The hashtag #ThankYouGameFreak has been trending on Twitter the past few days. This has been a campaign largely by Pokemon fans attempting to send positive energy to the company following the news that the morale at Game Freak has hit an “all-time low” due to the negative feedback brought on by controversies surrounding Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield.
Pokemon and Game Freak mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Many people were raised by their games and grew into adults partly with their help. So, many people have taken to the sunnier part of Twitter in order to send kind words of encouragement and personal stories to the developer as a means of apologizing to some of the more venomous fans who have been upset by certain choices made for the upcoming games, such as the significant cutting down of the National Pokedex and the mandatory use of the EXP share.
If you needed something more wholesome in your day today, have a look at some of the tweets sent by gracious fans to Game Freak:
Just noticed #ThankYouGameFreak
I owe Pokémon a lot, I have memories from every stage of my life surrounding Pokemon, from learning to talk through pokemon cards, playing crystal when i was sick as a child, its been there my whole life
Thank you Gamefreak, for everything ⭐ pic.twitter.com/ePJtAFcDI4
— PaulDrawsArt 🎄 (@PaulDrawsArt) November 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/princessology/status/1193252162211475457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1193252162211475457&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ign.com%2Farticles%2F2019%2F11%2F09%2Fpokemon-thank-you-game-freak-sword-shield-leaks-hashtag
#ThankYouGameFreak for making an awesome series that people have been able to enjoy for years! Your characters means so much to my wife and I that they were the theme of our wedding! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/VXIeM1uM83
— Jerod C. (@The8BitDrummer) November 9, 2019
Not all of the tweets have been positive, as some fans have used the hashtag as another platform to voice their concerns and distaste made in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, rather than to help the company with it’s publically acknowledged morale problems.
The feedback under the hashtag has remained largely positive, however, and the thanks that many fans have for the company and concern for their happiness and health over the development of Sword and Shield has overtaken the vitriol and bitter words. Sword and Shield both come out in less than a week now, and will have many expectations to live up to, though it seems many people will end up being happy with what they’ve been given if the hashtag is anything to go by.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will be released on November 15th, 2019. You can watch a recent trailer for the game down below:
