GameFreak: "No more main-series" D:

[Sopheria]

So, this is a bit "out there", but it's a thought that occurred to me while discussing the lack of any news of any main-series titles for such a long period of time. Just an obtuse possibility, but a possibility nonetheless, and certainly one worth discussing in its own thread!

But what if, hypothetically, GameFreak decided it was time to nix the "main series" as a whole, and shift the focus of the franchise toward its other titles like Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Go, Pokken, etc? Do you think this would be a good or bad move on their part? How would you feel about such a major shift in the franchise? And most importantly, how likely do you think it is that this is actually the case, given the current state of things?

 

[VisualJae]

I don't think they are stopping or will anytime soon.

First of all, the Mystery Dungeon and Pokken games aren't developed by Game Freak. Second of all, the core series games bring in such a profit that it's not feasible for them not to invest in the projects. If the formula works and brings in revenue, as a business, you keep milking it. They have the numbers, so I can't say much about demand and actual growth values.

Also considering the main people responsible for the core series games don't work on the spin-off titles and all of them are still active, that just means they're doing... something. We don't know what. It's not that difficult to keep things from the public.

One huge "recent" surprise I can reference is Blizzard Entertainment's unveiling of Overwatch, their first new IP in well over a decade.

Another is Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII: Remake. No doubt they were working on it well before the reveal at the last E3. The direction that took is eerily similar to what's happening to Game Freak, albeit over a far longer period of time. Before the unveiling of the Remake, there have been several spin-off titles, ports and remasters. It's also been a really long time since a console single-player FF title (since all the spin-off XIII ones, ugh). Yeah, we have Final Fantasy XV on the way, woo!

Well, aren't we getting ports in the Gen. I games? I see the campaign as a stop gap. They know it's been a while as much as anyone else.

So how did these companies keep such big secrets for so long? And on top of that, led fans astray? If Nintendo and/or Game Freak has something waiting in the shadows like that, I wouldn't be surprised.

Edit: Might want to add a "what if" to the title as it could be very misleading.

 

[illumine]

The thread title might be misleading.

They don't seem to have any particularly unified or encouraging vision for the side-games, however, so it's not likely that that would stop them. They're still 'main series + gimmick,' mostly, rather than being that independent. They'd probably take them seriously if that was an immediate plan. That said, after attempting to engage with Pokémon for a while they might feel as if they were running out of ideas or interest, and then the thing could finish, plausibly. Likewise, a person writing a book engaging with legends of elves and such who goes on more or less continually is probably really enthusiastic about elves, in some form. If they aren't that enthusiastic about the thing now, they might be expected to stop sooner or later and move elsewhere, really.

Perhaps they're being lulled into depression by the possibility of re-making Diamond and Pearl. Still, they seem unlikely to make such drastic shifts in focus without making some kind of clear statement, so in all likelihood such a movement would involve gradual convergence, while what you recount does not seem to yet be at the level of integrating side-games as the only focus.

 

[COOLTRAINER♂]

I think this is a very extreme reading of the current 'state' we're in. A year and a half is not a long time in modern game development cycles especially if they're planning on making something other than "the game you already bought but with some more characters added". The only thing that's really changed is that it's easier to publish small spinoff games due to the digital storefront and app stores (but there were still almost as many spinoff series in the past spread over consoles and the portable market)

 

[blue]

They don't drop main series game because that's the core focus, it is what generates the most money for them. If they stopped producing main series games then I'm pretty sure the spin-offs would suffer in terms of sales, and overall it would be a bad marketing move on their part. Junichi Masuda mentioned how Pokemon Go will connect to main series games in the future, so I'm positive that they're not planning on scrapping them anytime soon.

 

[VisualJae]

If Nintendo and/or Game Freak has something waiting in the shadows like that, I wouldn't be surprised.

Naaaaaailed it.

 

[Hikamaru]

As Blue said, main series games tend to make tons of money so don't expect them ever going anywhere, and with Magiana getting revealed there's a good chance a new main game could be on the way. Also, main series games are depended a lot when it comes to marketing.

 

[Sopheria]

The thread title might be misleading.

Well not particularly, since the News tag isn't attached to it.

I think this is a very extreme reading of the current 'state' we're in.

I didn't posit it as a "reading of the state we're in", I was just putting this out as a hypothetical "what if this were to happen?" :P

That said, my thoughts are that it's probably not going to happen any time soon. I think they've put too much effort into building up the main series to shift the focus away from it overnight. Plus OR/AS was their best selling game so far, if I recall correctly. But still, I do wonder if it'd happen some day, if hypothetically something like Pokémon Go started selling better than the main series, since it has a broader appeal and all (i.e. being more towards the casual market).

 

[Nah]

Assuming they did decide to discontinue making the main series and focus on the other/spinoff titles, I kinda of doubt that it'd be good for the company. In the video game aspect of the franchise, the main series games have always been the best selling part. I'm pretty sure that none of the other series' games have sold anywhere nearly as well as the main series games. So cutting that out means they're probably losing a lot of profit.

It is possible though that time and resources spent on the main series game could be put into the side series and so those games would generally become better, sell more, and so make up for the loss of the main series games, but who knows.

 

[Hikamaru]

Plus OR/AS was their best selling game so far, if I recall correctly.

I'm sure X/Y actually sold more, because X/Y were recently named the best selling 3DS games to date. OR/AS's sales do come close though.

 

[blue]

X/Y outsell ORAS by 3 million as it currently stands, but ORAS are close to passing the sales figures of FRLG which is quite surprising. The sales figures for mainstream games just shows that their priority lies in those if they want to keep the money coming in for the franchise. They will reach a point where they run out of ideas and sales start to decline, but right now I think there is a lot of hype for the series, particularly behind the new Pokemon revealed today.

 

[Nah]

Best selling main series games in the series's entire lifetime is Red/Blue(/Green):

But yeah, X/Y still have more sales atm than ORAS, and are the #1 3DS games in terms of sales iirc.

 

[Hikamaru]

Best selling main series games in the series's entire lifetime is Red/Blue(/Green):

But yeah, X/Y still have more sales atm than ORAS, and are the #1 3DS games in terms of sales iirc.

R/B/Y aren't a surprise considering it is the beginning of the franchise, but notice this chart has the first pairs of each generation actually selling more than their third versions, sequels and remakes.

 

[VisualJae]

R/B/Y aren't a surprise considering it is the beginning of the franchise, but notice this chart has the first pairs of each generation actually selling more than their third versions, sequels and remakes.

That's natural. All the numbers make sense at a glance and if you decide to look a little deeper.

A better way to compare success would be to pull data based on how much individual titles sold during a particular period of time (e.g. first two weeks, first year, during holiday seasons, etc.). If you compare lifetime, then of course the oldest games would generally have higher numbers simply because of time available for sale.

Not surprised by lower numbers for sister titles, considering all of them are more or less the "same" as the original pair, minus a few tweaks in parts of the story and/or minor addition to content. I can't speak for others, but I know for a fact I spend significantly less time on sister titles than the original pair knowing that I'm basically playing through the same game.

RBY-GSC thrived on the initial Pokemon phenomena. RSE was a low point when the franchise transitioned and a lot of people already had their fill (I was in this boat, though I still played RSE). DPP brought about a revival (I was also in this boat, as were many of my high school classmates). I lost interest again during BW/BW2 since I was busy with college at the time (again, still played them, though). XY and ORAS introduced 3D mechanics and brought about another revival, and you can see it in the sales numbers how they're quickly catching up to the Gen. V titles.

I would like to say the trends do follow the generation of players that were first introduced to the franchise.

 

[illumine]

Well not particularly, since the News tag isn't attached to it.

General protocol for threads to be made if GF decides to end the series is a bit unconventional for a readerly convention, but hopefully it doesn't strike people as too exciting or not.

R/B/Y aren't a surprise considering it is the beginning of the franchise, but notice this chart has the first pairs of each generation actually selling more than their third versions, sequels and remakes.

I guess the third versions might not be that much of a surprise, those were generally seen as an adjunct for people who probably have some experience with or knowledge of the series already, rather than a new push, and as spin-offs rather than a main release which people might pick up, but the sequels and remakes is an interesting point.

 

[Otamajakushi]

Nah, they would be really foolish to make that call, unless the series was failing drastically. They can, essentially, print their own money with whatever they put out. They're not going to let that slip away, even if they were to decide to do something totally different.

The thread title should probably have a "What if?" in it somewhere.

 

[Megan]

Considering that everything, like the anime and merch, was build around the main games, if they ever stopped making those games and they don't come up with something that takes the spot, we'd likely end up with the series dying anyway. All the other games are just spinoffs, and thus likely too much of a niche to make up for the main series.

Well not particularly, since the News tag isn't attached to it.

People tend to focus more on what's there than on what's missing when it comes to stuff like that. That's how click-baiting works, actually.

 

[Hiatus]

If our current line of main-series is nixed, and, say, GameFreak does decide on focusing on some other title (such as Mystery Dungeon) wouldn't this technically that title our new main-series? Haha. Either way, I personally would not like to see this happen, as I'd imagine it to be damaging for them due to reasons in our above posts.