What if gamefreak stopped making pokemon games

[Fairy Type Arceus]

Imagine if gamefreak finally decides to end pokemon soon. Lets say they get tired of the games and decide gen 9, with pokemon number 1000 they finish the series.

Now before you say they Would never because money, there is such a thing as writers fatigue, toriyama despite making millions on dragon ball ended it (at one point anyway xD) second imagine the amount of sales they'd get just from the fact that its the last game they claim to ever be making for the franchise.

Secondly even if the games end the anime, card game and manga and merchandise doesn't. The anime can make so many side stories with existing characters, adapt the manga, or have ash go back through every region to become champion in all of them. The cards can come up with new gimmicks based on the anime or lile that tag team thing, and the merchandise can jist work off the anime.

Now say they do this and include every region, every pokemon, literally everything ever. It would sell probably the best of any pokemon game ever.

 

[Boss1708]

If Game Freak stopped making Pokémon games, someone else would continue making them instead of them.

"Ending Pokémon" isn't Game Freak's decision, at this point. TPCi and Nintendo wouldn't allow for Pokémon to end. If Game Freak are tired of making the games, someone else would love to take their place.

 

[RileyXY1]

I think that if GF doesn't want to make Pokemon anymore than Nintendo will take the franchise with them and make Pokemon games themselves.

 

[Nicolas721]

Pokémon is not a franchise they can choose to keep alive or not, it's an actual company, so it needs to keep producing stuff to generate revenue. I think that no matter what crazy reboots or bad decisions lie ahead, the games will outlive the anime and the TCG.

The games so far aren't building towards a finale, so they don't need to have one. If the franchise someday needs to end, they just would quietly cancel it, instead of saying goodbye with a big fanservice game. I'm not saying it can't happen, but that's just how companies work.

 

[Silktree]

The other media haven't appealed to me in ages, aside from the rare movie or two. I suspect that by the time Game Freak have had enough, I will have long stopped caring.

As for the point of this thread, I don't see the best selling games marking the end of the series. That isn't how it works.

 

[Blockhead Pippi]

Now before you say they Would never because money, there is such a thing as writers fatigue, toriyama despite making millions on dragon ball ended it (at one point anyway xD)

Hi, avid Dragon Ball fan here.

Yes Toriyama did finish the series because he was tired of drawing the manga. But Dragon Ball is extremely popular and a multi-million seller franchise, that even without his full input, Shueisha and Toei continued the franchise through Dragon Ball GT and later installments of specials and movies. Then one day Toriyama decided he wanted to make more stories for Dragon Ball, but only as a writer and supervisor. So that led to the creation of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods. Then Resurrection F. Then Dragon Ball Super. And then Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Now there are rumors that a Super 2 is in the works. And that does not even speak of the plethora of video games and spin-off adaptations of Dragon Ball that continued after Toriyama's end of the original manga.

Point is: Dragon Ball didn't need Toriyama to continue. And it's the exact same way with Pokemon. It's way too popular to just "end" with Game Freak saying so. Game Freak and TPCi (and maybe even Nintendo) would still find ways to keep Pokemon relevant and fresh. We can see that with the spin-off games they released.

Now would I like an end to the main series? I think preferably I'd rather GF take a break or hand it over to someone else (Nintendo preferably). I don't think that'll happen anytime soon though. Even if they do have fatigue, I don't think Game Freak would just willingly drop it when it's probably their sole moneymaker. Game Freak hasn't done much else aside from the odd title between generations. It's why Project Town and the Gear Box initiative is so exciting cause they're finally branching out. Maybe I might even support Town over Sw/Sh.

 

[colours]

I'm not going to pretend to know how game development works nor the intricacies of the relationship between Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak, so I'd wager that if Game Freak did stop developing the main series Pokemon games, TPC would just find third-party companies to dev with. They've found DeNA for Pokemon Masters and people seem pretty intrigued by that, so we'd just get a bunch of spinoff or mobile titles instead. /shrugs

Which to be honest, might not be entirely a bad thing. It'd suck to see the main series end at some point, but I do think more life needs to be poured into spinoffs.

 

[Parissong]

Won't lie, would be bummed if the main series ended. It is sort of the lifeblood of the Pokémon series, so...

 

[RileyXY1]

Won't lie, would be bummed if the main series ended. It is sort of the lifeblood of the Pokémon series, so...

I don't think that Nintendo will let it end, so don't worry.

 

[Almonds]

Realistically speaking, it looks more like that they can't end the game series even if they wanted to, with the franchise being huge and so many things intertwined closely that one thing not being available would just be a gaping hole. Even if they stopped making pokemon games at one point, it won't be long before they end up announcing another game and say that they had simply taken a break.

 

[RileyXY1]

Realistically speaking, it looks more like that they can't end the game series even if they wanted to, with the franchise being huge and so many things intertwined closely that one thing not being available would just be a gaping hole. Even if they stopped making pokemon games at one point, it won't be long before they end up announcing another game and say that they had simply taken a break.

Either that or Nintendo would rip the franchise from them and make more Pokemon games in house.

 

[prog rocker]

Either that or Nintendo would rip the franchise from them and make more Pokemon games in house.

Just don't get Miyamoto involved and I will be partially alright. Sadly, knowing how companies work, this will mean a reboot, which is something I'm not alright.

 

[Mew2]

Either that or Nintendo would rip the franchise from them and make more Pokemon games in house.

I could see Nintendo having a talk with GameFreak if Sword and Shield underperform. If the same issues happen the next game and they, too, underperform, it will be interesting to see what Nintendo does.

 

[King Robert]

I do fear that if they end up letting fans help make future games, they'll just make it incredibly violent, vulgar or...anything that gets it an AO rating.

 

[hanecco]

Yeah, tons of fan games feel like they're edgy just for the sake of it. I wouldn't want that to be in a main line Pokemon game, although a spin off like that would not be unwelcome.

IMO, the franchise doesn't need to completely change studios - they just need to have someone (an outside party) push them to make the games more polished and varied than they usually are. Satoru Iwata was the one who convinced Game Freak to make B2W2 into sequels and not just twin third versions like USUM, for instance, and he also played an important part in including Kanto in GS. In any case, I think it is more likely that work would be outsourced rather than completely changing hands.

Things I think GF should do to improve the games

Spoiler

• Outsource all graphics & animation development (incl. programming) to another company, preferably one who can get it done fast
• Merge redundant moves & abilities to simplify things - also, this would make animating moves properly easier
• Create games which are the standard of a third version, by default
• Focus on refining the core battle mechanics rather than tacking on gimmicks like Megas, Z-Moves, Dynamax, etc
• Take a longer time to develop the games, if they want to keep the same small team size
• Get a new supervisor who inspired Game Freak to make the best games possible, not just "we think this is OK, it will probably sell."
• Don't just hand everything to us; make us earn it through battles & sidequests. This makes the game feel rewarding and interesting.
• ^ Also, don't hand stuff to us even if it makes sense in the story. Friends can have friendly battles too you know.
• Remakes should be based on third versions and include the extra content from them, like HGSS did.
• Keep making great stories like BW and SM!

Clarifying the first bullet point; I think the design work should be done by Game Freak & Sugimori, but everything else to do with graphics should be sent of to Creatures Inc or somebody. Man, Game Freak would almost be a different company if they did all that stuff above. In no way am I saying they're genuinely lazy, but they seem to lack a proper vision these days.

 

[prog rocker]

I do fear that if they end up letting fans help make future games, they'll just make it incredibly violent, vulgar or...anything that gets it an AO rating.

Thank you for reminding me of Quartz, Snakewood and Dark Rising shudders Doesn't help that Snakewood would have worked if they kept the horror straight like in the first... half-hour of the game(?) instead of turning into a parody of... something. I guess the author was on drugs during the latter part of development.

 

[Blockhead Pippi]

I do fear that if they end up letting fans help make future games, they'll just make it incredibly violent, vulgar or...anything that gets it an AO rating.

That literally won't ever happen.

 

[godiego]

I could see Nintendo having a talk with GameFreak if Sword and Shield underperform. If the same issues happen the next game and they, too, underperform, it will be interesting to see what Nintendo does.

the only reason Nintendo would have a "talk" with GF about SwSh is if its sales caused problems with the on merch and the Switch. the games themselves don't generate nearly as much revenue as the rest of the franchise

 

[Palamon]

Even if Game Freak stopped making Pokemon games, I'm sure that Nintendo will just take over. :x It's not that unlikely, anyway.

 

[Mew2]

the only reason Nintendo would have a "talk" with GF about SwSh is if its sales caused problems with the on merch and the Switch. the games themselves don't generate nearly as much revenue as the rest of the franchise

If the games noticeably underperform, I could easily see that having a negative impact on both Switch sales as well as merchandise sales.