6th Gen Target Market

[BrandoSheriff]

I think that it was meant to target younger people, but it's actually the ones who grew up with the older games who are mostly playing.

I guess Game Freak is trying to balance it, by appealing to younger kids who want to get into Pokemon, along with retaining/evolving the things that older players have grown to love.

 

[darkpokeball]

When I was replaying Ruby, as an older player, little kids would come up to me and say 'is dat pokemon, ive played it' and want to steal the handheld. People ended up teasing me and making fun of me because I still loved the games. I then declared that Pokemon was for little kids and never played it again. . .

Then, B/W came out and I loved it...of course, this time, I never played it in public lol. Still, I couldn't help but feel that the games were still targeting a younger audience due to Ghetsis's changing from a deep and actually almost convincing purpose to the generic wanna be ruler of the world.

When B/W2 came out, I was surprised...suddenly, everyone began playing Pokemon again! It turns out I wasn't the only one playing in secret...soon, a ton of kids in my school, (all of us being the older generation), were playing the games. That's when I declared a new statement:
'Pokemon targets the li'l kiddies, but it somehow captures the older generation as well.'
I'm seriously hoping that Pokemon gets darker to appeal more to the older players...because like it or not, little kids these days just jam A and skip the cutscenes, so having some dark themes in there wouldn't even be noticed...to them, it's just ''Ooh, beat trainers, beat gyms, stop bad guys." (Which is pokemon at the core, but there's still a lot more, storyline, post-game, themes, raising to level 100, EV's, IV's, shinies, etc.)

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I remember in the Pokemon Direct Iwata specifically mentioned that some of the audience would have been playing since Pokemon Red/Blue (Green)
So they definitely recognise that there are people in their 20's playing the games since the very beginning.

I really feel pokemon can be a game for every age.

 

[Vehks]

Pokémon nowadays is pretty much marketed to all ages, as had already been mentioned here, but they still try to keep the overall game simple so kids can still get on board.

 

[droomph]

Their style of games is, "We're going to get the first generation of Pokémon fans on board, and then bring them along, while taking in more fans!"

So basically, they're maturing the franchise while still keeping it to its original intent.

And they're doing a great job! I can't tell you how "epic"-ed I felt when I played BW2…I didn't feel like I was playing what's essentially a kid's game. I felt like I was playing a legitimate game, such as COD or Crysis 2 or whatever the cool kids are playing, but it's actually a kid's game!

It's the balance that has made Pokémon so popular over the years.

 

[Guy]

Some of those statistics are actually quite surprising, I find. It definitely shows that the male audience today is a lot grander than the female audience, which doesn't come as too much of a surprise. Same goes for more female players purchasing HG/SS than they did for DPPt, likely due to nostalgic reasons. Remakes definitely have a bigger impact on the older audience as well. Although, I can't say that comes as a surprise either.

By those statistics, in terms of newer generation games, the younger audience is a bigger sale for them while the teens and young adults who likely grew up playing Pokémon are about the same almost. Except in the case of females, who are a little older than the younger target audience and generally close to or within their teen years.

New generations seem to fair very well for a wider audience than remakes do though. Which I guess, maybe I shouldn't be surprised about, but it's interesting to say otherwise.

 

[Platinum Lucario]

I've been playing Pokémon since way back in the days of Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow. When I saw the huge announcement of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y in the Pokémon Direct presentation, I was just so wow'd by how amazing the graphical appearance was in the game, as well as the adorably cute starter Pokémon, like Fennekin. x3

I'm sure this game... will actually attract fans who are new the franchise, as well as the older fans of the franchise. Since nearly everyone that I know was just absolutely amazed by it, and most people that I know now think Pokémon X and Y and way much better than Pokémon Black Version 2 and White Version 2 and it's prequel. xD

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Given how controversial Gen V has become to the older fans despite GF's attempt to bring back into Pokemon, Gen VI may have to go back to targeting children again with a bare bones plots again and the post-game battle facilities for the hardcore players.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

You're gonna have to source this whole controversy. You'll need some backing to suggest that the older fans have an issue with the generation and that it would steer this generation back. It'd be hard to imagine that they'd backtrack on getting the teen demographics.

This generation did sell well, that having been said.

I've made a thread listing out the complaints Gen V had from the fans: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=293218

Not only that, but I've met a lot of popular users back in BMGF who greatly despised Gen V for some of these reasons, even in this very forum.