This year, The Pokemon Company released their first games on Nintendo Switch: Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee. And when you consider both were received quite warmly, sold considerably well, and that both were made in a relatively quick amount of time after switching from the Nintendo 3DS, it’s an impressive feat by the company. And based off this, you might assume and conclude the team made an easy transition to Nintendo Switch development. But this isn’t the case.
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According to the CEO of Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, developing Pokemon for the Nintendo Switch has been harder than expected, and perhaps harder than it looks from the outside.
Speaking to Japanese media outlet Dime, the CEO admitted to some troubles with developing for the hybrid system, many of which come down to the console’s unique hybrid build that allows you to play games on-the-go or on the TV. According to Ishihara, ensuring that gameplay is up to snuff and fun no matter what way a player chooses to play the game tested the team. The CEO also admits that perhaps low expectations of the challenge of switching to the system probably didn’t help, and that the reality of developing for the Switch was probably five times harder than what was expected.
In the interview, Ishihara mostly conveys just the general difficulties the team had developing on the Switch, but he does mention that developing a main series Pokemon entry, which 2019’s game is slated to be, has had its challenges. And this makes sense, after all, it’s the first main series game not developed on a dedicated handheld device.
It’s also easy to forget the churn The Pokemon Company produces. In 2016, Sun and Moon released. In 2017, Ultra Sun and Moon. This past year, Pokemon Let’s Go, and now this year the next Pokemon main series title will ship. Not only is the company releasing one (two, depending on how you decide to slice it up) game each year, but they’ve all been quality. And now it has had to do this while transitioning to a brand-new system that offers multiple ways of playing and that isn’t just played on a small portable screen. Sounds like quite the challenge.
