Pokemon Dev on DLC: "I've Always Said 'No' To Paid Pokemon"

[Brian Tams]

Could you imagine if a company like EA had control of Pokemon? It would be Microtransaction hell.

 

[ccggenius12]

I'd give 'em a dollar to be able to dress as a member of Team Rocket.







Don't judge me.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

There's something amusing about the notion that after having spent years milking every drop of their franchise through trading cards, toys, clothing, movies and other random merchandise, they draw the line at DLC.

So having pokemon be available in the form of DLC is bad but making 2 slightly different versions of the same game is standard practice?

What the fuck, Nintendo?

The excuse for the 'two different versions' thing is to force you to trade with people - which back in the day was largely invented to sell those Gameboy connection cables.

 

[weirdee]

yeah, i'd pay some pocket change for fancier clothes, let's pull those reskinning kid gloves off and put some REAL fancy things in

@poster above: the difference between merchandising and DLC is that you're actually getting a real life piece of swag for your money, and that's fine, but as soon as you start messing with a game's system, a lot of things change, and there are important decisions to consider

nobody's going to start a riot if they sell more pokemon lollipops, on the other hand

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

@poster above: the difference between merchandising and DLC is that you're actually getting a real life piece of swag for your money, and that's fine, but as soon as you start messing with a game's system, a lot of things change, and there are important decisions to consider

nobody's going to start a riot if they sell more pokemon lollipops, on the other hand

Sugimori's point against paying for pokemon was that they aren't eager to do it unless they can ensure you get reasonable value for their money. Now while I agree with you that DLC and microtransactions can adversely affect a game, I think it's pretty rich for Nintendo to start taking the high ground after spending years marketing seriously overpriced crap under the relentless 'catch em all' slogan. Especially those damn trading cards, where they arbitrarily assign them different levels of strength and thus give you a good chance that a booster pack turns out to be relatively worthless.

 

[weirdee]

@poster above: the difference between merchandising and DLC is that you're actually getting a real life piece of swag for your money, and that's fine, but as soon as you start messing with a game's system, a lot of things change, and there are important decisions to consider

nobody's going to start a riot if they sell more pokemon lollipops, on the other hand

Sugimori's point against paying for pokemon was that they aren't eager to do it unless they can ensure you get reasonable value for their money. Now while I agree with you that DLC and microtransactions can adversely affect a game, I think it's pretty rich for Nintendo to start taking the high ground after spending years marketing seriously overpriced crap under the relentless 'catch em all' slogan. Especially those damn trading cards, where they arbitrarily assign them different levels of strength and thus give you a good chance that a booster pack turns out to be relatively worthless.

I can't really hold that against them when M:tG has also been doing the same thing, and they're pretty much the leading example, although that's mostly because insane combinations can come from any kind of rarity card as long as they fall into place, and it's just as easy for something that looks really great to turn out to be garbage in practice

however, since their core concern is the games, they really have to make a strong effort to remain relevant in a time where people try to claim that pokemon doesn't have a role in the gaming world because they think their games are getting samey

 

[ThunderCavalier]

I'm really glad he's putting his foot down on this.

Any other company would of gladly milked this franchise to death with bullshit DLC like that. It's great to see that the devs behind Pokemon are willing and respectable enough to give you the full game and nothing short of it.

That being said, I find it great that Nintendo "joins the present" with DLC and are still more progressive about it by only charging a fucking dollar for it. That's it. One buck.

The most expensive DLC they ever did was NSLU at $20.00. Yet that came with 80 levels, Luigi and Nabbit as playable characters and an insane spike in difficulty.
So much so, that it might as well be a game within itself.

Just this.

I fear that Microsoft (and possibly Sony) will commercialize their game consoles to death by focusing on graphics that no one asked for, games that don't change and bore everyone, and features no one wanted until people simply stop caring, and Nintendo will win out in the end. They may not be "winning" the console wars, but since the console wars are primarily between Sony and Microsoft anyway, they don't need to win; they've never been competing anyway. They've always won in their specific niche.

 

[JSoup]

I figure having wonder cards for event items up for $1 might be reasonable, particularly for those that don't have access to event locations. Not really buying Pokemon, per say, just opening up events that will eventually lead to Pokemon.

 

[Dragonbums]

@poster above: the difference between merchandising and DLC is that you're actually getting a real life piece of swag for your money, and that's fine, but as soon as you start messing with a game's system, a lot of things change, and there are important decisions to consider

nobody's going to start a riot if they sell more pokemon lollipops, on the other hand

Sugimori's point against paying for pokemon was that they aren't eager to do it unless they can ensure you get reasonable value for their money. Now while I agree with you that DLC and microtransactions can adversely affect a game, I think it's pretty rich for Nintendo to start taking the high ground after spending years marketing seriously overpriced crap under the relentless 'catch em all' slogan. Especially those damn trading cards, where they arbitrarily assign them different levels of strength and thus give you a good chance that a booster pack turns out to be relatively worthless.

I don't think I have ever heard Pokemon use the "Gotta catch em all" slogan for a while. People who have claimed as such probably only remember them saying that 8 years ago. They stopped that at around Diamond and Pearl and the new message is literally be a Pokemon Master- ergo, not getting your ass handed to by every single EV trained Pokemon on wifi.

I find it funny though that you claim they are on some high ground. Pokemon has done DLC before. Only difference was that they were completely free and up until a couple of years ago required a simple trip to Gamestop (if your in the states) or a wifi connection.


Over priced? How unless your in the infamous New Zealand or Australian areas Pokemon is no more expensive than the average than the average 3DS/DS game. $35 bucks aint' overpriced pal. The games are especially not crap. You might want to point that accusation at some of the AAA big budget titles that charge you $60.00 for "next gen graphics" with only 10 hours of gameplay, still charges you over $10.00 DLC for map/skin packs, and if you get a PS4, will have to pay for multiplayer through Sony PS+ just to use their online feature.

But a game that's half the price, doesn't charge you for online, gives you much more hours of gameplay time, and the ability to play, trade, show off, battle, with literally ANYONE in the world is overpriced crap and Gamefreak taking a moral high ground.

 

[Foolery]

As others have said, region expansion. I'd pay money to be able to go to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Unova so I could fight their gyms. X/Y really does need solid post-game content, as of now it's quite lacking.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Having DLC pokemon would absolutely kill the game, same way the auction house killed Diablo 3. If they are going to do that then they might as well make the game freemium. Now if they were to add more endgame content like visiting other regions and whatnot, that would be sweet. Paid DLC pokemon would just kill the experience though.