>>38961113Yes. Most of the pokemon money does come from merchandising, but handheld stuff is overstated (especially because niantic does keep their cut too).
But mostly it doesn't account for the staggering culture of incompetence that has taken root at Gamefreak. At the beginning, they did technical works nothing short of amazing. Cramming Kanto and Johto on one GBC cartridge was something else.
Compare that to the frequent posts about the development absurdities in SM - such as the duplicate models and textures blowing everything to hell. Gamefreak just isn't good at the technical aspects of making a game anymore. They were too spoiled by gigantic cashflow coming in regardless, and so there was no pressure to keep up the quality. So that's where we are now.
But yea, Nintendo needs pressure. Gamefreak don't give a fuck. Nintendo can pull the Pokemon name from them (they own the trademark), but only if it looks like the reputation of the whole brand sinks. That alone would force Gamefreak to hire competence, even if third party, and invest the money needed to give the games the scale and quality needed to keep the customer base satisfied.