The Pokemon Company President and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara recently spoke to DIME about the past, present, and future of the Pokemon series.
One of the things discussed was Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu/Eevee, the first mainline Pokemon game to ever appear on a Nintendo home console. Ishihara first explained before the arrival of Nintendo Switch, Game Freak had only made mainline Pokemon games for handheld consoles, so this was the first time bringing the main series to home consoles.
Ishihara said making a mainline game on Nintendo Switch was “more difficult than what we expected”. Developers at Game Freak wondered whether they could really put Pokemon on the Switch, and if so, whether they could make it interesting for all three play styles (TV Mode, Handheld Mode, Tabletop Mode). Ishihara joked some on the team could have believed it was “5 times harder” to make a Pokemon game on Switch, as compared to making a Pokemon game on a handheld such as Nintendo 3DS.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Practicalaviationcat on December 31st, 2018 at 19:57 UTC »
Gosh a really hope the new Pokemon games are a bit more ambitious that past titles to go along with the increase in power. Statements like this don't make me confident though.
RUOKaye on December 31st, 2018 at 18:55 UTC »
Gamefreak has always been known to not make efficient code. IIRC the former Nintendo president had to go there and reprogram a lot of the code himself just to get it to work on the N64.
ehluigi on December 31st, 2018 at 18:51 UTC »
Seems like the Pokemon team were getting complacent with the 3DS. Sometimes I wish Pokemon games didn't do as well when the quality wasn't the greatest. At least then they'd be forced to try harder and adapt like literally every other company out there. Success has spoiled them rotten.