Around 1,000 People Worked On The New Pokémon Games For Switch

That’s a lot of people I guess.

Sounds like poor management to me.

The team's over one THOUSAAAAAAANNNND!

Honestly considering the games are releasing in like 10 different languages, I imagine at least 20-30 people at the very least were involved purely in localization. Probably more.

And say what you will about some of GF design choices, but Pokemon games basically never have the sort of game breaking bugs or serious glitches you see in all sorts of other major series.

You've got programmers, 3D modelers, artists, musicians, marketing teams, testers, etc etc.

1000 people sounds like a lot and it is, but when you think about how massive it is to release a game, in many languages, in countries all over the world, at the same time... I'm surprised more games don't have larger teams.

@Heavyarms55 Ummm... Have you forgotten the Lumiose Ring of Death from Pokemon X and Y?

now they should leak more info, like breeding mechanics and so on.

I'm ready for this comment section to become a cestpool very quickly. One side saying "With this many people, Dexit should have never even been considered!!" And the other saying "This is an artistic choice by gamefreak, so live with it." This will be fun to see, I bet.

@Saro Can you name one more? In 7 generations of games there only being one major glitch like that is a pretty good record.

@alexybubble. All that matters to me is if transferring my living Dex to Home is worth it. Sword and Shield doesn't matter to me as much.

@Heavyarms55 Not on the same level, but there was issues with the Friend Safari where some of the Bug type ones wouldn't display the Pokemon available for X and Y as well, Missingno way back in Gen 1, the first patch for USUM to fix a bug where new Pokemon you caught weren't registered sometimes, the Acid Rain weather that existed in competitive play in Gen 4. Care to have more listed?

A lot of that is probably just the difficulty of quickly upscaling a team. Once they get used to making HD games as the norm, they'll probably optimise their team a bit and reduce the number of people.
1000 is way too much for something like this. Breath of the Wild had fewer people.

@Liam_Doolan Nintendolife I have and idea for a future article will you guys might dig some dirt on the history of the cancelled Pokémon 64/Pokémon RPG (Pocket Monster RPG) for the Nintendo 64/N64DD. I always want to know what the game could have been.

Bet ya i will buy it.. play 20 mins.. then back log it

Yet they can't have every Pokemon in the game? Bruh...

Biggest team, lowest effort

With a 1000 people? I've seen better games made with less people.

I'm not all that blown away. Be it time, people or both, Game Freak needed more to meet their own standard.

@Saro Minor issues. Most of which had very little effect or extremely convoluted methods of triggering.

Compare that to many so-called AAA games releasing in states where games crash completely(many games), where you can fall through the map(COD and Battlefield, even Splatoon), Massive inconsistent frame drops that make games barely functional(several Assassin's Creed titles), deformed character models, flying horses, spinning heads, (Bethesda anything).

I'm gonna try and argue that GF is some amazing developer or anything, they really aren't. But in roughly 20 years of releases the few glitches they have had have been minor, rare and generally difficult to trigger. GF goes to a greater effort than many other major companies to release games that run well with very few issues. Whereas many others treat people who buy the game at launch as bug testers.

@Heavyarms55 the heart home glitch that made the whole world dark in gen 4

@Heavyarms55 will agree to that, but I won't be too shocked if Sword and Shield are the glitchiest games to date. 1000 people. Trouble is guaranteed somewhere. I just hope the games have no real issues and just be minor. We do not need a Bethesda to happen.

@Saro I don't disagree. The last thing I want to see is the professor's head rotating in the first stinking dialogue! Or flying horses... (unless they give us that rumored Galarian Rapidash that's like a Pegasus!)

@Tantani I don't know that one, heart home? Was that in Platinum or HGSS? How did it get triggered?

Oh, the comments... It's almost as if you made this article with that in intent.

@Heavyarms55
I'm gonna be honest.

I'd totally buy Pokemon 76. Not at full price, mind you, but I'd buy it. I'd need to see that train wreck myself, in person. It would make all of my personal life issues seem quaint by comparison.

@westman98 I never actually played 76, I wasn't interested in the MMO aspects. But I've heard horror stories about it.

@Heavyarms55 76, the neverending nightmare that always pops up in the news at least once a month.

Not that this number says anything about the quality, there are bad games made by huge teams, great games made by way smaller teams than this (looking at you The Witcher 3) and then there are the 1 man team Indie gems like Stardew Valley.

I do hope this Pokemon will be good in the end, I'm still salty about certain reasons (no not that) but lately the news gets more and more positive, keep at it Gamefreak.

I guess 90% are outsorcing contracted for a while.

Salt over... their efforts to staff and complete a project?

The complainers aren't even trying anymore; new fear is that the game is going to be a masterpiece and they will look like the bilge they are lol.

@OptometristLime It might not be a masterpiece, but I think it will be a really good game. Soon we will know.

@Quarth Guaranteed bed wetting, it’s always worth popping my head in for a healthy dose of first world problems.

@Rayquaza2510
1500 people worked on The Witcher 3. Less then 20% of them were CD Projekt Red developers.

@westman98
I didn't count the voice actors used in The Witcher 3 to make that comparsion (because Pokémon has none), also the article I read said 250 people worked on The Witcher 3, but after looking for it again it seems the Wikipedia page does mention 1500 total (my information came from elsewhere), in that case if true it is more than Pokémon.

Wow.....I hope it will have great sales for all those people be paid!

@OptometristLime big team doesn't mean anything, neither does a small team.

@Geobros dream on, the game development world is harsh, a lot of people think good sales mean good pays for the devs, but that is not always the case (you can only be sure the top gets a good pay anyhow)

Not to mention the stress, rush and overhours you need to make, it wouldn't surprise me that they hired so many people to release the Pokémon games quickly this year, I would prefer the Animal Crossing method myself but ok that's just me.

If it took 1000 people to make such an undercooked, underwhelming looking game, then something is seriously wrong with the Game Freak management.

Death by committee.

I have read the negative comments.

And I understand the criticisms.

Yet, I am still looking forward to this game.

@Xelha yes because games don't make themselves

@OptometristLime No need to be so rude. The "complainers" have legitimate criticisms and concerns. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you should be a nasty bully.

@OptometristLime I complain if I'm not getting a product I think is worth the price I'm paying. I'm dealing with what at first seems like less product for more money. I can usually forgive paired back visuals if the game is fun, but when they have this big of a team and we are looking at crap texture work and cut out pokemon and features, it is worth complaining about which is why they came out and said that pokemon would be returning in later games. Now some of the stuff revealed here recently seems promising but if the end product ends up not worth my money, I won't buy it. I rarely wait for reviews for pokemon games but I may be doing so this time because game freak has shaken my faith slightly with some of their design choices

Prepare for long end credits.

The game is almost here which is great. Not only because I want to play it but also because the complaints are going to die down soon after the game's out. Everyone can see for themselves if they like the end product or not.

@Heavyarms55 not sure about game breaking, but as of Gen VII, I count 77 bugs Lol

(Sorry 😂😂😂)

I admit, I'm in the negative camp right now. I don't feel impressed with the additions Gamefreak added this game. I felt vaguely saddened when the open world gameplay was announced as limited, more so when animations looked suspiciously similar to previous games.
I felt a little hurt when the "awesome" new features included "bigger pokemon," and "even bigger pokemon than the bigger pokemon."
Finally, I kind of gave up when the new addition, "the curry dex," was added. The game is pokemon, and it'll be a solid game. But after holding off a couple of years for a core game to hit switch, I expected more than a game that looks to me as being very similar to previous games. I didn't really want "just another pokemon game," and I absolutely never asked for a curry dex.

it takes 1000 people to make a crap like this, amazing

@Yorumi You got a point there all though for some reason This might be the first time I ever do a dislike on this pokemon game don't know why it doesn't have the shock of fun to me..

So now we know that we can blame all the bad animations in poor decisions and directions, the director and producer should really change for the next game.

I really wish they focused on bringing all of the Pokémon rather than new gimmicks and side stuff gameplay like Pokémon camping and gigantimaxing everything.

I'm going to save my time with the comments section for when the game comes out, and real flesh and blood people get to hold the game in their hands. Presumably some of you/us still game for the pleasure and enjoyment of the pastime. This modern culture of being jilted over every little thing has become truly vulgar. I do believe we will see some classic franchises toppled forever over the developers misreading their fans. Since this is the anonymous / impersonal Internet the companies often believe they are reading the unified feelings of their customer base.

One thousand people and they can’t even make better move animations than Pokémon stadium n64...

More people less pokemon