Game Freak on how it approaches future Pokemon titles, new-gen titles have three-year dev cycle
Speaking with IGN, Pokemon producer Junichi Masuda vaguely discussed how Game Freak approaches future Pokemon games. He explained that what is and isn’t kept “may depend somewhat on the timing of when that game will come out.” For instance, while Pokemon Sun/Moon did away with gyms since it was the second generation entry on 3DS, Pokemon Sword/Shield is the true debut on Switch, which is why gyms are back.
Masuda also confirmed that new-generation Pokemon titles “have about a three-year development cycle”. The developers need to think about what the future will be like in three years’ time, including what fans would be interested in when the games release.
Masuda’s full words:
“What we keep or what we change may depend somewhat on the timing of when that game will come out. For example, with Sun and Moon, you mentioned the trials versus the gyms. One of the reasons for that was it was the second generation of Pokemon [on the 3DS]. So we wanted to kind of provide a little bit of a surprise there for people.”
“We wanted to, for this first entry (on Switch) at least, really do a traditional take on Pokemon and bring back the gyms.”
“We usually have about a three-year development cycle for the new-generation titles. So when we’re first setting out on creating the themes and the systems for the game, we always got to think about, ‘Where are things going to be three years from now?’ and trying to envision that a little bit. [We have to consider that] the people who are currently fans are going to be three years older. [And ask ourselves] what kinds of things would they be looking forward to?”
