The developer behind the mainline Pokémon games is on a recruitment drive, as they react to criticism of their previous titles.
One of the most incredible things about the Nintendo Switch is that it’s played host to what are some of the best entries in almost all of their biggest franchises, from Zelda to Animal Crossing. But that’s not true of Pokémon.
Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet, not to mention spin-offs like Pokémon Legends: Arceus, tried to move the series forward, with a more modern open world approach, but all were heavily criticised for low tech graphics and endless bugs – and we’re not talking about Weedle.
Game Freak has long been criticised for its low-tech approach and relentless schedule of new releases, not least because it’s such a small company, working on such a massive franchise, but that looks like it’s finally about to change.
According to current info, Game Freak has only 207 employees in Tokyo, which seems incredibly small given they often have multiple games on the go at once, not to mention overseeing the creation of new pokémon designs and other non-developmental roles.
For comparison, Sony studios such as Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog have more than 400 staff, as does Bethesda Game Studios.
Part of the reason these Western studios have so many people is the additional work needed to create games for the more technically advanced Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
Nintendo has already indicated that games for the Switch 2 will need longer development times and now Game Freak is staffing up too.
According to Siliconera, Game Freak and support studio IMAGICA GEEQ held a mid-career recruitment meeting recently (the report says August 30, but we assume they meant July 30).
This wasn’t just a couple more programmers or artists but a huge range of different roles, from project managers to back office staff.
Some of them are contract roles but a selection of the most interesting positions includes Character Modeller, 2D Art Designer, Game Programmer: Communication System, Information Systems: Windows Infrastructure Engineer, and several R&D programmer roles – from graphics to battle systems.
Some of the roles specifically mention they’ll be working on the Pokémon series but others indicate a ‘new IP’, which Game Freak do make now and again (which, again, seems crazy given their relatively small size).
Most of the roles are for those with at least three years of experience, so these aren’t interns or graduate positions, but suggest Game Freak wants people that can hit the ground running.
Despite the complaints, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have proven to be Nintendo’s fastest selling games of all time, although they’re likely to bottom out long before they come close to becoming their overall biggest seller.
Scarlet and Violet were first released in 2022, so under the normal breakneck schedule a Generation X game would be more than likely next year. But Game Freak has itself hinted that things need to change and so a mainline sequel in 2025 seems unlikely.
Instead, there’s the already announced spin-off Pokémon Legends: Z-A. That doesn’t preclude a Gen X game though as, crazily, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet were both released in the same year.
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