Game Freak Director Junichi Masuda Thanks Pokémon Fans For Their Continued Support

Thank you Masuda for everything, and for all the beautiful music and games you have made. You're my favourite director!

Congrats to Game Freak and thank you for an amazing series. Today is very exciting!

Been 23 great years. Hopefully the next 23 years will be even better

Gen 1 remakes incoming!

I'm not into Pokemon per se, but has it really been 23 years? I s'pose it has. Before it came to the UK and it was known by the now-household 'Pokemon', I remember becoming confused, thinking Matchbox's Monsters in My Pocket had made a comeback. No-one remembers them now. They were tiny, 2'' plastic representations of characters from folklore and horror movies.

IM SO READAAAAAY

My body is ready for Generation 8.

@Medic_alert @Octane ahem

Y’all keep making good games, and I’ll keep playing ‘em! Congrats on coming this far, Pokémon!

Remember when Jigglypuff was a Normal type Pokémon? Good times.

@ottospooky not only do I remember and had some Monster in my Pocket, I had the game on NES. Great times!

@MH4 I was betting on DX versions myself.

@RadioShadow Remember Golem fainted by Pikachu electrocuting him in the first movie? Good times indeed.

Gen 8 will finally be shown I'd put money on that

Happy anniversary, Pokemon!

I watched the anime as a kid, but I didn't have any of the games till I was about 20 when I got Yellow from a friend (so I still got my start in Kanto despite being such a late bloomer; I have trouble remembering Pokemon from later generations). My two best friends gave me a 3DS for my 24th birthday and I started picking up Pokemon games myself.

Update: R.I.P. to the friend who gave me Pokemon Yellow. He died several days after I made this post.

It seems there are a lot of people bitter about this guy and not happy with a few of his more recent decisions. But I remember the years of enjoyment I have had from games he has worked on. The man might not be perfect, and who is, but he gave us far more good than bad.

I also feel like the comment sections on almost every Pokemon article I have seen on NintendoLife recently have been overwhelmingly negative - and that makes me quite sad. That stupid political story NL shared the other day - that would have made sense to be so negative about, but Pokemon! Come on guys, relax!

You're welcome now please reward our continued support with something we actually want to play.

@ottospooky I still have a bunch of Monsters in my Pocket!

Game Freak seems to be building hype all on their own. I'm not surprised they waited until after the Nintendo Direct to do this. If these 7 minutes were part of the previous Direct, it's all people would talk about. My hopes for the Direct....the name of the game(s), the starter pokemon, and region.

@Mogster perhaps you are confusing "we" with "me"? Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee combo has sold 10 million copies. I think plenty of people wanted to play it. I hope you get your wishes for this upcoming game!

@ottospooky Unfortunately "Monster in my Pocket" sounds more like a #MeToo reference.. though I do remember the cartoon!

Hoping today we at least get a glimpse of Gen 8. After Let's Go's simple but nostalgic approach, Gamefreak need to blow our socks off with these new games

@RadioShadow Well technically it still is, it's a Normal and Fairy type Clefairy did just lose its Normal typing for Fairy though

@Octane yup they are called let's go evee and pikachu.

How bout remake Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Crystal, and Pokemon Emerald and merge the three games into one so you'll start at either Kanto, Johto, or Hoenn and work your way on one of those three region and whichever one you completed you then get access to try the other ones after but also adding in new features and areas to the games as well. A Pokemon remake that'll take us through 3 gens of our adventure like that would be epic.

Thank you Game Freak & Nintendo for continuing this beloved series. Pokemon holds a special place in all our hearts, especially those of us who started from the very beginning in Kanto all those years ago!!

He just wanted to show off his CIB collection of games.

No, but that is nice. I appreciate the people who are humble and take the time every now and then to recognize that we are both thankful to each other. Fans for the ability to enjoy something wonderful, and the creators to be blessed with the ability to keep making something and support themselves and express their talents.

Thank YOU, Masuda-san! While I don't agree with all of his decisions regarding the Pokemon franchise, it's still one of my favorite game series out there.