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Posted By Austin Yorski about 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Producer Dashes Your Pokemon MMO Hopes,
I regret nothing.
Gamasutra posted an interview with Pokemon producer Junichi Masuda earlier today that shed some light on why Nintendo has yet to embark on the seemingly obvious move to massive multiplayer. “Trading is really the core concept behind the Pokemon games,” he explained, brushing off the idea that a Pokemon MMO would be great for battling, “it’s really the core idea that birthed the Pokemon games, and everything really exists to facilitate trading.”
Although Pokemon Black and White 2 have the most robust online functionality of any Pocket Monster game to date, Masuda downplayed the importance of digital connectivity. “It’s much more enjoyable when you’re talking in person,” he told Christian Nutt, “So I think the best way is to have kind of both at the same time, being able to enjoy this kind of faraway communication, as well as having aspects that allow you to enjoy communication face-to-face and in-person communication.”
Although these comments were only a small part of a much larger interview, they do speak volumes about Nintendo’s careful approach to their core franchises. Pokemon is still largely seen as a kid’s game, and the internet is a dark and scary place. Playing games with friends in person may be more fun, but I can’t help but feel like the real reason Game Freak is so reluctant to make Pokemon Online is that there’s no way for the them to control it. It’s much safer this way.
What do you think? Should Nintendo take a risk and greenlight a Pokemon MMO or is the internet really only good for trading? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Gamasutra
I wouldn’t mind the reluctance so much if they made more efforts into the Pokemon spin-off games. Ok so Game Freak don’t want online…that means there’s no excuse for why Pokemon console games are as crappy as they are now. Use that time to make a solid console game. (I will forgive Game Freak if they make an epic Pokemon Snap sequel in return!)
I don’t understand the notion that every series that is based on connections with others needs an MMO. Besides there are plenty of free alternatives that would do the job for many people (albeit they are of inferior quality in my opinion). If the creator doesn’t want to do an MMO, just leave it be.
The only reason why I would ever want a Pokemon MMO is so there would be a reason to play as non-”Pokemon Trainer” characters. We’ve seen them in them in spin-off games like Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Ranger. Maybe YOU want to play as a Pokemon for a change, as you could in the Mystery Dungeon series.
Hell, why stop there? Why not join a quirky organization like Team Rocket/Plasma/Magma/Aqua/Galactic? Better yet, wouldn’t you want to be “the very best like no one ever was”? What better way to accomplish that than by making an actual Elite Four, comprised of REAL PEOPLE in an MMO?
I don’t expect these things to happen anytime soon, nor do I expect any of these ideas to amount to anything more than a comment. I just really want to establish why I would like to see a Pokemon MMO.
Funny, I thought battling was the core concept of Pokemon. Trading is just one way to get pokemon. What do you do with Pokemon? You fight with them.
Not that I’m complaining; I’m not sure a Pokemon MMO is a great idea. But I would like the next stadium game.
Everything the interview listed is something that can be done in an MMO just fine.
They just don’t want people saying curse words in a pokemon game.
So, this is the picture Spoony talked about a couple days ago on his Twitter, this looks soooooo wrong. 0_0
I find it quite funny how many people here in the comments say they usually don’t trade. I don’t mean that I don’t believe them but after I beat the Elite Four, half of my B&W team consisted out of Pokémon that in one way or another where traded (either because they aren’t available in B&W or because I had to trade them for evolution).
While I do see why people don’t like the TGS (unregulated dupes everywhere/ridiculous offers) I did use the online trade feature quite a lot via some of the pokémon forums out there.
Well, I’ll admit I’d use trading fairly frequently…to trade over all my old Pokemon into my new game.
Seriously, that’s pretty much the sole reason I trade. I don’t like Legendaries anymore because 90% of them you can’t even name, and pretty much any other Pokemon I want I can quite realistically get from an older game and transfer it over, even if said transfer may require going through a few hoops.
I still remain amazed that Pokemon has survived for so long when the gameplay has barely changed at all and it wasn’t even until the last game that they actually started to shift the story a little. In all earnestness, is it because the games are marketed towards children who aren’t going to notice and the company puts far less effort in older customers?
Well I’d rather have a console Pokemon game that is a real Pokemon game and isn’t a spin-off. As for the MMO I think they’re going to regret this decision later on when they get beaten to the punch by some knock-off or people just don’t care anymore. I don’t like using traded Pokemon anyways because I don’t have the connection to them that I would to ones I caught myself.
From a business standpoint, an MMO doesn’t make much sense. When a Pokemon game is released, it sells millions of units in just a few days. Then you have to buy the next game in order to get the new Pokemon, and repeat…
But with an MMO, no one would just buy the game over and over again, at best they would buy expansions, at worst demand patches for the new guys. Plus with the games on the Nintendo portables, it makes you buy the system if you want to play Pokemon. If they put it on the computer, they’re pushing someone elses system.
You make it sound like MMOS don’t make money and that if an MMO existed no one would buy the console based Pokemon games. I’m not sure which one of those statements is more ludicrous.
$40 an x-pac. One x-pac ~every two years. $15 a month. That’s up to $400 from a single person over the course of a Pokemon generation cycle just on the MMO assuming they keep playing.
Considering this is a series aimed at young children, I would not want to be the parent that tells their kid that they can’t play Pokemon this month because we can’t afford the $15 subscription. For that reason, I don’t think Nintendo would opt for a Pokemon game with a subscription.
That just leaves expansions, which let’s face it, they already more or less do with every new generation game. Why make $20 — $40 expansions for a game, when you can package it as a new game and sell it at full price?
MMOs have been released on consoles, you know. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is being released on PS3, and earlier, Final Fantasy XI was released on PS2 and Xbox 360. DC Universe Online is also on PS3. Heck, did we forget Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast? Console MMOs exist and, apparently, work. They can put a Pokemon MMO on the Wii U rather easily; that’d be a system seller for sure.
Fans want a Pokemon MMO? I don’t play MMOs myself so I suppose the wish for one just flew me by. As for trading, another poster here mentioned only using the “evolution only via trading” method. Same here. Otherwise, trading was semi useless to me.
Hmm, if they’re not going to make a Pokemon MMO, a worthy sequel to Pokemon Coliseum and XD with improved gameplay would be nice.
The basic idea, as far as I’ve seen it get tossed around, is that in an MMO you’d have access to all the regions, able to travel and visit them whenever you please in whatever order you please. I’ve tossed around a few ideas in my head as well, like Type Specialization, “Real Time” MMO combat – like your Pokemon would actually run around and can actively dodge and defend instead of the current Whoever’s Fastest Goes First mechanic – and so on. Opening up the Pokemon world to MMO territory comes with a lot of possibilities, not just in terms of combat.
I have to ask: how many people actually TRADE Pokemon? Sure, I’ve traded in the past, but only evolve-on-trade Pokemon, which promptly got switched back. That’s my experience, at least.
I trade a lot, mostly in hopes of the pokémon having the dream world ability “Come on, Goldeen, have Lightningrod!”
When I was younger I didn’t care much for trading pokemon. All I ever wanted to do in those games was catch the most badass 6 pokemon in the game, feed them my TMs to give them the right move set and eat other people’s face off. It was always about the battling and the neat designs for the pokemon. Especially for the newer titles, I had thought trading was an out of date concept since I could always get the pokemon I want through the game I owned or through breeding. Looking back I realize that the pokemon battle system isn’t all that good, so unless they fix it up a bit I’m not going to continue to buy the newest pokemon games.
I’ve stopped playing Pokemon since Ruby and Sapphire, but I kept watching, hoping that they would take a chance and do something extraordinary.
I’m sick of waiting. Time to move on.
i like how the internet loves stabbing my childhood repeatedly with a knife