Pokémon Company COO Talks Franchise Lasting for Centuries

The global Pokémon franchise is now bigger than both Star Wars and Marvel, but for Pokémon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya, there is still a lot to do. He wants Pokémon to not only reach more people in the world, but to last for generations after all of us are gone.

Speaking to the British news outlet The Guardian, he noted, “My job? I spend all day every day thinking about Pokémon. Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years – making sure it survives well past our lifetimes.”

He continued, “I do think we can continue to create lots and lots of new Pokémon, and really we must create more appealing Pokémon if we want to continue passing on Pokémon to the next generations. Coming up with new Pokémon ideas is an area that Game Freak really excels in. People who grew up playing Pokémon as kids are now entering Game Freak and are on those teams, creating new Pokémon and coming up with new ideas.”

While the franchise has many aspects now, he stressed that the video game part is at the heart of it. “Video games are truly at the core of the brand – and that will continue. The games are really the best way to experience the settings of each Pokémon. We really try to treat them like living creatures; you see them in the game and how they’re behaving there … In the original games, there’s quite a gap between the descriptions in the Pokédex and what you actually saw in the game.

And he talked about how he wants to continue to expand the globe. “Pokémon is at its most popular in the Americas, Europe and Japan – and if you combine all those populations, it’s around a billion people. So, there are still more than seven billion or so people outside those territories. We really want to have the rest of the world become passionate Pokémon fans. So we need to learn to incorporate those values and cultures around the world.”

Source: The Guardian

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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.