February 27th will mark the 28th anniversary of Pokemon Red and Green. That’s already a very long time for something that was once dismissed as a passing fad, but if The Pokemon Company gets its way, the franchise will continue to exist for a very long time to come. In a newly published interview from The Guardian, Pokemon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya addressed the franchise’s longevity, and what he sees as his job to continue shepherding the series into the future. While decades of success would be an ambitious goal, Utsunomiya’s aims are even loftier.
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“My job? I spend all day every day thinking about Pokemon,” Utsunomiya told The Guardian. “Our goal is to keep Pokemon alive for hundreds of years – making sure it survives well past our lifetimes.”
Pokemon the Fad
At this point, the idea of Pikachu and the rest of the Pokemon cast lasting far into the future isn’t all that unthinkable, but in the earliest days of the series, few expected it to survive longer than a few years. Outlets like the Los Angeles Times prematurely declared Pokemon’s death with grandiose headlines like “The Fading of a Fad” in an article published in May 2000. They were hardly the only outlet that believed Pokemon wouldn’t last this long, but the series continues to generate billions in revenue each year, thanks to the video games, TCG, toys, anime, and more.
New Pokemon for New Audiences
A big part of the franchise’s continued appeal comes from its ever-growing list of Pokemon to catch. Over the decades, different people have found different entry points to the series, and every fan has their own personal favorite. Utsunomiya believes that continuing to create new Pokemon to meet and capture will always be the key to capturing attention.
“I do think we can continue to create lots and lots of new Pokémon, and really we must create more appealing Pokemon if we want to continue passing on Pokemon to the next generations,” Utsunomiya told The Guardian. “Coming up with new Pokemon ideas is an area that Game Freak really excels in. People who grew up playing Pokemon as kids are now entering Game Freak and are on those teams, creating new Pokemon and coming up with new ideas.”
If the Pokemon franchise really does continue far into the future, it will be interesting to see how it continues to evolve. Games like Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet would have been unthinkable in the days of Pokemon Red and Green, and yet the series continues to march on. So much has changed since those days, and yet the core mechanics and themes of the franchise remain mostly the same. Clearly that formula has worked well for The Pokemon Company, and it’s easy to imagine the series going strong for a long time to come.
Have you been with Pokemon since the beginning? Do you think the franchise could last for hundreds of years? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
