Highlights
- Pokemon seemingly has no plans to change its game release cadence, but there are discussions about improving product quality.
- The Pokemon Company has maintained a consistent release schedule, putting out new games about every two years.
- There have been concerns from the gaming community about the recent decline in game quality, particularly due to the bugs and performance issues in Scarlet and Violet.
During the recent Pokemon Worlds Championship, which took place this past weekend in Yokohama, Japan, The Pokemon Company's COO, Takato Utsunomiya, sat down for a group interview, where he stated, as per Comicbook.com, that Pokemon currently has no plans to alter its game release cadence, but that there have been "more and more conversations" regarding the assurance of the products' quality.
Utsunomiya began by admitting that Pokemon has had a "fairly fixed kind of a cadence, you might say," regarding its release history. Indeed, Pokemon has had a fairly consistent (and constant) release schedule, releasing a new mainline title, whether that be a remake or a game's third version, about every two years.
Last year's output was particularly shocking, as developer Game Freak managed to release two of the largest games it had ever made in the span of ten months, Pokemon Legends: Arceus (January) and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (November). Furthermore, the company's prior titles had been Sword and Shield, which had only released a little over two years before Legends: Arceus.
Utsunomiya explained that he believes the Pokemon Company will continue to operate this way, regarding their productive release schedule, but that they're looking at how they can do this "while making sure that we're ensuring really quality products are also being introduced."
As aptly pointed out by Comicbook.com, this may have been the closest the gaming community has gotten to an acknowledgment from the Pokemon Company of the Pokemon series' recent issues. For those unaware, many veteran Pokemon players have heavily criticized the two most recent generations of games, as they believe the titles have suffered due to Game Freak not having enough development time.
2022's Scarlet and Violet games were absolutely plagued with bugs and performance issues at launch, to the point where it became the lowest-reviewed mainline Pokemon game ever. Therefore, though it's nice that Pokemon Company executives are at least having conversations about the games' quality, it's a shame that giving developers more time is simply not something they'll compromise on.