sharem

I've actually been playing a good amount of Pokémon TCGP recently. It's extremely well executed and accomplishes a lot for their overall business goals. There's a lot of great systems that we're going to draw inspiration from. I often see the question of "Will there ever be a pet game that rivals Pokémon?" I believe there is huge room for a spiritual "competitor" to do everything that Nintendo aren't, while delivering something fresh to the core experience. It will take time but we will get there with @ExploreOmnia. People will ask how or doubt, but the answer is that Pokémon doesn't take many risks at all and there are itches that do not get scratched by the world itself. Nintendo, atleast in my view, is mostly in IP maintenance mode, keeping the legacy going without being too adventurous with design as to not disrupt the status quo. You're the #1 grossing IP in the world, period. Why would you? There's a lot of opportunity to shake things up within the creature collector / pet adventure genre for studios that have a good grasp on how to blend genres to create new experiences that cater towards younger demographics and audiences that refuse to touch TCGs because (a) overall complexity which adds a lot of friction to the new player experience and onboarding process and (b) rigidity and slow pacing which loses attention of returning players. What's also important to understand is that most people don't play Pokémon specifically for the gameplay, they play because they like the IP itself and the fact that it is...Pokémon. The brand strategy for Pokémon is as sophisticated as it is for an IP like Hello Kitty; everything is grown through animations, shows, music, spinoffs, collaborations, short form content, with absurd levels of specificity. There has not been a single Pokémon "competitor" to this day which has created a unique world (aside from legacy competitors like Digimon) and taken the modern approach to social media marketing to juice their game's brand recognition with it. You have to blend these genres experimentally with conviction in the design (very few teams can) AND also build out the brand itself (very few teams can). The intersection of these two groups is infinitesimally small and it's a borderline impossible combo to find — but if there’s two things I know it’s games and brand building. We're focused on what we want to see and not caught up on imitating what Pokémon was — which is why I have such high conviction in us being the studio to provide the world with an alternative to Pokémon that others failed to be.