During the New York Game Awards, Pokemon president Tsunekazu Ishihara shared a video message detailing the franchise’s beginnings and explained how challenging it was to create the very first Pokemon games.
It was so cool to see Pokémon get the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the event! They played a message right after announcing it, and it really highlighted just how much of an impact the series has had on the entire gaming world. As a fan, it was a really special moment.
Ishihara expressed gratitude to fans and partners globally, and also reminisced about the beginnings of Pokémon, recalling the difficulties the first developers encountered.
Ishihara explains how difficult early Pokemon development really was
Ishihara shared that Pokémon, now a hugely successful entertainment franchise, began as a basic idea at the Game Freak company.
I remember reading about how Pokémon started – it’s so cool! It all began with a simple thought the folks at Game Freak had: what if a game let you catch creatures and then trade them with your friends? That one little idea really blossomed into everything we know and love about Pokémon today!
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Actually creating the game from that initial idea turned out to be much harder than they anticipated. Ishihara explained that the team spent years trying to get the concept to function given the technological constraints they faced.
Bringing the idea to life wasn’t simple. We faced many challenges and had to experiment a lot, especially with our limited resources. Ultimately, it took six years to finish the first Pokémon games, Red and Green.
Even though it took a long time and was challenging, Ishihara said the team felt they had achieved something remarkable in the end.
Despite the challenges, we were all sure about the core gameplay ideas that would eventually define the Pokémon video games.
Pokémon Legends Z-A, the second game in the Legends series, is scheduled to launch in October 2025. The next main series Pokémon games, expected to be Generation 10, are anticipated to arrive in 2026.
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2026-01-20 16:18