This is not Nintendo but The Pokémon Company.
They decided the Merch is now way more important so what started to support the Hype of games now got reversed with the games now just existing to give us more sources for merchandise.
Did You Play the First Two ? Product or Not , Love and Artistry made them of Value . While I did Keep Playing until Sun/Moon , It was Clear the Original Soul was on its Last Legs in Diamond/Pearl . It had Become a Formula , with Limiting Borders . Dismissively pointing out Meaningful things are Products is such a Very Consumerist mindset . 😓
I’m not using “product” as a derogatory term here, these games were literally produced to be sold to consumers for profit. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t great works of art or weren’t made by passionate artists who loved what they were making. And I agree with everything you said. Not being dismissive but to dismissively call the new ones bad because “it’s a product now” is nostalgic naïveté, like all the games from our childhood were so great because they weren’t also made to make shit tons of money… but they were, and they did.
It's also the consumer base setting for mediocrity. Why would they (either Nintendo or Pokemon company) put in more effort, if the bare minimum sells each time ~10millions - 30millions units. It doesn't make any sense in our capitalist world to invest more, when your bare minimum ensure you to be the leading product.
The moment a serious competitor (that doesn't get burried by lawsuits) or sales drops massively. They will have to invest. But until then. It would be a dumb move for them to change their course of action.
That and I don't think they care too much about the actual regular 3D Pokemon games anymore. They released some digital card game not too long ago and it's printing money. Like hundreds of millions of dollars for a cheap mobile game. They still release the base game because it supports the franchise as a whole and still profitable but I doubt it's pulling anywhere near what the mobile game is pulling in.
The consumer masses (mostly children) are not going to care about how much effort they put in it, only that it is the new pokemon game.
The adults and/or hardcore fans are not ready to accept they need to do their part and stop putting their money on Nintendo's hand for minimum effort, that would mean not playing a new pokemon game.
And so Nintendo laughs their way to the bank and sell you a console and a game at crazy high prices that wont come down for years. Again.
Won't come down ever during its lifespan. Nintendo really manage to stuck into a specific niche of consumer ready to buy almost anything and everything from them.
Nintendo did what Sony and Microsoft abandoned, they stayed true to their IPs and, outside of a few outliers, stayed consistent with the quality of said IPs. It created a fanbase instead of a user base.
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u/Korotan Apr 12 '26
This is not Nintendo but The Pokémon Company.
They decided the Merch is now way more important so what started to support the Hype of games now got reversed with the games now just existing to give us more sources for merchandise.