>>51709963That's because before it was to burn off energy/ideas that bit during Pokémon (Giga Wrecker) when it was largely the OG staff of RG and the new hires for RSE and after it was due to Gear Project offering the expanded Game Freak staff (the mentioned staff and the HGSS hires as they finally expanded into a studio that could have a main team and rehash/remake team) the ability to work on pet projects on company time, with the boss-level view of it being "it affords more staff a greater ability to expand their toolset, without risking the familiar series people love" (Rhythm Heaven/Tembo made by Turner, who's since left to start up his own studio and direct his own original title).
Gear Project is born out of Game Freak's roots, as at the start, it was a bunch of tech-savy young men who didn't know how to make games, but were eager to learn as they went. Gear Project is a refinement of that, taking people who DO know how to make one part of a video game and challenging them to learn a different discipline in the process. That's the thing about a vanity label, it can be used to train staff in new areas of the process, to better use them on their actual contracted work without having to send them on expensive courses or waste company resources on the main effort trying it.
