Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu has recently published an interview with The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara and New Pokemon Snap director Haruki Suzaki. The interview has revealed that The Pokemon Company had been thinking of revitalising the Pokemon Snap franchise in the past but they couldn’t accomplish what they wanted to do with the series using previous Nintendo consoles such as the GameCube, Wii, and to an extent, the Wii U. The Pokemon Company president, Tsunekazu Ishihara also mentioned that New Pokemon Snap for the Nintendo Switch was the “fruits of of many years of trial and error.”
“With the release of every new generation of consoles, be it the GameCube or Wii, we discussed making a sequel. Taking photos has become something we do every day and its novelty isn’t what it once was, so it was a difficult concept to design an game around. There was a lot of debate about how the gimmick would work, which made it difficult to start development. This game was the fruits of many years of trial and error. We finally found a concept that made sense on Nintendo Switch and made it.
The Pokemon Company president, Tsunekazu Ishihara
Feels kinda hard to believe. The Wii U in particular seemed like such a perfect console for a Snap game.
Well, nevertheless glad that they eventually pulled through and delivered New Pokemon Snap on Switch. That game was phenomenal! In terms of sheer quality, probably my favorite Pokemon game of the decade.
The Wii U would have made sense, but the issue was obviously the install base—New Pokémon Snap may have been a Wii U game in an alternate timeline. TPC makes their own business decisions independently of Nintendo and their lack of support for the Wii U as a whole was telling.
On one hand, yes. On the other hand, Pokemon is Pokemon. Even a spin-off Pokemon game on an unpopular platform will still likely pull at least a few million sales and contribute to the platform’s sales.
I mean, the GameCube only sold around 7 million more units than the Wii U, and it got like four or five Pokemon games, including two major spin-offs (Colosseum and XD), so I have a hard time believing install base played any major role in the decision.
It’s not even like the Wii U didn’t have any Pokemon games. It had at least two: Pokemon Rumble U and Pokken Tournament – the latter of which I would consider a major spin-off as well.
Even all of that aside, the Wii U having poor sales was something that would only become apparent a year or so into its release. With Pokemon and Nintendo being so closely linked, I think it’s very likely that the Pokemon Company had access to Wii U dev kits way ahead of its release and would have known about its gimmick quite early, so they could have technically started developing a Pokemon Snap for it way ahead of its launch.
All things considered, I definitely doubt the Wii U’s poor sales were a major contributing factor for the decision. I really do believe that them not quite figuring out Pokemon Snap earlier is the more likely explanation.
Whatever number of units NPS has sold, it would likely have only been a tenth of that on Wii U. That thing just wasn’t selling, which is a shame because of how many good games released for it, and the ones that have gotten ported over to Switch (DKC Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, etc.) prove that by selling far better than their original releases.
It turned out great, and was one of my favorite games last year. Definitely the best Pokemon branded game in awhile, imo.
I really hope some of the features in New Pokemon Snap will make it into future main-line games. I really loved how the Pokemon all had realistic-sounding cries that still resembled their traditional ones. It felt authentic, yet still Pokemon.
we have never had an immersive experience in a Pokemon game such this one. It truly takes you into the beautiful world of Pokémon where can get to see them in their natural habitats, interacting with each other, their surroundings and the environment.