8 Ways Nintendo Can Save Pokémon

The three year cycle has become the term that demonises GameFreak the most. It refers to the fact that, since Sun and Moon, we get a new Pokémon generation every three years.

Obviously, the key factor behind this is the great and true motivator for all businesses: money. And technically, we can all have this cake/curry/sandwich/poffin and eat it too.

Pokémon fans waited 22 years for safari and photographer sim Snap to get a sequel and it was dropped randomly at the end of April 2021. This was within the same financial year as Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as well as Legends Arceus. What a strange and potentially wasteful decision.

Pokémon has had more spin-offs than hot dinners at this point and it’s an ever-growing franchise in its own right that GameFreak and Nintendo need to plan better and take more advantage of. New Pokémon Snap could’ve been bigger, marketed better and been treated as a tentpole title - and future instalments in Mystery Dungeon, perhaps a Pokken Tournament sequel and who knows what else should be the same.

And why? Because that way the cycle of a new generation every three years comes to end. AAA games simply need more time. Nintendo gives major Zelda releases a berth of six years - so why does Pokémon only apparently need half the time?

Put B and C teams on stopgap titles so that Generation X arrives in 2026 at earliest and complete, rather than 2025 and a broken mess.