This story doesn’t contain any groundbreaking news and honestly could have been written in July. But since December is coming up, I though I’d put it together now.

Every December, we always find out something new about the next Pokemon movie. And as we found out in July and August, Genesect will be featured in the 16th movie. But Pokemon’s marketing team didn’t bother taunting us with silhouettes, clues, or cryptic messages this time despite Genesect being the last fifth generation Pokemon – they simply came out and told us about the Paleozoic Pokemon. Everyone can already download Genesect too! So why was Genesect revealed so early when there would be a whole year until its movie debut?

For the 14th movie, we found out at the end of the Zoroark movie in July that a little orange Pokemon would be starring in the 14th film next year (later revealed to be the Victory Pokemon, Victini). This was the film’s first “wow” factor at the time since Victini was a new Pokemon. In December, it was revealed that Zekrom would star with Victini in the film. In February, we found out there would actually be two movies starring either Reshiram or Zekrom with Victini (the major “wow factor”).

For the 15th movie, we found out in December that Kyurem and the Musketeers would be the stars (with a hint that Kyurem would have a new forme). In February, it was officially revealed that Keldeo would also be a star (a “wow factor” for those who did not know of Keldeo’s existence [little kids]). In the same month, the real “wow factor” was revealed when Kyurem’s two new formes were unveiled (along with BW2 later in the month). Then in June, the final “wow” factor was Keldeo’s Resolute Forme.

But for the Genesect movie, all of the known “cards” have been played. Genesect has been revealed and there are no other new Pokemon to be revealed with it – no other predictable “wow” factors. Since Pokemon’s marketing decided to reveal it super early (in July), what are they going to do to keep the momentum of the film going until next July? What are they going to advertise in CoroCoro this December, in February, and then in the months right before the film? The marketing for every Pokemon film has always revolved around revealing new Pokemon/formes up until the film’s theatrical debut, but this film doesn’t have any remaining Pokemon to be advertised with Genesect. So what could the film’s “wow” factor be?

Unless the Genesect film is an anomaly and they’ll be doing something unrelated to new Pokemon for its marketing (like, as a wild example, Ghetsis and N are in the film and that’s a huge selling point, or even a new Genesect forme), the obvious answer seems to be that a sixth generation Pokemon will star with Genesect. Other things seem to be leading to the sixth generation coming in 2013 as well. The fact that Meloetta was stuffed into a mini-movie with the Keldeo film this year and then used in the TV show instead of getting its own movie seems to indicate that this generation is purposefully being rushed (Why not pair Meloetta with Genesect for this next film if they’re not moving on to the sixth generation?). Thundurus, Landorus, and Tornadus have already been featured in the TV show in both their forms as well.

The 3DS has been out since February 2011, or about 21 months now, and we’ve known since before Black and White‘s release that Gamefreak itself was one of the first to receive a 3DS development kit. We’ve also just seen the first true 3D Pokemon game released on the 3DS (Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate and the Infinite Labyrinth). Black and White were being developed when the 3DS was first released, so it’s understandable as to why the fifth generation did not debut on the 3DS. The core of the Pokemon franchise are these video games, so it’s not something Gamefreak would have wanted to rush – they would have wanted to experiment with the hardware and find out how to best use it for the franchise.

But now we’re going almost two years into the 3DS’s release and there is still no main series Pokemon 3DS game. 3D would definitely be one of the major appeals of a main series Pokemon game, and this is perhaps why BW2 were not released on the 3DS so as to not rob the next generation of a major “wow” factor (the 3D visuals). This is also why I don’t think we’ll see a Ruby and Sapphire remake before the release of the next main series Pokemon game (if at all, especially since their 10th anniversary just passed a few days ago and Japan is giving out Kyogre and Groudon via downloads between November and January, which they probably wouldn’t do if remakes were coming out since said Pokemon are the games’ version mascots). The sixth generation has to debut on the 3DS to give it that “wow” factor, and releasing yet another main series Pokemon game on the old DS system is simply going to look bad with the 3DS having been out for so long. The clock started ticking a while ago, which is why Pokemon may have decided to hurry with this generation by knocking out Meloetta, moving on to Genesect as quickly as possible, and, as I’m predicting, beginning the marketing for the sixth generation right away.

December’s CoroCoro issue comes out in less than three weeks, and as I said before, we always learn more about next year’s Pokemon movie in December. With Genesect revealed, and going off the pattern of this franchise’s marketing, there isn’t anything else they can do to shock us about the Genesect movie. So will we see the first hints of the sixth generation within CoroCoro‘s pages? There are no other Pokemon to reveal, no formes to reveal (and no future games to hold them), no nothing. Unless Pokemon is going to completely change things up somehow, a sixth generation marketing campaign seems to be the most logical path they’re going to take based on past trends.

Back in December 2009, we first learned about a mysterious “Z” in the title of the 13th Pokemon movie. In early February, its silhouette was revealed, and then CoroCoro revealed Zoroark and Zorua in full later that month. In April the fifth generation games Black and White were announced and then the rest of the year was all about new Pokemon. Are we going to see the same December-February-April pattern coming up?

So what do you think, PokeBeach fans? Is a sixth generation storm coming? Poke holes in my editorial and discuss the above in this forum thread!