Pokemon Business Strategy Announcement- My Cold, Honest Reactions

By: Ryan Ramakrishnan

On May 28, the Pokemon Company held a press conference about the future of the franchise. This press event was live streamed and ran around a half an hour. While my expectations were by no means on the levels of E3, I still hoped I’d end the livestream satisfied and excited for the near future of one of my favorite franchises in entertainment. I wish I could say that’s how I feel.
This press conference was obviously very clearly for business purposes. Regardless of the goals they may have for investors to keep their eyes on this age-old series, I believe that the “Pokemon” name has enough fans, fans of the games alone, to justify a better execution. This press conference felt like it dragged on, rarely being all that exciting.

For starters, if you aren’t someone who is living, or at the very least intending on traveling to Japan, the real world “Pokemon Center” is probably something to brush off. I, as someone who is in the west and can certainly not attain the means to visit the hub of the franchise, will likely not get anything out of seeing pictures of this place.

Likewise, the Chinese fans of “Pokemon” may be happy to see last year’s freemium title, “Pokemon Quest,” as well as the franchise's general language reach to come to them. With that being said, it is quite hard for any other consumer watching to find any reason to care. I myself feel that “Pokemon Quest” is just fine anyways, it being a game I only played for a few hours before getting a bit bored in all honesty.

Of course we will be getting another presentation, more akin to Nintendo Directs, next week, covering this year’s core titles in “Pokemon Sword” and “Pokemon Shield;” however, game announcements at this press conference were still expected. And yes, technically they did show us new games. Were these games even on par with that of “Pokemon Quest” though? Please tell me how you felt about them in the comments below.

The idea of transferring Pokemon from 3DS and Switch games, as well as “Pokemon Go” is convenient and exciting for sure. Yet even with the ideal application of “Pokemon Home” and how great it will likely be, I am ultimately only a little excited in all honesty. The truth of the matter is, I will probably only use it once and a while, as I have rarely cared enough to transfer back and forth that often in my many years of playing “Pokemon.” In fact, recently, I care the least. This may honestly just be me changing my thought process and properties but it does give me little incentive to look at this is as more than a cool app to download and try once and awhile.

In my opinion, “Pokemon Sleep” was, if anything, something to put me to sleep. I frankly still don't quite get the appeal of it. We were assured more details are on the way and I imagine they will genuinely explain what it all is sooner or later but for now, I am unimpressed. Or should I say uninterested. I just don’t think they provided any real context into how sleeping can be entertaining and how “Pokemon” plays into that. I love “Pokemon Go” but this just doesn’t seem to be all that exciting. And the name “Pokemon Go Plus Plus” is a bit lazy. I also am someone who doesn’t but many accessories like these so I don’t see myself even considering purchasing the third device from them.

The final game (not that there were many) of this “Pokemon” press conference was “Pokemon Masters.” I am admittedly interested in this one. Of course, they brushed over it fairly quickly, likely due to its early stages of development. I think that bringing together dozens of characters from the main “Pokemon” titles is super cool and I thought that the quick reel of gameplay didn’t look too bad. I am actually curious as to how this game will be played and my excitement for this legacy take on the franchise is only being harmed by the fear of microtransactions.

And yes, there was also the announcement that “Pokemon” shirts were coming to the states and I am sort of excited for this too, believe it or not. I don’t actually believe this is at all the announcement we want out of a “Pokemon” press conference; however, I love the franchise and I love button down shirts and honestly see myself wearing these so this just might be the tiniest saving grace of this boring press event for me.

And that about does it for my honest reactions to the “Pokemon” Press Conference, or the “Business Strategy Announcement.” It was not very long but certainly felt like it was. The announcements were very region specific and almost niche. The games they revealed were far too different to the mains series or even regular spin-offs to garner the hype that the developers know how to. I was ultimately not impressed and not left with a whole lot to concern myself with unfortunately. I now wonder what the investors and business people thought of this. For now, lets just get prepared for June 5, where we are promised to see several minutes of content covering this year’s generation 8 games, “Pokemon Sword and Shield,” for those I am the most excited for.

Were you bored or unimpressed by this sudden “Pokemon” press conference? Are you excited for these smaller mobile titles? Let me know all of your thoughts about the future of “Pokemon” in the comments.