Pokemon devs not planning Wii game or MMO
by JC Fletcher 
{ Mar 23rd 2009 at 1:44PM } 
Pokémon Platinum game director Junichi Masuda told What They Play, "At this point, we're not thinking of going in that direction."
"Trading is a core concept of Pokémon," Masuda said. "So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want. I would like to emphasize real-world communication. You don't see each other online." This statement paints Diamond and Pearl's online trading, then, as some kind of concession rather than a defining feature.
Masuda also said that the concept for Diamond and Pearl was to produce the "ultimate" Pokémon game. For Platinum? "My direction to (game designer Takechi Kawachimaru, also present at this interview) with Platinum was to produce another ultimate version."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Markez @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:48PM
Geeze, that likely means full steam ahead on even more DS iterations. POKéMON TANZANITE!!! Seriously though, I wonder how many more will grace the DS. Would it be fair to say 10 more, or is that excessive?
Saria the Cat @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:51PM
Do the different Pokemon Dungeons count? What about the different colors of the same dungeon? Or what about if they took those dungeons and put a castle skin on them and called it Pokemon Castle? Come on, these are completely different games we're talking about here. ;)
Dopple Boppler @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:12PM
Hey, just give me my Gold and Silver DS remakes and I'll be satisfied. Then again if I had that I'd never need to buy another Pokemon game again, so it'll probably never happen.
Meh @ Mar 24th 2009 10:23AM
At least the periodic table is limited.
commen-cents @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:50PM
god nintendo sucks
Saria the Cat @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:49PM
Wait, emphasis on "real-world communication?" I hope they mean people with friends IRL that trade Pokemon with them, because the Friend Code system does nothing for me when it comes to "real-world communication" with my peers. An online community that supports headset use would be great for Pokemon, but maybe that's just me.
no one important @ Mar 23rd 2009 6:22PM
"I hope they mean people with friends IRL that trade Pokemon with them"
That's pretty much what they mean.
Saria the Cat @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:18PM
Bleurgh on that. Any Pokemon player over the age of 13 can't find a friend IRL readily available to trade with. Most of my friends have jobs or thesis papers and can't just drop on over at any given moment to trades me some Pokemanz. There's no more recess in the middle of the day when everyone convenes for this kind of shit.
tmacairjordan87 @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:52PM
Why try anything hard when you can just rehash the same game a dozen times?
Could the wii with their online system and rules even handle an MMO anyway?
baby sea tuna @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:56PM
Exactly what I was thinking. They've been putting out the same game for what, a decade and change now, and every time it sells like candy coated crack. Why bother innovating?
Markez @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:58PM
I haven't ever played any of them, isn't the big difference and selling point for a lot of folks that it's just a different set of pokemon in each game? If so they could just put out a Wii one, and churn out different colors for years to come, that's like free money ain't it?
Highlar @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:21PM
If the PS2 could come out with an MMO (Everquest) without a hard drive, than the Wii sure as heck can. And from listening to Sony, the PS2 EQ, while not having a huge user base IS still going; the servers are still up and running and have a regular stream of traffic. So, I'd say that the Wii is definitely capable of having an MMO. And especially so if they ever get the frackin' storage solution SD card thing up and running.
BlackDove @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:54PM
I've got your Ultimate version right here Takechi.
svenhoek @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:54PM
Hi there Nintendo, my name is 2009. I just wanted to let you know, we would all really like it if you got with the FUCKING PROGRAM.
Lots of hate,
Sven
MF Doom @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:00PM
We're making plenty of money over here in 2002, thank you
svenhoek @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:58PM
Short term gains for a long term detriment!
MF Doom @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:57PM
"So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want."
Unless you're using the GTS. Which is what EVERYONE used. Much more than standard trading.
Sounds more to me like a thinly veiled excuse not to advance the series, since they'll make just as much moolah selling the same general formula they've been using since the GB days anyway.
MF Doom @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:07PM
Hahaha, how did I miss THAT!?
"My direction to (game designer Takechi Kawachimaru, also present at this interview) with Platinum was to produce another ultimate version."
More like the ultimate money maker, jeez. I loved the shit outta Diamond and Pearl, and it had the most depth out of any game in the series, but they could have done so much more with it. SO MUCH MORE. Don't gimme that 'ultimate' shit.
cuso26 @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:59PM
You can store things on the Wiimote, right? Mii's for example. Why not a table of Pokemon data? I'm not talking full gfx files here either, just a table of info that translates into game files on the actual disc.
There's your trading. Yeah, you'd need a Wii itself to interface with, but everyone has one these days :P
Mr Khan @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:07PM
Too little space on the Wiimote for that. Its 26 KB of non-volatile memory, i believe.
time @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:38PM
How much data could one pokemon possibly take up? I'm sure you could store a bunch of them in there. I'm sure they're just little text files, similar to Miis.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:59PM
strange indeed although I can see why since they are trying to keep it as close to its "trading card" routes as possible
Hyams @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:07PM
It was a videogame before it was a card game, though.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:57PM
hell I thought they both started at the same time...lol
Spartan @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:59PM
"You don't see each other online"
With regards to the Wii's online offerings and draconian friend code system, one can only give the following view:
You're damned right you won't se anyone online!!!
acefondu @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:00PM
As a business model I understand why they don't change things up. As a gamer though, I'm done with Pokemon until they 'wow' me once again.
The Baron @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:00PM
I actually dug out my Game Boy and Pokemon Blue the other day. Fun as hell in school study periods.
I'd really like to buy a DS for platinum, does that make me a bad person?
MarkHawk @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:02PM
But I don't have any real friends... :sniffle:
Fadam @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:10PM
Why does nintendo hate us? Or is it they are just deaf?
Mr Khan @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:22PM
They certainly don't seem to need to change, and certainly not to fulfill the demands of a small group of internet enthusiasts...
Zertoss @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:09PM
I don't know about everyone else, but most of my local friends aren't even gamers. The ones that are I hardly ever see. Even my roommate I only see for a few minutes once a week. Our schedules are just way out of sync. The rest of my buddies live all over the world. I doubt we're ever going to get together and trade Pokemon.
I'd be happy to help kids around where I live trade for what they're after, but I'm not sure if I could explain to the police that I was just trying to show them my Pokemon.
InFaMoUs1- @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:12PM
Pokemon + MMO = WIN FOR ALL
The Baron @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:20PM
It's pretty much built for it.
You max out one pokemon? Awesome. Guess what? There's like five hundred more!
Sam @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:15PM
you see, if pokemon were to make an MMO, they would have to come up with a new plot line, which they haven't done in... um... oh ever. So they would have to hire actual writers... and a team of more than 4 people... ect. ect. you see, a multi-billion dollar game series can't afford that much expense! (well, at least with Nintendo math)
Josh @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:16PM
"So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want. I would like to emphasize real-world communication. You don't see each other online."
Since the games are made for grade school kids, I can understand this logic.
baby sea tuna @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:21PM
I know, cause grade school kids don't *ever* spend any time on the internet.
Josh @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:23PM
They see each other in school and they all play Pokémon, so they don't need to do the online thing.
Zertoss @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:57PM
Back when I was in grade school, taking a Game Boy to school meant you were getting a week's worth of detention. You'd get your Game Boy back at the end of the school year.
Josh @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:21PM
Fuck, how can that be legal?
Zertoss @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:37PM
As I understand it, teachers were allowed to take away anything they deemed a distraction and keep it until the school year ended. I knew people who had to buy new pencils because they were playing with theirs and their teachers took them away and made them buy new ones. Not quite in the same league as confiscating a Game Boy, but still bad.
And before anyone says anything, the Game Boy that I saw taken away stayed in the kid's backpack the entire day, until lunch rolled around. He took it with him to lunch with the intention of playing it when he got done eating, but our teacher saw it, took it and said something like "Nintendos have no business being at school!" before locking it away in her desk with the promise of returning it at the end of the year.
He didn't get it back until the end of the year.
MillRecover @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:25PM
@ Zertoss
I feel your pain, buddy. My elementary school thought pokemon was like, mind-killer-of-all-children. I got in trouble for trading cards AFTER school was out (my mother was a teacher, and a buddy of mine had his mother there as well, so we traded after school while waiting for them), and they did a backpack search of one kid who had them out. 100% truth.
Gah, school sucks.
Read the fine print. @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:34PM
"They see each other in school and they all play Pokémon, so they don't need to do the online thing."
They might not need to but they'd probably like to. I know I would.
D/P would've been damn near perfect in my book if the GTS hadn't been gimped (you could only trade for pokemon you'd already seen), forcing people without Pokemon-playing friends to either buy copies of the old games, use message boards, or use cheat devices.
SKI @ Mar 23rd 2009 6:03PM
@Josh
Public schools are government institutions, they can confiscate anything they want.
Saria the Cat @ Mar 23rd 2009 6:34PM
@Zertross: My middle school confiscated ANYTHING that trended. Pokemon cards, yo-yos, marbles...anything that started becoming popular was confiscated. Totally pointless to do so, since it just criminalized trading Pokemon cards and caused even more distraction and confusion.
crazypenguin @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:18PM
dang it, thats the one thing i've thought pokemon should always be :( too bad it isn't.
zkey14 @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:22PM
Hahaha, of course they're not planning any of those things. That would require actual effort on their part.
samfish (is ready for MadWorld!) @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:28PM
One the one hand, I can understand not wanting to model some 500+ Poké-critters in fairly detailed 3D (since that is, to my understanding, always been the unspoken reason we don't have a real console Pokémon).
...on the other hand, it's not like it wouldn't be worth it and pay off in spades.
mazza_man @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:15PM
So THAT'S the reason why the Pokemon in Battle Revolution are as poorly animated as their N64 counterparts...
chriscanberg @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:29PM
Seems Nintendo's pissing a lot of people off, eh?
Well let me say this. Diamond and Pearl? Great games. Many flaws. Platinum? Holy shit, its amazing. It fixed nearly everything.
As great as a console MMO would be for the Pokemon series, I'm perfectly fine with Platinum.
And to Nintendo, I understand you guys don't like doing things for the sake of doing them, like making sequels among sequels to the point where the games go by year. But for christ's sake. Don't completely ignore them either. Yeah Punch-Out!!, awesome. But what about Kid Icarus? Kirby? Starfox? Donkey Kong? Even Yoshi! Where's he gone? I won't complain about a new Zelda even though one would be due in the next year. And I won't complain about Mario either because Galaxy kicks so much ass, its hard to top.
Nintendo don't get too cocky because as far as I'm concerned and although I was, is, and will be so dedicated to you guys, you're floating down Shit's Creak. Get back in the fucking game.
Read the fine print. @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:38PM
Why? What's the difference?