Game Freak expanded its team for Pokemon X/Y development
Pokemon X/Y was a massive undertaking. The two titles were Game Freak’s first crack at bringing a Pokemon RPG into 3D, and they’re also the first big Pokemon games for the 3DS.
To help ease the development of X and Y, Game Freak expanded. The studio’s Tetsuya Watanabe told 4Gamer in an interview that the staff count was expanded by roughly 20-30 members.
He said:
“Right now, we have over 80 employees, but this is the result of expanding for the development of Pokémon X and Y. Previously, we had roughly 50 to 60 people, and before that we had much less. Also, to us, Pokémon is a very important piece of work, so we put a considerable amount of energy into it. So, making something other than Pokémon has always been a tough situation for us.”
“While many of our young staff members have pride in working on Pokémon, I believe that another part of them feel something like, ‘It’s not a game that we created.’”
“So I think that it’s best for our company’s young staff members to take the opportunity to gain that experience. Working independently, and arguing while advancing through projects might be an experience that won’t end well at first; however, thinking ahead five or ten years, I believe that [experience] will become a necessity.”
