The Pokémon Company Just Recorded Its Second Best Year In History

And I haven't given them a single dime after the Let's Go games. I still love Pokémon but don't enjoy the direction they've been heading with the series.

Good on them though. It's nice to see so many other people still enjoying the series at least.

Let’s make that money Nintendo.

It’s slightly annoying to see as somebody who really didn’t enjoy the recent games, but I guess the figures show that I’m in the minority

After all the controversy, I have recently been playing Sword. I went in blind and have really, really enjoyed it! IMO it’s a great game, dexit or no dexit.

Just shows how effective people "going on strike" by not buying the games is doing.

Let's hope that translates into better games!

Woo, more updates will be coming to Pokemon Go.

It is surprising to see the bump considering these games were the worst mainline games released so far. it looks like Pokemon Go is carrying them quite high still, which also surprises me as I thought the fad died down pretty quickly, evidently not.

I hope they can translate this into better games, or even more spin off games. Roll on Pokemon Conquest 2.

I would like to see Game Freak be given more time and a bigger budget for their AAA games, every 2 years for a new Pokémon release would make them that much sweeter than their current yearly release schedule

@Bon_Kurei You are in the minority, as am I. However, pokemon will continue to produce mediocre games and all we can hope for is that eventually people will get tired of the dated formula. Generally games will head towards obscurity if the formula doesn't change.

However, it is pokemon. People would buy rocks branded by Gamefreak so we'll see.

Not surprising. It was a big 12 months for Pokémon. Go continued to earn big, Detective Pikachu did great at the box office & on home release, and Sword & Shield sold supremely well. I’ve enjoyed what Pokémon has done this year all around and hope these large profits allow them to invest more into bigger and better experiences.

@Chunkboi79 Of course they will.

Come on Nintendo, step in and give GameFreak a hand with the next mainline Pokémon game. And the Pokémon Co. need to lay-off and give GameFreak more time to polish their craft, Nintendo should help with that too.
Just imagining a Pokémon world made by Monolith and some good story writing, instead of the same old plot, would be nice.

That's sort of a downer for me. I feel like if you love something, you want to see it evolve and grow. I love pokemon and I want to see it rise to the level the gaming industry has been going. But with the profits theyve been making, they literally have no incentive to do anything other than continually slap on new coats of paint.

So I feel like what will eventually happen is that every other game brand and franchise will continue to evolve and Pokemon's formula will eventually become so stale and dated that they'll eventually get their first game with bad reviews (Good and bad game reviews aren't always entirely based on the quality of the games themselves but the context of the environment of the gaming industry at their release) and they'll scramble to rework the formula in a desperate bid to catch up. But as things are, and the incredible feedback loop they created with the original formula and no real competition in the monster catching rpg genre, that could take many many many years before that happens.

Not that I had faith in Game Freak before, but this is pretty much kills any hope of them renewing the formula in any significant way.
And that's double the shame, seeing the success Mario and (especially) Zelda got by reinventing themselves.

Even COD has more variation and effort put into it these days.

I love SW/SH and I don't care how many people I anger by saying that. Very much looking forward to the DLC next... I guess this month. (Doesn't feel like June yet).

I'm quite glad they're going with the DLC, instead of releasing the same game at the full price, with a DLC pack's worth of new content, like they used to for years.

Fantastic games all around! I am quite glad they have evolved and changed in the manner they have. Still some tweaks to be made but I like it so far.

I just want a BOTW style open world Pokémon game.

Keep in mind this is TPC the brand licensing shell company, not GameFreak the RPG studio.

All that said, as a gaming "enthusiast" I adore Sw/Sh. Fantastic game that provided tons and tons of fun. Not the most challenging thing in the world, but like a Kirby game, it doesn't have to be to be fun. There's always the SMT source material if I like it rough. I think only the "pokemon hardcore" really object to these games, and that's most definitely a very very tiny minority of the player base, however omnipresent they seem on an internet article about Pokemon on a Nintendo-centric fan site.

@TrainerX493 Which is honestly a reason why it bothers me a little when people say 'speak with your wallet'. When so many other people buy it anyway, speaking with your wallet will have little to no effect.

@Heavyarms55 I agree with you completely! I am loving my time with Pokemon Sword. As someone who didn't really like Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield is a nice return to form.

@TheLightSpirit Just because someone didn't get SwSh doesn't mean they're childish. :/ I tried really hard to get through Moon twice, but the game long tutorial was so bad that I couldn't stand it. I loved my team, I loved the region, could not stand the game. SuMo did nothing to improve that, by what the reviews said, so I skipped it. Let's Go seemed cute and nostalgic, but I couldn't see myself spending $60 on it. I really wanted to like SwSh, I really wanted it to be good, I didn't even care about the Dex (even though GF really did seem to be rather shady over the whole thing) but with all of the issues that came up, I just couldn't get it, not after my experience with Moon.

Not too surprised, they have been on a roll lately making great games. Quite enjoyed Let’s Go, and S&S have been great for first attempts at console entries. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

I wonder if we'll ever get the production cost of SwSh. Perhaps they were cheaper to make given all the reused assets and cut content.

@TrainerX493 I saved 60$ and gave Animal Crossing a try. I've been playing it everyday since march, much more that I would've played Sword, so yeah, I'm happy with my decision.

@TrainerX493 could have made way more, so, i still think it was a loss for them, for doing a half assed job.

Still, the dlc interests me, might end up buying if they add my favorite pokemon to the game.

Poor poor kids buying bad games

@Chibi really shows your age there buddy lmao

@locky-mavo
A breath of the wild or xenoblade style world, with a new action packed battle system for pokemon.
I would also like a battle system in the style of pokkenfighter but that will never happen lol.

The chorus of complaints that Sword and Shield are "bad games" and that TPC/GameFreak "aren't putting any effort in"/"don't care about the quality of their franchise" began before the games' release and continued right through the initial critical/financial success. The record-breaking numbers continue to roll in with no signs of stopping, and somehow these complaints just don't change or self-adjust in light of contradicting evidence.

This "fan" behavior can't pretend to hold up a flag of passion and respect anymore; it has passed confusing/annoying and is now downright farcical. It's like standing alone in the sunshine with your umbrella while everyone around you is playing together on the beach, and you just keeping telling everybody that, "No, really, it's actually raining right now and you're all getting soaked." The rotten cherry on top of this grouch sundae is that this message is all too often delivered in smug tones, as though "real Pokémon fans" couldn't possible enjoy the series as it is iterated in SWSH, they must all be mindlessly throwing money into the trash. I'm just baffled and discouraged by it all.

And it's not even like my stance is that SWSW are flawless. They're not. But they are nevertheless fun, enjoyable Pokémon games that are strong entries into the series (with the critical and fiscal data to prove it). There may indeed be a few spotty clouds in the sky, but the sunshine isn't diminished and it sure as heck ain't raining.

@Doofenshmirtz How so?

@Yosher Pokemon Let's Go is great for newbies and younguns! My brother and his 5 (almost 6 y/o) daughter have been enjoying getting into it of late ☺ It's nice hearing the revamped classic music of the originals and seeing them enjoy Pokemon, and I'm able to give them advice on Pokemon types and how they match-up with other types! 😄 😉

@Paej13 I've been playing Pokémon since I got Blue on the Gameboy Colour so I'm very entitled to my opinion on these games, you don't get to decide who is allowed to have an opinion or what that opinion is allowed to be. Sword is not a good game by modern standards, heck it's not even a good Pokémon game by series standards. I know, I've played them all.
You can tout huge sales numbers all you like but the reception of these games once people had actually had chance to play them was very telling, lots of disappointed voices out there in the community talking about how they wished this was different or how gamefreak should have done that... you might think dissatisfied customers aren't a problem but they will lead to the death of the franchise if GF aren't careful.
This is why @TrainerX493's statement about boycotts being ineffective is wrong, gamefreak night not need to worry about series fans boycotting the games now but if their actions continue to be so flagrantly anti-consumer as they currently are then they will only continue to haemorrhage support.
Keep making subpar games and charging 3x the price of a 3ds game and I guarantee you will see sales numbers drop significantly for future entries.

@Otoemetry Cool, another long-time fan! I've been dedicated to Pokémon since it first hit the states too, friend. Here's something to reflect on, though: we're both long-time fans with a similar history with the series, but where you found SwSh sadly underwhelming I found it delightfully on-par with the rest of the series (and above-par in several ways). Tells us something about whether we should construe our opinions as facts, yes?

Anyway, please check my writing again - nothing against opinions in it anywhere. Apologies for any confusion if my comment came off that way. You and me and everyone else are entitled to our opinions, yes. "I didn't like SwSh" is an opinion. "SwSh are bad games" is not an opinion. "More games like SwSh will make GameFreak go bankrupt" is not an opinion.