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Is Pokemon the very epitome of "it's better to take a smaller slice of the pie than none at all"?

jigglet

Banned
You could argue Pokemon could still be bigger and better in other developers' hands, but this post isn't really about the quality of today's games and all the lost potential. My theory is I think if Gamefreak were a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, it would never have happened in the first place. The "pie" wouldn't even exist.

I remember Pokemon came out right after Yamauchi famously said RPG's are for basement dwelling losers. Is it the type of game they would have made themselves? I don't think so, personally. If Gamefreak was a fully owned subsidiary, I don't think that's what Nintendo would have chosen to make given the time and resources.

Similarly, the anime, which helped to blow it up in the first place. Nintendo was moving strongly against this type of cross-media thing at the time. Would Nintendo have gone down this path? Again I don't think so.

Then you have the epic success of Pokemon Go. We all know that after dragging their feet, their very best efforts on mobile were still a toe-dip at best. Would they have ventured so strongly into mobile on their own? Would they have been willing to admit they aren't experts in online and given a massive 33% of the joint venture to Niantic to help build it out? Again I don't think so.

People often wonder how much more money Nintendo would have made if they had enough foresight to own all of Pokemon from the get-go, but I don't think it's even valid to speculate, because owning them would mean a timeline where Pokemon never even came into existence.
 
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Doczu

Member
This man was too BASED for this planet, a true SIGMA male.

70
Here, corrected that for you.

As for the topic: mid to late 90s Nintendo was full of shit and many bad decisions. Them handling Pokemon the "Nintnedo Way" eould be one of them.
 

ahtlas7

Member
A Poké Pie would make a cool monster. It could shoot pie filling.

Lot’s of speculation but, dude, Pokémon is on fire.
 

GeekyDad

Member
You could argue Pokemon could still be bigger and better in other developers' hands, but this post isn't really about the quality of today's games and all the lost potential. My theory is I think if Gamefreak were a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, it would never have happened in the first place. The "pie" wouldn't even exist.

I remember Pokemon came out right after Yamauchi famously said RPG's are for basement dwelling losers. Is it the type of game they would have made themselves? I don't think so, personally. If Gamefreak was a fully owned subsidiary, I don't think that's what Nintendo would have chosen to make given the time and resources.

Similarly, the anime, which helped to blow it up in the first place. Nintendo was moving strongly against this type of cross-media thing at the time. Would Nintendo have gone down this path? Again I don't think so.

Then you have the epic success of Pokemon Go. We all know that after dragging their feet, their very best efforts on mobile were still a toe-dip at best. Would they have ventured so strongly into mobile on their own? Would they have been willing to admit they aren't experts in online and given a massive 33% of the joint venture to Niantic to help build it out? Again I don't think so.

People often wonder how much more money Nintendo would have made if they had enough foresight to own all of Pokemon from the get-go, but I don't think it's even valid to speculate, because owning them would mean a timeline where Pokemon never even came into existence.
Pokemon Go seemed to be merely a situation of Nintendo getting really powerful tech that would allow them to rake in insane amounts of money at the cost of being the CIA's guinea pig. But I think that decision might end up being their downfall in the end. We'll see. They seemed to have made a deal with the devil.
 

-Zelda-

Banned
All I know is that I have not enjoyed pokemon since white/black 1. Might have my favorite protagonist since Ash.
 

Comandr

Member
Imagine if Nintendo never capitalized on Pokémon and Digimon blew up instead. Speaking of Bamco, I’d definitely give them the next Pokémon game to develop if the choice was mine.
 

Rykan

Member
I remember Pokemon came out right after Yamauchi famously said RPG's are for basement dwelling losers. Is it the type of game they would have made themselves? I don't think so, personally. If Gamefreak was a fully owned subsidiary, I don't think that's what Nintendo would have chosen to make given the time and resources.
This has to be put in context though. It was a comment that was made after RPG's, most notably Final Fantasy, went to Playstation. I don't think Nintendo was really against making RPGs, but it was never a big focus for them. But even back then they did dabble into it: They partnered with square for Mario RPG and of course, Paper Mario for the N64.
Similarly, the anime, which helped to blow it up in the first place. Nintendo was moving strongly against this type of cross-media thing at the time. Would Nintendo have gone down this path? Again I don't think so.
Nintendo was very familiar with cross media. Super Mario Brothers movie. TV shows with animated shows for Mario and Zelda. Movies like The Wizard. They also had certain anime for other Nintendo IP like Kirby. Nintendo was no stranger to cross media
 

shiru

Banned
This has to be put in context though. It was a comment that was made after RPG's, most notably Final Fantasy, went to Playstation. I don't think Nintendo was really against making RPGs, but it was never a big focus for them. But even back then they did dabble into it: They partnered with square for Mario RPG and of course, Paper Mario for the N64.
There's also Mother/Earthbound and Star Tropics.
 
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Bakkus

Member
I’ll never understand why some adults enjoy children’s shows like Pokemon, Bluey and Pepper Pig.
Because they started watching it when they were children and lots of people have a large amount of Stockholm Syndrome about these kinds of things. I personally stopped watching it at the age of 10 or so.
 
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nocsi

Member
I’ll never understand why some adults enjoy children’s shows like Pokemon, Bluey and Pepper Pig.
It's a lot of escapism and these people craft their whole personality/identity into these things. You'll see something similar when today's mincraft kids grow into adults. They'll unironically/ironically still like Minecraft and it becomes their identity
 

Doczu

Member
It's a lot of escapism and these people craft their whole personality/identity into these things. You'll see something similar when today's mincraft kids grow into adults. They'll unironically/ironically still like Minecraft and it becomes their identity
Hey, i like Minecraft! OG player here back from alpha came out. Still going back from time to time and waiting for my kid to start his first run.

There is nothing wrong with nostalgia and clinging to stuff like Pokemon. Just don't be obsessed and admit stuff can be shitty 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

nocsi

Member
Hey, i like Minecraft! OG player here back from alpha came out. Still going back from time to time and waiting for my kid to start his first run.

There is nothing wrong with nostalgia and clinging to stuff like Pokemon. Just don't be obsessed and admit stuff can be shitty 🤷🏻‍♂️
I have nothing bad to say about Minecraft, it's an incredible game/platform. But the cult of personalities that cling is bad. I can't even take my kids to minecraft conventions because of it
 

Neff

Member
Yamauchi famously said RPG's are for basement dwelling losers.

He was full of shit. He was just DEFCON 1 assmad over losing Final Fantasy to PlayStation. He knew full well the importance of JRPGs to the Famicom and Super Famicom and was downplaying their relevance in light of losing one of the most popular franchises and potentially genres in Japan. And yeah, Pocket Monsters - Red and Green released barely a month after the Final Fantasy VII PlayStation announcement.
 
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