News Article

Game Freak and Sega Tease a Collaboration, with a Reveal Due on 11th March

Posted by Thomas Whitehead

Be prepared for it to be a smartphone game

When Nintendo fans hear the developer name Game Freak, they likely think of Pokémon; yet while that iconic brand is under the ownership of Nintendo, Game Freak itself is an independent company. Its continual focus is undoubtedly on the next mainline 'mon title, but the studio has also worked on other products.

HarmoKnight on the 3DS eShop, for example, was the product of an in-house process that encourages small teams to pitch ideas and, should they be approved, make smaller games. Solitiba was another product of this, and Game Freak has made games for a host of platforms, recently including smart devices.

There's now some buzz as a result of some outlets apparently being sent teaser postcards, one being RPG Site; these point to a Game Freak and Sega collaboration. As you can see below, there's some simple artwork and an 11th March date.

There's some reasonable betting that this could well be a smartphone game, with both companies recently producing titles for those platforms. You could easily make the case for other platforms, though, and if this is a relatively simple project we'd like to think that the 3DS could also be in the frame; right now it's all speculative.

In any case, it looks likely this'll be revealed in Japan next week. What do you think it is?

[via neogaf.com]

From the web

User Comments (52)

andrew20

#3

andrew20 said:

1.it looks like an elephant with peanuts
and the elephant running so
it is sonic turned it to an elephant by eggman

Tsurii

#4

Tsurii said:

I'm not expecting anything too great tbh. Not too fond of the majority of stuff, GameFreak developed in the last few years

blackbox64

#6

blackbox64 said:

My first initial thought was "Oh god oh no OHNOOHNOOHNO" But looking at the picture it might not be as bad as I thought

andrew20

#7

andrew20 said:

Sonic could be the next legendary pokemon or sonic could start out a sonic from genesis and the turn it to sonic the sonic oid then a chaos stone turn in to mega sonic oid
Sonicoid will look like a blue knuckles and mega sonic oid will look like knuckles from sonic boom just blue

BlatantlyHeroic

#8

BlatantlyHeroic said:

I just want to know what POKEMON game they're working on... ORAS were amazing (Emerald/Platinum level amazing, yeah, that's a very high mark to reach, as I consider those two the best in the series), but X and Y were terrible. Meh.

It's funny to think Gamefreak made such a big deal about X and Y (they even got their own special direct), and they ended up having about as much content as Red and Blue.

Then, they just quietly announce ORAS, and just throw in information every once in a while throughout the year without really acting like it's a big deal, and they're pretty much the best games to date. Gamefreak really needs to understand, we don't want an experience that feels hand-holdy or makes you follow a linear experience. Humans like to explore. We like finding secrets and new things. We like having hidden places that you can't get to unless you pause and leave your current objective. We like sidequests (NOT FETCH QUESTS) that make people in the overworld seem more important, we like a good narrative and lore. We like having new Pokemon, and having them play a prominant role (in X and Y they were kind of... there and not there, most of the time you'd forget about them because you wouldn't see them unless you looked for them and made the conscious decision to only use gen 6 Pokemon. ORAS chose a better route, at the beginning you only have that regions Pokemon available, then once you beat the story, you can go find Pokemon from other regions and use them in the Elite 4 battles and post game story if you so choose to do so). X and Y didn't even give its own legendary Pokemon a prominent role in the story... they were pretty much shoe horned in, and the only legitimacy to their existence was some random insignificant guy who knows a few tales (not really even legends) about them. Why they couldn't get a main character to tell you with a little more mysterious atmosphere? No one knows. Then after that you catch them and... well... that's that. ORAS succeeded in taking the original RSE story, and making the legendary Pokemon seem more majestic and.. well.. more legendary.

RupeeClock

#9

RupeeClock said:

My immediate thoughts were "Game Freak and Sega? Pulseman?!"
But looking at the teaser art, it's more likely to be an original game in the vein of Harmo Knight.

XCWarrior

#12

XCWarrior said:

Game Freak x Sega = Mediocre game. You have 1 great company and 1 company that no longer makes anything quality. Mix them together and the only thing that will spew out is average.

slim80

#15

slim80 said:

It's sad since I don't waste my money on cell phone, smart phone..games.only consoles and nintendo handhelds.

CB85

#20

CB85 said:

Looks like an elephant tossing peanuts. And a hand grenade.

Yes, this has a good chance of being a cheap smartphone game, with a 3DS port likely eventually, if it's successful.

XCWarrior

#27

XCWarrior said:

@BlatantlyHeroic X& Y were great except all the new games lack online co-op battle tower/mansion/whatever. Saw lots of nice improvements from prevoius games. Hardly average.

minotaurgamer

#28

minotaurgamer said:

Why you keeo talking about sonic in pokemon? is just plain absurd.

Is a freaking mobile game. Mobile gaming is where the money is in japan. simple as that

InterwebUser

#29

InterwebUser said:

@BlatantlyHeroic bruh, you tripping. XY were fantastic! I couldn't put it down. I've had ORAS just sitting on my shelf since December. I haven't been motivated to pick it up after playing through the first couple of hours.

XeNoUsernameHere

#33

XeNoUsernameHere said:

GameFreak and Sega are partnering up? Meh. GameFreak is a great company, but Sega has been spewing out some crappy games in the last few years. (If you need proof, Sonic Boom. I rest my case)

In other words, unless Sega steps it up, it's more than likely gonna be terrible.

JubilifeRival

#36

JubilifeRival said:

Just a game of an elephant collecting peanuts. The elephant has a sack with a peanut symbol on it, after all.

nintendomasterr

#37

nintendomasterr said:

Sega owns Atlus... = Shin Megami Tensei
Game Freak = Pokemon

Shin Megami Tensei x Pokemon game?

Maybe a new Devil Children/Devil Kids series.but with pokemon.

Kasplat

#41

Kasplat said:

@PKNoUsernameHere I hope you realize Sonic Boom was not developed by Sega at all; they outsourced it to Big Red Button (yes, there was supervision, but much of the blame lies on Big Red Button). Also, Sega released Bayo 2, which is one of the best games ever :P

SparkOfSpirit

#44

SparkOfSpirit said:

Probably not Pulseman 2, unfortunately.

I do wish that was part of the deal, at least. A 3DS eshop sequel would be a great idea.

BlatantlyHeroic

#46

BlatantlyHeroic said:

@Grumblevolcano @InterwebUser @XCWarrior X and Y had a luckluster story and a region that was all just linear crap(not to mention your rival is an absolute joke and the whole friends theme is just shoved in your face ALONG with having the worst designed champion in the history of champions). It was just utter garbage, Red and Blue have a more compelling world and story, and that's saying something. ORAS actually had a story that at least brought SOME form of immersion, and didn't make the legendary Pokemon feel randomly thrown in, not to mention it had a fantastic post game and a region that felt more expansive and free, instead of the whole thing just being a straight line to the next freaking destination. Pokemon region quality started to fall after 4th gen.

@Grumblevolcano It's a glitch fest that barely has much of a story or any relevance and really nothing to do after you beat the game. In other words, it hasn't aged well at all compared to all of the later Pokemon games which can do what it did but a whole lot better. I suppose you can say that Red and Blue have their atmopshere and artstyle going for them though.

Windy

#48

Windy said:

Its the sequel to Phantasy Star 0! Well not it isn't but I can hope......Sigh..,...

AshFoxX

#50

AshFoxX said:

Isn't it obvious? This is the press date for Sega's new console, codenamed DonDonDon. Game Freak is partnering with manufacturing. Sega got sick of trolls calling the Wii U 'Dreamcast 2'.

Megumi

#51

Megumi said:

...Ellie the Elephog?
(Elephog: A mixture of an elephant and hedgehog, they run very fast and are not made up by this guy who's posing as Sanya on NintendoLife)

Grumblevolcano

#52

Grumblevolcano said:

@BlatantlyHeroic I personally still really like Blue, that said recently my favourite Pokémon game changed to Alpha Sapphire. The main issue I had with the GBA originals is that essentially it started the concept of locking an area of a game behind a paywall. Of course I'm talking about the Eon ticket where you couldn't go to Southern Island unless you went to a special Nintendo event, conceptually this isn't much different than if the Link and Toon Link amiibo were extremely rare so the Spinner would be locked in Hyrule Warriors forever.

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