Ex Nintendo marketing leads say Pokemon devs "were very shellshocked" and "freaking out" about Pokemon Sword and Shield 'Dexit' controversy: "It wouldn't go away"

The new Pokemon Legends: Z-A has been getting mixed reactions from players (though we gave it a four-star in our Pokemon Legends: Z-A review), which happens sometimes. Some Pokemon Company launches are destined to be spat upon, stomped upon, and burned in a fire, like the 2019 release Pokemon Sword and Shield, which made fans so eye-wateringly angry, it might have permanently scarred its developers.

"They were very shell-shocked," says former Nintendo marketing lead Krysta Yang in a new video that also discusses how polarizing Z-A seems to be. But the so-called "Dexit" – as in, the political turmoil of Brexit, for people livid over Sword and Shield's missing National Dex – is like Z-A's controversy got stung by a bee and became so red, it blocked out the sun.

Nothing truly compares to it. Yang's video co-host and also former Nintendo marketer Kit Ellis remembers that, while working for the developer, "we had actually gone through [...] something similar with Mario Maker 2, which had come out a few months before. There was a big push back from fans around that game."

They eventually moved on from their frustration. With Dexit, though, Ellis says "it wouldn't go away."

"That's the one that I remember most vividly," he says about the mutiny, "because we were at E3 when it was happening, we were sharing the booth with the Pokemon Company, [Junichi] Masuda was there, The Pokemon Company people were there. They were freaking out like, 'Oh, what do we do?'"

Pokemon Legends: Z-A has an on-screen day night cycle timer and people are beating the game without ever knowing it's there.