Nintendo announced that it will be changing the name of Pokemon's most popular monster, Pikachu in Hong Kong, which started a wave of protests.

Pokemon has been a long standing Nintendo franchise, loved by people both young and old across all countries. However, according to Polygon, Sun and Moon will be the first game in the series that will be available to play in traditional and simplified Chinese for players in Hongkong, Taiwan, and Mainland China.

The backlash started when Pokemon fans in Hong Kong heard that the names of the original 151 Pokemon wil be translated into Mandarin instead of the more widely used Cantonese, Quartz reported. Because of this change, Pikachu will now be "Pei-kaa-jau" in Cantonese, instead of "Bei-kaa-chyu" from the original translation.

Pokemon fans living in Hong Kong started protesting in front of the Japanese Embassy to show its disgust over the name change plans, demanding that Nintendo provide a Cantonese translation for the people who live in the city. They said they would boycott the game company giant if this was not done.

Nintendo responded to the protests by sending a letter to the Hong Kong Pokemon fans to ignore the Mandarin spelling and read it as normal. The fans are still not satisfied with the response, and have set up a Facebook page "Petition to Keep Regional Chinese Translations of Pokémon" to air their concerns. The group asks Nintendo to respect their chosen language and acknowledge their independence.

"Pikachu is 比卡超，not 皮卡丘，I hereby vow I will never buy from Nintendo again, unless you finally understand what is Cantonese and the correct Chinese usage," one Facebook user has written on the page, according to Kotaku.

There were also other people outside of Hong Kong who has shown their support on the Facebook page. "Your fight for the preservation of the Cantonese names has my full support." Facebook user Evin Tucker wrote on the page. "Good luck from America."

In other Sun and Moon news, the official Pokemon Twitter page posted on May 20 that another exciting announcement will be made on June 2. Would it be finally the release date for the games? Watch this space!