Nintendo UK on Yo-kai Watch’s western potential, says “3DS has still got a big life ahead of it”
As part of a new feature on Yo-kai Watch, MCV spoke with Nintendo UK product manager Remy van Leeuwen about the series.
First, van Leeuwen discussed Yo-kai Watch’s potential in the west. The Yo-kai themselves, their emotional abilities, and the comedy aspect could all help to connect with kids.
He said:
“It is difficult to say whether it will have the same impact in the West, but I definitely think that there is a lot of potential for it, especially working together with the likes of [toy company] Hasbro and [TV company] Turner. Everyone is going to back it to its fullest. Because of the nature of Yo-kai and their emotional abilities, it makes it quite easy for kids to relate to them. For instance, there is a Yo-kai called Cheeksqueek, which basically makes people fart. That’s been a hit with kids in our research.”
“One of the other key aspects that will definitely resonate with kids in the UK is the comedy aspect to it. The characters themselves are just funny, and they’re quite deep, too. We will be trying to bring that out in our campaign.”
While Nintendo is looking to attract all types of gamers with Yo-kai Watch, kids are mainly being targeted. That being said, van Leeuwen noted that duplicating the phenomenon that was Pokemon given how we now live in much different times.
“We live in a wildly different time if you compare it to when the first Pokemon games were released. But there are a lot of other opportunities now to engage with kids, with the TV show starting on Cartoon Network, I think that’s a great place for kids to be introduced to the franchise, to get to know the universe and characters. And then go and explore from there.”
Finally, van Leeuwen closed by mentioning that “3DS has still got a big life ahead of it,” and said Yo-kai Watch will drive the kids market.
“3DS has still got a big life ahead of it. There will be a lot of great experiences and Yo-kai Watch, particularly, will help expand it into the kids market. There’s more beyond this first title, So there’s hardware driving potential.”
