Game Freak Thanks Pokémon Fans For Continued Support Over The Past 23 Years

Pokemon has been a part of my life since before I started school. In part I learned to read playing Pokemon on my friend's Game Boy at the day-care my parents would leave me at around 1997 when I was about 5 years old.

Pokemon has had its ups and downs over the years, I went through a "I'm too old for Pokemon" phase for a couple years in middle school, which was tied to a bitterness over the lack of an ability to trade Pokemon from Gold/Silver to Ruby/Sapphire. But when Fire Red and Leaf Green came around, and I learned that many of the gen 2 Pokemon could also be obtained via the Gamecube titles - which I instantly fell in love with, I was hooked again. The final push was one of my friends getting into the series and super into it - his excitement pushed my renewed interest.

In high school, with the advent of the DS and online play for the first time, I got into wi-fi battling, which only became more of an obsession as YouTube "Poke-tubers" began uploading their battles. I was more excited to pick up Heart Gold and Soul Silver with my best friend Molly the morning it released than I was about the fact that I was old enough to drive myself to Game Stop to pick up the pre-order! I beat the first 4 gyms that day!

In college while studying abroad in Japan, Pokemon made the leap to 3DS and being in Japan for the release of a Pokemon game was all that much cooler!

Post college I still love the series. I've played every main series title at least once, have replayed most several times over too. I've played the card game even entering tournaments. I've a huge collection of Pokemon plushies and cards. I've played rom hacks of all varieties, from complex and super challenging fan games, to a Pokemon Zombie apocalypse scenario!

Pokemon is not a perfect series, but I can't see myself every really moving away from it at this point. If they make the games, I will play them. If they are good I will cheer and if they let me down, I will rage. But I have more than 2 decades of good memories already. There are some bad and let downs, but far, far more good.

Here is to hoping that Sword and Shield give me yet more good!

Never really been that into Pokemon growing up. In fact Sword/Shield is going to be my first game from this franchise. But it's good to see a company actually acknowledging their fans. That's hard to come by these days.

@Heavyarms55 Good post, man. I’ve played the first few games and was definitely in the “catch ‘em all” spirit as a kid. As I’ve grown older I think the series hasn’t had as much of a pull for me, but they are good honest games nonetheless. Hope the new one meets your expectations.

If you really are that thankful, then why didn't you guys allow Pokémon patterns in Yoshi's Woolly World? ...yes I'm never going to let go of this.

Anyway, I've been a Pokémon fan for years as well, and while the latest two generations haven't really been that fun for me in comparison to the first five, I still love the franchise and hope to continue playing it many years into the future.

So thank you as well, Game Freak!

It was fun following Pokemon for years, even when it wasn't accepted anymore by the "cool kids", but I think the time has come to part ways, since Gamefreak has grown too complacent and other franchises could put my support to better use.

I’ll buy... the inevitable Armor version when it is released next year with all the new stuff they didn’t cram into Sword and Shield.

@NotTelevision yeah probably Pokemon red was one of the few games I 100% as a kid. Loved the spinoffs (Pokemon rangers guardian signs should help kids read) and this made me happy to see game freak thankful.

I also got an eevee in a Pokemon bath bomb. It was fun seeing the Eevee in the capsule come from the pokeball after it dissolved and made bathing fun. Also a fun way to invest in a relationship too.

Pokémon is always going to have an important part of my heart.
I first watched the anime when I was 14, that’s 20 years ago. After that I continued to follow the anime, at one point in my life, the only thing I had to look forward to was to watch the new episode on sunday mornings. When I say “only thing” I’m not even exaggerating. I was sick and lived in a hospital. I had no social life and really nothing to live for. Pokémon was everything to me.
I still love Pokémon even though my life is much more normal now. I’ll definitely pick up the next Pokémon game, and in the meantime I’ll be playing Pokémon Go and Let’s Go Pikachu.

First, congrats to Game Freak and I wish them continued success. As far as Pokemon, and a lover of most things Nintendo, when the hype hit in the late 90s, I played Pokemon Yellow as I was playing RPGs hard at the time anyway. I was following the cartoon as well-- But I was in college at the time which was beginning to cut into my free time. I saw where Pokemon was going and how it skewed toward a younger demographic, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to commit to it like I really wanted to... So it fell into the category of newer Nintendo IPs I simply don't get into (like Splatoon and ARMS) and stick to the old school Nintendo IPs like Mario and Zelda. Maybe if i was 10 years younger I'd be speaking different, but that's life. But I will say, even if it's just SSB or Pokemon GO!, Pokemon has always found a way into my life one way or the other, and I doubt it will stop anytime soon. Now, off I go to gather my pennies for the Detective Pikachu movie lol.

@Zach777 Yeah like the inevitable Z that came out after X and Y? Oh wait...

@Arcamenel

Gen 1 got Yellow
Gen 2 got Crystal
Gen 3 got Emerald
Gen 4 got Platinum
Gen 5 got pseudo sequel Black2/White 2
Gen 6 didn’t get anything.
Gen 7 got copy/paste variants Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon with minor changes.

NONE of the remakes did. (FireRed/LeafGreen, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee)

A vast majority of the generations initial versions DID get upgrades. Sit down, random comment-maker. I’d wager this one will as well eventually.

Money, money, money. Pokémon sells like crazy everywhere and you better believe they are going to milk this cow now that it is going HD on Nintendo’s hot home console/portable.

@Heavyarms55 I started playing Pokémon Red right along the same time as you started. This series has seen me through most of my life and has led to incredible friendships, not the least of which my marriage to my husband and fellow gaymer and Poké-Nerd! I don't think I'll be saying goodbye to Pokémon anytime soon and I look forward to sharing this series with my niece and nephews as they get a little older and start entering school!

@Preposterous

Same here.
Given the short development cycle, my expectations were modest, but what they've shown (fixed camera angle, low resolution textures, static and sterile environments) is not enough to justify this being a full priced console game. I think that the fact this IS a console game is holding them back because they have to build up game assets. I'm hoping their working on this game will give them the infrastructure to make the next Pokemon generation on Switch (there will be another one) worth the price of admission, but as it stands I'm very underwhelmed. Maybe there'll be a cool gameplay hook, but Game Freak probably sees being able to play on the big screen as a hook itself.

Played Pokemon Red as my first game! And yes, 2nd and 3rd gen were out when I started to play Red! Loved the game! And of course when I played Gold version...... I got stuck at the sudowoodo part and didn't know how to progress after that at that time XD. Good times.