En stor del af samtalen omkring Pokémon Sword/Shield de seneste par måneder har eksklusivt handlet om National Dex-skandalen, nemlig at udvikleren Game Freak ikke tillader at samtlige ældre Pokémon kan byttes ind i spillet, for så at blive brugt i kampe online.
Game Freak har tidligere været åbne omkring at det simpelthen tager for meget arbejde at balancere så mange individuelle Pokémon, så disse online-kampe er fair, men samtidig har de været åbne for at tilføje muligheden senere hen.
Nu ved vi dog at det ikke sker. I et interview med Inside Gamer siger producer Junichi Masuda, at de ikke har nogen planer om at tilføje andre Pokémon efter lanceringen.
"We currently don't have plans to make the Pokémon that are missing from the Galar Pokédex available in the game. This is an approach that we want to continue with in future Pokémon games. Up until now it hasn't been possible to encounter every Pokemon in every game, so people had to transfer them from old games to the new game, by using Pokémon Bank as an example."
"The Pokémon Home app is currently in development, in which players can collect their various Pokémon, and only Pokémon in the Galar Pokédex can be transferred from there to Sword and Shield. We encourage people to use Pokémon Home to collect their Pokémon from old games. From there they might be able to take them to other games in the future."