But you still gotta remember that this pattern is caused by several factors, all of which are prone to changes.
For example hardware life is what prevented them from making gen 5 any longer, even if they might have wanted to do remakes then, since they had to go to the 3ds ASAP.
And surely things at gamefreak change all the time, from how many people they have, and how much time each game ends up needing to be developed.
It all comes down to them just making games at whatever pace they can manage.
I mean, surely if they could, they would prefer to have at least one product every year (and they're currently closer to that than ever before), but they can't just pop out a new game from nowhere for the sake of a pattern, unless they have been developing it for years already.
Anyhow, it's very clear that there is at least another gen 6 (involving Kalos) game coming after ORAS. And that shouldn't take long compared to either XY or ORAS, the first being done from scratch on a new hardware, and the second needing a bulk of content remade, so we could expect XY2/Z next year, but again, it depends on what their approach is. Is it gonna be just a plain old third version? Then next year is a given. Is it going to be a BW2 style sequel to XY? Then I wouldn't be surprised if it became a spring release for 2016. Or is it even a step further in BW2 direction, where it involves a south Kalos that is as big as the first one? Then it could be even 2 years after ORAS. But if it was, they could still keep us distracted with a Delta Emerald in the year between if they wanted etc...
For example hardware life is what prevented them from making gen 5 any longer, even if they might have wanted to do remakes then, since they had to go to the 3ds ASAP.
And surely things at gamefreak change all the time, from how many people they have, and how much time each game ends up needing to be developed.
It all comes down to them just making games at whatever pace they can manage.
I mean, surely if they could, they would prefer to have at least one product every year (and they're currently closer to that than ever before), but they can't just pop out a new game from nowhere for the sake of a pattern, unless they have been developing it for years already.
Anyhow, it's very clear that there is at least another gen 6 (involving Kalos) game coming after ORAS. And that shouldn't take long compared to either XY or ORAS, the first being done from scratch on a new hardware, and the second needing a bulk of content remade, so we could expect XY2/Z next year, but again, it depends on what their approach is. Is it gonna be just a plain old third version? Then next year is a given. Is it going to be a BW2 style sequel to XY? Then I wouldn't be surprised if it became a spring release for 2016. Or is it even a step further in BW2 direction, where it involves a south Kalos that is as big as the first one? Then it could be even 2 years after ORAS. But if it was, they could still keep us distracted with a Delta Emerald in the year between if they wanted etc...