ON THE DECISION TO CUT POKEMON
We put a great deal of effort into developing each and every game as the project begins and we do feel that everyone having their opinion is important. But from a development perspective, when we go into deciding what way we're going to take Pokémon in the future we have to make several decisions on what to put in the games and how we want to improve things or changes things as we go.
So as part of that we reached the decision to take out the national Pokédex and keep the Pokémon the way it's been announced. There are many challenges we face as we go – different styles of gameplay we want to implement and we've got a lot of communications features that we are working on – and of course the one really big thing we always think about is how we can work to make the game really fun for fans.
And as we were working on all of this we took the decision to make the Pokédex as it is, and from a development point of view that's something we have to do each time and we put a lot of effort and thought into making those decisions.
ON WHAT LED TO THE DECISION
I think it's fair to say that both are involved. I mean, in any design situation, resources and time are always a constraint on what you can do in a project. But at the same time from a creative perspective, it's part of a discussion we've had at Game Freak with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and we came to the decision that, at some point, we need to be able to prioritize new gameplay ideas. We need to be able to find a way to balance the right number of Pokémon and also still introduce new ways for players to enjoy the game, new gameplay ideas to keep the series fresh and enjoyable far into the future.
ON DEVELOPMENT DIFFICULTIES
Obviously, we did have an interim step with Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee. But, of course, moving onto the Switch from the 3DS and earlier platforms is quite a hard challenge, in particular with development efforts and costs there's a lot that you have to consider.
And, of course, with the new hardware there's a lot more possibilities, because there's that much more that you can consider in the first place. But really, when we get down to planning everything it's down to, 'How can we make the most fun game? How can we utilise the communication features that the Switch allows us to, to create a really fun game for everyone?' And we really think we've achieved that with producing Sword and Shield.
POKEMON HOME
One of the things we've tried to do this time around, and we don't have a lot of details to share, but we're introducing a cloud service called Pokémon Home and we really want to use that to kind of expand the Pokémon world, provide a place for players to be able to gather all of their Pokémon in one spot, do fun things, and also use it as a launching pad for different adventures and different games.
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On the whole, it sounds like:
We put a great deal of effort into developing each and every game as the project begins and we do feel that everyone having their opinion is important. But from a development perspective, when we go into deciding what way we're going to take Pokémon in the future we have to make several decisions on what to put in the games and how we want to improve things or changes things as we go.
So as part of that we reached the decision to take out the national Pokédex and keep the Pokémon the way it's been announced. There are many challenges we face as we go – different styles of gameplay we want to implement and we've got a lot of communications features that we are working on – and of course the one really big thing we always think about is how we can work to make the game really fun for fans.
And as we were working on all of this we took the decision to make the Pokédex as it is, and from a development point of view that's something we have to do each time and we put a lot of effort and thought into making those decisions.
ON WHAT LED TO THE DECISION
I think it's fair to say that both are involved. I mean, in any design situation, resources and time are always a constraint on what you can do in a project. But at the same time from a creative perspective, it's part of a discussion we've had at Game Freak with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and we came to the decision that, at some point, we need to be able to prioritize new gameplay ideas. We need to be able to find a way to balance the right number of Pokémon and also still introduce new ways for players to enjoy the game, new gameplay ideas to keep the series fresh and enjoyable far into the future.
ON DEVELOPMENT DIFFICULTIES
Obviously, we did have an interim step with Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee. But, of course, moving onto the Switch from the 3DS and earlier platforms is quite a hard challenge, in particular with development efforts and costs there's a lot that you have to consider.
And, of course, with the new hardware there's a lot more possibilities, because there's that much more that you can consider in the first place. But really, when we get down to planning everything it's down to, 'How can we make the most fun game? How can we utilise the communication features that the Switch allows us to, to create a really fun game for everyone?' And we really think we've achieved that with producing Sword and Shield.
POKEMON HOME
One of the things we've tried to do this time around, and we don't have a lot of details to share, but we're introducing a cloud service called Pokémon Home and we really want to use that to kind of expand the Pokémon world, provide a place for players to be able to gather all of their Pokémon in one spot, do fun things, and also use it as a launching pad for different adventures and different games.
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On the whole, it sounds like:
- The decision to cut Pokemon is a creative and logistical one
- Game Freak did have trouble adjusting to the Switch, though Let's Go helped
- Game Freak's big goal with the Switch was to harness its network and communication capabilities
- Game Freak is subtly implying that Pokemon Home may come as some comfort to those alienated by the National Dex exclusion
