I don’t think that GameFreak will see this as a wake up call. And even if it does, it might not do the necessary changes to Pokémon main series.
The stagnation runs deeper. It is partially caused by inertia (“we’re selling well, why bother innovating?”), but also by GF’s insistence on making the main series story-driven instead of gameplay-driven. Even if story-driven Pokémon goes a lot against the franchise’s biggest strength - a wide, unique, and immersive universe to explore.
More importantly: The Pokemon Company is a separate entity from Game Freak and Nintendo, with a third company also participating, Creatures Inc.
Pokemon games exist solely to drive people, especially the current younger generation, into the franchise. Licensed merchandise is THE money printer for them. In 2022, they reported 11.6 billion dollars in revenue just from that. They’re at a point where they can literally ask “Why even bother with games?”
I don’t think that GameFreak will see this as a wake up call. And even if it does, it might not do the necessary changes to Pokémon main series.
The stagnation runs deeper. It is partially caused by inertia (“we’re selling well, why bother innovating?”), but also by GF’s insistence on making the main series story-driven instead of gameplay-driven. Even if story-driven Pokémon goes a lot against the franchise’s biggest strength - a wide, unique, and immersive universe to explore.
More importantly: The Pokemon Company is a separate entity from Game Freak and Nintendo, with a third company also participating, Creatures Inc.
Pokemon games exist solely to drive people, especially the current younger generation, into the franchise. Licensed merchandise is THE money printer for them. In 2022, they reported 11.6 billion dollars in revenue just from that. They’re at a point where they can literally ask “Why even bother with games?”
Except Palworld is insanely popular with essentially no story…
That’s the point. Pokemon could be successful in the same way but they’re saying Game Freak doesn’t want to change how they do things.
Shouldn’t they have learned the lesson from Pokémon Go? That had absolutely no story that I was aware of.
That wasn’t made by Game Freak, that was Niantic.
So? They proved first no one gives a shit about story