Interesting magazine article tells us a lot about the state of TPC nowadays. They are a well oiled machine and dare at the top of the game. They are capitalizing on every potential avenue for monetizing. Pokemon Masters is them likely finally succeeding in the mobile market too. Here are some highlights:
TPCi is a subsidiary of TPC (based in Japan)
TPCi is responsible for brand management, licensing and marketing. They basically control everything (and as such set the deadlines for each Pokemon game, meaning they’re the ones forcing Game Freak to rush their games)
They are at the top of their game at the moment and have secured countless brand deals
Mass retailers are the main awareness drivers for the brand with merchandise like the TCG
LGPE have sold 10.63 million units since March 2019 (5th best selling Switch game)
Pokemon GO reaches 850 million downloads as of August 2018
The Pokemon brand has very strong ability to attract customers
Not much we didn’t know, but it opens our eyes to the fact that not much will likely change. The games really do just exist to create content for the rest of the franchise. Quality means nothing. Your only hope for better games is convincing TPC to make the development cycle of the games longer, which won’t happen because they are losing revenue that could be gained by rushing out games that will be bought regardless due to the brand’s strong pull.
https://nintendosoup.com/the-pokemon-company-made-over-2-98-billion-in-physical-sales-profit-last-year/ 