What comes after Pokemon Sword and Shield?

[AliceTheAlice]

14 hours ago, Hide said:

let’s talk business, not industry.

I would rather talk about the industry (GameFreak) as they still control all the creative freedom over the series. New Regions and new Pokémon will always be in their house. You can focus on business (The Pokémon International Company) but you have to be kidding yourself if you think that they make more money from GameFreak doing a remake then GameFreak making new monsters for them to slap on t-shirts and make into dolls!

[Hide]

1 hour ago, AliceTheAlice said:

I would rather talk about the industry (GameFreak) as they still control all the creative freedom over the series. New Regions and new Pokémon will always be in their house. You can focus on business (The Pokémon International Company) but you have to be kidding yourself if you think that they make more money from GameFreak doing a remake then GameFreak making new monsters for them to slap on t-shirts and make into dolls!

Well, the products we have, are the result of a business process involving more elements than Game Freak’s staff size.

It is sort of idealistic believing that the future of Pokémon games depend on Game Freak’s staff size, understood (from what I read) as them being uncapable of committing to anything else but making remakes because they are “small”. Staff size is irrelevant, it could be larger if they needed it. If preparing and launching 1,000 characters at once in a Pokémon game was profitable, they would do it. But that is not profitable, for various reasons, one reason is that they understand how the industry works.

It’s OK, talk about the industry.

But the industry includes the whole thing, the jobs created and the people earning a life from it, the industry also includes the consumers. If the industry is not profitable (i.e. no business) the industry collapses. Business is what justifies industry:

Game Freak is a company.
The Pokémon International Company is another company.
Both of them exist to make money (make business).
Neither of them is the industry.
Game Freak’s control on the creative process is one thing.
Deciding how you sell what you created is something else.

Finally, what do you mean with your last statement?
Make more money with remakes compared to what? Making new Pokémon and selling T-Shirts?

Releasing something completely new (right now) is not profitable, that would mean launching a product that would predate your own (previous) work. There’s still a lot of return of investments to roll with the current game.

They won’t quit doing remakes, they will do them later, once they need to stretch the profit band.

I said that selling expansions is more profitable than making remakes. This is because expansions require less investment than remakes. Simple cost-benefit, that’s the reason we are going to get Pokémon expansions (first) instead of Pokémon remakes.

I would be happy if they made a new major Pokémon release instead of remakes or expansions, but there’s still a lot of money to milk from the current generation of Pokémon. That won’t happen in the short term.

[AliceTheAlice]

23 hours ago, Hide said:

Well, the products we have, are the result of a business process involving more elements than Game Freak’s staff size.

I only on video games. (I was a teenager when the first games in there series were released. Why would you assume people interested in the franchise buy into merch aimed at children?)

23 hours ago, Hide said:

Finally, what do you mean with your last statement?
Make more money with remakes compared to what? Making new Pokémon and selling T-Shirts?

The Pokémon International Company as a result of merch profits exponentially more when GameFreak makes brand new Pokémon for them sell.

23 hours ago, Hide said:

They won’t quit doing remakes

We shall see if any more mainline remakes are made on the Switch over the coming years.

[Hide]

42 minutes ago, AliceTheAlice said:

I only on video games. (I was a teenager when the first games in there series were released. Why would you assume people interested in the franchise buy into merch aimed at children?)

I guess you meant "I only own videogames"? When I said "the products we have" I did not mean merch for children, I meant everything. The Pokémon game is a product too; and the Pokémon inside the Pokémon games are a product of business planning.

Now that you mention, some adults do buy stuff originally meant for kids, such as kigurumi, but that's something else. Also, the vanilla Pokémon game is intended for kids, it still is, because you always get to play the role of 10-year-old kid, or so. You still play the game because you probably have an attachment to it, which is normal, but probably your elders aren’t even drawn to it (so they won't play the game due to an "inner motivation").

The Pokémon Company has a selection of hundreds of Pokémon products to sell, the franchise does not need to create a new major Pokémon Game, yet. They won't change their formula because they know it works, meaning that maybe in 3-4 years there will be a new major Pokémon Game.  Before that happens, we shall see expansions and remakes: "The Pokémon you missed so much, now available in expansion/remake whatever".

Adding to the topic, it would be cool if you could choose between being a kid or an adult in the "base" Pokémon game. Perhaps it hasn’t happened because it is a game for kids. I also play Pokémon, by the way.

[Hide]

So, we get New Pokémon Snap, a remake of the N64 game!