ThePokemonfranchise has been an international hit gaming franchise for over 25 years now. When asked to point out the two companies most integral to the widespread success ofPokemon, fans will often choose the developer of the mainline games in the franchise, Game Freak, and its publisher Nintendo. Established in 1989,Game Freak has made games other than thePokemonseries, but it is best known for creating the JRPGs millions of fans have played for over two decades.Now, one of its three founding members is leaving Game Freak in order to work at The Pokemon Company.Junichi Masuda has developedPokemongamessince Game Freak’s inception, initially serving as a composer on some of the original soundtracks forPokemon Red, Green,andBlue. He also did some programming work on those games too. Following the breakout success of the earlyPokemontitles, Masuda took on some more senior development roles and was until now serving as Game Freak’s managing director.RELATED:Known Pokemon Leaker Hints at New Gen 2 Evolution in Scarlet and VioletMasuda served as the director forPokemon RubyandSapphire,FireRedandLeafGreen,DiamondandPearl,BlackandWhite, andLet’s Go Pikachu,among a couple of other famousPokemontitles. However, following Masuda’s departure fromGame Freak, he will no longer be working on future titles in thePokemonseries. Whether he has worked on the upcomingPokemon ScarletandVioletis currently unknown, but it is possible, considering those games have likely been in development for some time.
Serving The Pokemon Company as a Chief Creative Fellow, Masuda will now be looking more into thePokemonbrand through merchandise instead of games. Tapping into his years of creative thinking spent at Game Freak,The Pokemon Companyexpects Masuda to bring his “deep understanding” ofPokemonin order to develop “new products and services.” It isn’t exactly stated what those products and services could be, but fans are likely to see some of Masuda’s work soon enough, as The Pokemon Company is releasing newPokemonmerchandise consistently.
Masuda released a statement on his departure, and while somePokemonfans were disheartened to hear that he’d be leaving the team working on newPokemongames, many were glad that he was staying with the franchise in some capacity. Already, fans are starting to find out some information about the latest entry in thePokemonfranchise, after aleaker may have revealedPokemon ScarletandViolet’sstarter types.
Pokemon ScarletandVioletrelease in late 2022 for Nintendo Switch.
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