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Junichi Masuda Isn’t Likely To Be The Director Of Future Pokemon Games

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The director of the Pokemon franchise Junichi Masuda has revealed that he will likely step down as director of future Pokemon titles and hand the reins to younger staff. The news was announced on the official Pokemon site. Masuda wants the development of future games to be younger staff who could presumably introduce new feature sets to the all-important franchise. The current titles are Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee! and there’s also the next mainline Pokemon game scheduled for next year on the Nintendo Switch.

“But at the same time, it’s important to have the younger generation at Game Freak take over the development of Pokémon as a series,” he said. “I do believe this will probably be, in terms of the main Pokémon RPGs, the last time that I work as the director.”

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43 thoughts on “Junichi Masuda Isn’t Likely To Be The Director Of Future Pokemon Games”

    1. INB4 the younger generation messes up Pokemon and you ask for him back because he was better or some bullplop like that because you decide to be a hypocrite.

      1. Masuda is the reason why Pokemon keeps getting more casual and braindead with each iteration, because he’s so adamant in pandering to the smartphone kids. Go read his explanation on why there wasn’t a Frontier in ORAS

      2. I’ve already pre-loaded Let’s Go Pikachu, because I’m trying to keep an open mind about this spinoff, but I’m glad Masuda is leaving the franchise. On the one hand, yes, it’s always a concern when a new team takes over (look at how Intelligent Systems and Tanabe wrecked Paper Mario), but on the other hand, Masuda hasn’t been listening to the fans for quite a while now. When he’s quoted in interviews saying that gamers aren’t interested in RPGs that are longer than 2 hours, it goes to show you how he’s out of touch with Pokémon community as a whole. Either he’s lost interest, or he doesn’t care anymore, and in either case, that’s when it’s time to step aside and let someone else take over.

      3. Times like this make you yearn for a Team Headcannon for the Pokemon franchise, and Ken Sugimori as far as new Pokemon output goes.

        Do you have any idea how many Pokemon on deviantART alone are waiting to be made official. And that’s without getting into re-purposing the ones from the beta Spaceworld build of Gold.

    2. Indeed thank god, let’s hope he left in time for the core series in 2019.

      It’s time Nintendo start to pay out these old men, they don’t even care about gaming anymore ( miyamoto works in the garden and plays guitar ) these dudes are so old they come home and care less about anything gaming or what we want from online or next gen.

      Please fire the whole hardware staff and engineers while you at it Nintendo, thanks all the gamers !

  1. OMG yes please… I’ve had enough with casual Pokémon with bland and shallow stories with non memorable characters or experiences.
    Pokémon Black was the last good title on this terms.
    Just leave already.

  2. I absolutely understand everyone’s concerns, but I am personally excited to see this through. Ask yourself: how long as Pokemon remained the same? It only added one or two things that changed up the meta but did not add the experience of Pokemon for all players unanimously.

    I seriously can’t wait to see what the younger director(s) comes up with.

    1. You wonder it won’t be casual anymore … are you trolling ?
      Please stop and leave Nintendo, go to mobile and stop spreading this virus of yours everywhere.
      Go do some sport or play with a ball and buy a playstation leave or games alone you freak

  3. Pingback: Video: Japanese Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee & Pikachu Trailer | My Nintendo News

  4. good, pretty sure he’s the reason why pokemon games are so casual and also he’s the reason why theres no battle frontier in oras

    1. Dude ORS is x and y and sun and moon and ultra sun moon 5 years ago and you still play it. I’ll admit it after sun and moon and seeing lets go crap who wouldn’t want to go back to play omega ruby.

  5. Honestly, I think he’s done a great job over the years (minus X and Y), but I can tell he’s had trouble pushing the series in a modern direction. Given how major the Pokémon series is, I’m sure they’ll get someone great to take his place.

  6. Seems like a positive thing. I’d like to see a more modern take on the franchise and I feel like stagnation is largely a product of leadership.

  7. I for once liked the different gameplay and hope that they will bring the other Gens like Kanto as well. As long as the main series stays as it is right now, I see no problems.

  8. Scroll all the way to the bottom to read the newest comments. Junichi masuda screwed up pokemon now who is next to screw it up, when 2019 core comes the younger ones can blame masuda! The community driven masuda away fuck you junichi.

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