News: James Turner leaving Game Freak to start own studio

He made an ice cream and several friends, and now he'll be doing his own thing.

Nice! Congratulations to him on his new project!

I'll be looking forward to playing some of his studio's games soon. I'm not gonna lie, the Pokémon games will never be the same without his contributions, but I'm glad he's going his own way. I can only wish him the best.

Staffs comes and go I guess. Best wishes to him on his new courier

I wish him good luck on what he does next

Should I be concerned about something like this? Two big figures have left game freak.

Article updated with the trailer of his studio's first game! The Plucky Squire.

Palamon said:

Should I be concerned about something like this? Two big figures have left game freak.

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Masuda left Game Freak but is now part of TPC, so not quite the same. Turner may well have been involved in SV to some extent too as large game dev projects are at least 2 years typically... but it's not clear.

I wouldn't worry at any rate.

Game looks adorable even if it's not my thing! Wishing him lots of luck with this goal, really nice to see he managed to achieve something he's said he wanted for a while.

I'm surprised at how extensive his history with the franchise is, honestly. I didn't know that he'd worked at Genius Sorority for 8 years or directed HarmoKnight, I just thought he was responsible for some of the most hated Pokemon and the art director for two of the worst games in the franchise, haha.

It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here, but with the thoughtless direction Scarlet and Violet appear to be taking, it looks like he got out at a good time.

Dawn said:

I'm surprised at how extensive his history with the franchise is, honestly. I didn't know that he'd worked at Genius Sorority for 8 years or directed HarmoKnight, I just thought he was responsible for some of the most hated Pokemon and the art director for two of the worst games in the franchise, haha.

It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here, but with the thoughtless direction Scarlet and Violet appear to be taking, it looks like he got out at a good time.

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I guess I shouldn't be surprised it's not that well known on the Genius Sonority part; I've followed those games more than most, haha. But yeah, he even was involved with Shadow Lugia, so that's significant. He was one of the various staff members TPC/GF reshuffled from GS.

I feel it's too early to yet tell how Scarlet and Violet will turn out, but I'm curious if he was involved significantly in those games before quitting. Certainly his new game's art style, well, screams 'James Turner made this'.

Plucky Squire looks soo good. :')

Art style looks neat.