The Wall Street Journal were fortunate enough to interview the Chief Executive of the Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara. The interview touches on a number of things including the franchise’s growth and why the main entries to the immensely popular series haven’t found their way onto mobile devices. Read on for a wealth of information:
- Internally, no one really thought Pikachu was particularly special before the franchise launched
- Now Pokémon Co. employees have an image of Pikachu printed on their business card
- Franchise has accumulated more than ¥4.8 trillion ($47 billion) from games and merch
- Ishihara didn’t expect Pokémon itself to become a global phenomenon
- Original idea came from Satoshi Tajiri and his childhood interactions with insects and fish
- Pokémon games were built on those simple experiences
- Making the Pokemon company bigger is not a goal, but reinvesting revenues in order to promote its brands is
- Pokémon Co.’s net profit was just ¥619 million during its fiscal year ended February
- Ishihara says the next big goal is to maintain Pokémon as a part of the cultur
- Keeping things simple has been the key to the franchise’s success
- On mobile: “The chance of finding success in taking a product made for one platform and bringing it over to another is quite low.”
- Ishihara says the experience of playing a traditional Pokemon game is similar to reading a novel or watching a movie
- Ishihara said he’s particularly attached to Exeggutor, since he tagged along while Ishihara checked the programming of the game, and together they explored many places within it and captured characters
- Ishihara said he wants to give Exeggutor more of the spotlight
“Ishihara said he wants to give Exeggutor more of the spotlight”
Well that worked out nicely.
“On mobile: ‘The chance of finding success in taking a product made for one platform and bringing it over to another is quite low.'”
Uh, I’m pretty sure putting Pokémon games on the mobile market would get you guys a LOT of money. Most people already play Pokémon games on mobile using emulators anyway XD
He could’ve just gave Exeggutor a Mega Evolution.
More of a spotlight, more of a long body. Close enough.
pokemon co talk about Pokemon? Wow what elese are they going to talk about ? The death of that sad excuse for a protagonist and his sorry excuse for a partner. but sadly they won’t ditch that idiot for somebody who is alot more talented and actaually able to win the darn leauge! Instead they stick with a protagonist that more flawed than the WWE Wrestling federation matches.