the company to decide to allow players to pay extra to be able to catch Pokémon that are unavailable in the standard edition of Sword and Shield. This stands in contrast to previous claims from series art director Ken Sugimori, who claimed that Game Freak was fundamentally opposed to locking Pokémon behind paywalls. Said Ken back in 2013, When it comes to business, the one thing I've always said no to is the act of buying Pokémon with money. That is something that has been said since the day Game Freak founder Satoshi Tajiri was completely involved in everything. While a patch will allow players of the vanilla game to trade for newly re-added Pokémon, they won't be able to catch them themselves. Unless you've got a really generous friend, good luck getting hold of, say, the gorgeous new legendary bird forms without paying extra. Ken once said that this kind of arrangement could, quote, ruin the world view of Pokémon. So why has Game Freak changed their minds about this? Part of the reason could well be the feedback that the company has received from players of Sword and Shield. Gamers have been very, very vocal about their disappointment with the limited number of Pokémon in the Switch games. Said long-time series producer Junichi Masuda, We always take player feedback into consideration. We also consider what is possible with the latest evolutions in hardware, as well as how people's interests change over time. When coming up with new features and systems, we also consider how well they will fit in with the existing feature set. So it sounds like the company has been looking at the best way to give fans what they want within the available options for the hardware at their disposal. If there's one thing the Switch has that previous Nintendo handhelds have lacked, it's a liberal and generous approach to downloadable content. While some games on the Wii U and 3DS experimented with paid DLC, the only thing we ever bought was extra tracks for Mario Kart 8, the Switch has been the device upon which Nintendo has truly embraced game add-ons. Indeed, DLC fixes several of the problems that Game Freak have been struggling with over the past few years, such as the aggressive annual release schedule set for the company by Nintendo and the Pokémon company. By focusing on DLC to fix perceived problems with their base version of Sword and Shield, Game Freak can use the bulk of their time this year to work on whatever game is coming next instead, thus giving it more time to grow and develop without feeling rushed. It also helped provide players with a good deal, because, let's face it, Pokémon games have featured expansion-pass-style extra content for years, but previously we had to pay for a whole new game to enjoy it. First there was Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, which were a little rough around the edges. So, Game Freak made an enhanced version of the original game and released it as Pokémon Blue. Later still, to tide fans over until Gold and Silver were ready, the company rushed out Pokémon Yellow. Up until now, sequel games or enhanced editions have only been available as big, new, expensive, complete packages. DLC means giving players a fresh experience without forcing them to buy a whole new game that's mostly identical to the one they already own. Plus, players can continue their old save files, which, in and of itself, is a true blessing. Imagine never having to start a Pokémon game from scratch again. It would be wonderful. After all, Nintendo as a whole once shared the attitude of DLC being a bad idea. Reggie Fesame once said, When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they've had a complete experience. We're unwilling to sell a piece of a game up front, and, if you will, force a consumer to buy more later. Since this point, Nintendo has embraced DLC in large part because players have demanded it. We often want more from our favourite games, and the company has made sure that all its expansion passes have provided a meaningful addition to their games. Back when he insisted that Pokémon should never feature paid DLC, Ken Sugimori conceded. Suppose we sell a Pokémon for a hundred yen, then we must prepare something that is worthy of that hundred yen, along with a reasonable consent for doing so. This seems to be the approach that's being taken with Sword and Shield's expansion pass, giving the players enough new content to make their purchase worthwhile, and making sure that while they have an advantage over players without DLC, everyone can at least still play together. So yes, Game Freak changed their tune. Where they once said that paid DLC was against the spirit of their games, they're now embracing the advantages of the Nintendo Switch's platform to offer benefits to players. Perhaps the moral of this story is that it's okay to re-evaluate things and change your mind over time. There's nothing wrong with learning from your mistakes and trying something different when you're not sure what else to do.