Whereas celebrating Pokémon Day, CEO of the Pokémon Firm Tsunekazu Ishihara revealed in an interview with the BBC that he believes that the franchise must preserve evolving, and that the corporate can’t afford to “grow to be complacent and float”.
In accordance with Ishihara, this drive to not get complacent comes from the truth that the Pokémon Firm doesn’t do a lot except for engaged on numerous issues within the Pokémon franchise.
“Pokemon is the one factor we do on the Pokemon Firm,” mentioned Ishihara to the BBC. “No matter revenue we make from Pokemon will get reinvested in Pokemon.”
He additionally brings up the truth that, contemplating the historical past and legacy of the Pokémon franchise, the Pokémon Firm would go bust if the franchise wasn’t standard anymore. However, persevering with to give attention to its mission would permit the corporate to have a good time longer-term anniversaries for the franchise.
“If we proceed specializing in our mission, Pokemon can most likely proceed to its fiftieth or one hundredth anniversary […] We’ll go bust when Pokemon is not standard.”
“If we grow to be complacent and float, that’s when Pokemon will go downhill,” he continued.
Ishihara brings up numerous Pokémon video games and the way they’ve helped the franchise stay recent. An instance he spoke about was Pokémon GO.
“That is what I feel is the largest energy of Pokémon, and it’s vital for us to provide you with this sort of concept,” he mentioned. “In order that’s how I consider what we wish to obtain subsequent.”
The interview comes on the heels of a Pokémon Presents occasion, the place the corporate made a few main bulletins. Considered one of these was the disclosing of Pokémon Champions – a brand new title for Nintendo Change, iOS and Android.
Introduced with a trailer, Pokémon Champions focuses on battles just like what followers of the Pokémon franchise would possibly count on. The trailer showcased a number of the gameplay alongside dwell motion footage of individuals taking part in Pokémon video games throughout numerous console generations.
Alongside that includes its personal roster of Pokémon, Pokémon Champions may even permit gamers to herald their very own assortment by way of Pokémon HOME. The sport can be targeted on multiplayer, and can function crossplay between its launch platforms.
Alongside the brand new title, the occasion additionally gave us a brand new trailer for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, together with a late 2025 launch window. The trailer gave us our first have a look at the sport’s three starter Pokémon: the grass-based Chikorita, the water-based Totodile, and the fire-based Tepig.
The trailer additionally gave us a have a look at the principle setting for Pokémon Legends: Z-A: Lumiose Metropolis. Gamers will get to discover town to fairly an extent as they journey by way of its streets and make use of teleportation lifts to get entry to constructing rooftops.
The trailer additionally showcased the fight, which will probably be fairly just like what we final noticed in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. An actual-time fight system will permit gamers to utilize cautious positioning and dodging. Gamers may even should watch out about assaults that may have an effect on targets in a big space.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A may even function the return of Mega Evolution as a mechanic.