A co-founder of Pokémon developer Game Freak is leaving the studio to join The Pokémon Company – moving away from developing games and looking at the franchise more broadly.
Junichi Masuda will begin his new role as creative director and use his “deep understanding of the Pokémon franchise to develop new services and products”.
Masuda co-founded Game Freak and programmed and composed the original music Pokémon Red and Green (and later Blue) game before directing later entries, starting in 2002 Ruby and Sapphire. Since then, he has directed, produced or significantly influenced on practically every subsequent entry, making him one of the most important members of the Pokémon game franchise.
Junichi Masuda, promotional Pokémon X & Y. (Image credit: The Pokémon Company)
“I was the director of the Pokémon video game series, starting with the Pokémon Ruby Edition and the Pokémon Sapphire Edition until Pokémon X and Pokémon Yand has been involved in the development of many video games, including Pokémon GO“, Masuda said in an official announcement.
“I want to say a big thank you to all Pokémon fans. Going forward, I hope to push the boundaries of video games by trying to deliver surprises, fun, and surprises. more fun for people all over the world, while doing our best to connect people, widen the circle, and help bring about a richer world for us to share. I appreciate the support. your continuity in my new role.”
It’s unclear exactly what projects Masuda will work on in the future, but it looks like he’s branched out into traditional video game development. is at the heart of the series, but his influence certainly won’t be as strong as it once was.
Masuda will still have a lot of work to do, as Pokémon is as popular and diverse as any other major franchise, with Official Pokémon Skateboard, Katy Perry songs, Tamagotchis, commercial airlineand Converse sneakers.
Of course, there are more traditional avenues, such as the anime or the Pokémon Trading Card Game, which continue to grow in popularity. 25 years after the original set was releasedevidenced by, among other things, by the number of people trying to steal them.
An indie game store in Minnesota is said to have around $250,000 worth of Pokémon goods are stolen in February while in March a man has been arrested in Tokyo for allegedly carrying out a literal burglary to steal the treasure cards. Also in March, a Georgia man didn’t directly steal a Pokémon card, but instead misused money from the government to buy one, use the COVID-19 relief payment to buy a rare, shiny Charizard.
Ryan Dinsdale is a freelancer on IGN who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He would talk about The Witcher all day.
