BLOG FOR VIDEOGAMES.COM

Pokémon Company CEO chats with GameSpot about Diamond and Pearl, why making a game multiplatform dilutes quality, and why Nintendo will win the console war.

As president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara has seen “Gotta catch ‘em all” turn from a marketing slogan to a capitalist edict for many a young gamer.

Ishihara produced the first two Pokémon titles, Pocket Monster Aka and Pocket Monster Midori, which were released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy. Since then he has seen the series’ success spread around the world, eventually yielding a trading card game, a TV animation series, and movies.

The latest two titles, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, have been out in the US since April 22, and will be released in Europe July 27. Today, Pokémon is the second most successful video game franchise in the world, second only to the Nintendo mascot himself, Mario.

GameSpot caught up with Tsunekazu Ishihara on a whirlwind visit to the UK to promote the two latest titles at the Nintendo Wii Flat in London.

GameSpot UK: Pokémon has been an incredibly long-running franchise. Why do you think it has managed that longevity when many other series have been forgotten?

Tsunekazu Ishihara: I think perhaps the continued success is due to the fact that every time we create a new game there’s always a new surprise, something new to discover, and a new element of fun. That’s something that we always try to have in mind when we evolve the game. For example, every time there is a new iteration of the game, a new region and therefore new Pokémon are discovered.

If you look at what’s happening at the moment, there are many intellectual properties that have made these crossovers between TV, movies, and games, and I think have applied similar methods [with the Pokémon brand]. So, we have to continue to look at new ways and ideas so that we don’t get left behind or snowed under by these copies. So we have to keep topping ourselves.

Full Article on This Link…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 4:54 pm and is filed under NINTENDO DS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.