Main series games oversaturation

[Mackened]

I'm not complaining about more Pokemon games, but does anyone think that all of a sudden they're churning out main series games once a year and it'll go the way of Call Of Duty? This is not including the 3rd games by the way.

Look at this (based on original Japanese release dates:

1996: Red & Green/Blue
1999: Gold & Silver
2002: Ruby & Sapphire
2004: FireRed & LeafGreen
2006: Diamond & Pearl
2009: HeartGold & SoulSilver
2010: Black & White
2012: Black & White 2
2013: X & Y
2014: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

In the past few years the time frame between releases has gotten considerably shorter. I don't have a problem with this personally, but I just fear there'll one day be an oversaturation.

 

[Ephraim225]

It's very possible, but remember that the gap between XY and BW2 feels shorter for US players because XY came out at the same time in all countries. Not only that, you're thinking of BW2 as separate games rather than the usual updated version - not that they aren't separate games, but if you don't count them then there's a consistent gap of about 3~4 years between each generation.

(I am actually of the opinion that if BW2 hadn't been made XY would have more resources put into its development and therefore would have turned out better. I may be slightly biased.)

Though, based on this list they seem to typically wait 2~3 years after a new gen comes out to release a remake, so yeah, this time around I'm more than a little bit skeptic. Though, the thing to keep in mind at the end of the day is, CoD isn't objectively bad, they just keep doing the same thing over and over and expect it to sell just as well. It's the same thing here, only we have battle simulators if they keep being repetitive :P

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

If one add in third versions to that list



1996: Red & Green/Blue
1998: Yellow
1999: Gold & Silver
2000: Crystal
2002: Ruby & Sapphire
2004: FireRed & LeafGreen
2004: Emerald
2006: Diamond & Pearl
2008: Platinum
2009: HeartGold & SoulSilver
2010: Black & White
2012: Black & White 2
2013: X & Y
2014: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire


Than the whole one game per year began in Gen IV with Platinum to HeartGold SoulSilver. That means we have had 6 games in seven years with the only break being between the two Generation V Pairs.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

The difference is that CoD has an annual release, which is the true definition of oversaturation, leaving very little innovation to the core formula due to the current shooter fad taking place in the industry, whereas main Pokémon games have a 3-4 year gen gap from each other, allowing developers to add new features not present in previous gens. Nintendo has a software formula for every system they make, which consists of 1-2 titles of a pre-existing main game series per system.

 

[Rosehip]

I don't see a chance of oversaturation at all. I'm sure the creators of the series have been making the games before release, rather than after one. Yes, they're sold a year after another, but they've had some extra development time behind the scenes.

 

[Dr. Silver]

Another argument to consider:
CoD brings out games on an annual basis to compete with other major FPS franchises to keep the attention of fans while also earning stupid amounts of money.

Pokemon can take as long as they like when making Pokemon games...because they have no competition. It might be a different story over in Japan, but honestly the only two franchises I can think of that could even come close to competing with Pokemon for the Pokemon genre of games are Digimon and Dragon Quest: Monster Joker.

 

[Altairis]

I think it is fine, especially because they seem to have different groups working on different projects at the same time, so they don't finish with one and immediately pump the next one out within a year. They're all being developed around the same time!

 

[LyokoGirl5000]

As long as they're not releasing new generations every six months, I don't think there's much of a problem. I do think that the gap between Gen V and Gen VI is really short by Pokemon standards, although that might be because there were no remakes in Gen V.

 

[Hikamaru]

Another argument to consider:
CoD brings out games on an annual basis to compete with other major FPS franchises to keep the attention of fans while also earning stupid amounts of money.

Pokemon can take as long as they like when making Pokemon games...because they have no competition. It might be a different story over in Japan, but honestly the only two franchises I can think of that could even come close to competing with Pokemon for the Pokemon genre of games are Digimon and Dragon Quest: Monster Joker.

I think he's onto something here, Call Of Duty as far as I'm aware has a fair bit of competing franchises on the FPS gaming market so that's probably why I'm hearing about a new CoD game released every year.

Pokemon on the other hand, is quite different-looking to most RPG franchises so there's less competition in that field and that means they can accept a break every now and then, as shown by the list of main Pokemon game releases posted earlier.

Japanese releases:

1996: Red & Green/Blue
1998: Yellow
1999: Gold & Silver
2000: Crystal
2002: Ruby & Sapphire
2004: FireRed & LeafGreen
2004: Emerald
2006: Diamond & Pearl
2008: Platinum
2009: HeartGold & SoulSilver
2010: Black & White
2012: Black & White 2
2013: X & Y
2014: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

There was some notable gaps between most of the 3rd and 4th Generation games, and also between B/W and B2/W2. Now here's a similar list but for the US instead.

US releases:

1998: Red & Blue
1999: Yellow
2000: Gold & Silver
2001: Crystal
2003: Ruby & Sapphire
2004: FireRed & LeafGreen
2005: Emerald
2007: Diamond & Pearl
2009: Platinum
2010: HeartGold & SoulSilver
2011: Black & White
2012: Black & White 2
2013: X & Y
2014: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

Unlike Japan, the only real noticeable gaps for the US release is between Crystal and R/S, Emerald and D/P, and D/P and Platinum. So yeah it looks like annual releases have been happening more often with the international releases compared to Japan.

Now the actual length of the generation gaps between generations so far: 1st, 2nd and 5th Gen lasted around 3 years each, while 3rd and 4th Gen have both lasted for 4 years. I guess the reason 5th Gen was shorter than we expected was due to a lack of remakes so at this rate I could see 6th Gen last 4 years but given this generation started simultaneous worldwide releases I'm most likely seeing 3 years until 7th Gen comes around.