Adult Pokemon fans are struggling to be excited by new Switch era
The Pokemon CompanyA Reddit user has expressed their struggles as an adult Pokemon fan that finds it hard to be interested in the latest Pokemon games for Nintendo Switch, causing thousands to debate the issues.
The world’s biggest franchise Pokemon released its first game in 1996 on Nintendo GameBoy, which combined with the launch of an animated TV series in 1997 has taken the world by storm ever since.
In 2022, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet broke records as Nintendo’s biggest launch ever selling over 10 million copies in its first three days on Switch.
Many early fans of the series and games have continued to be passionate about their pocket monsters as they have grown older due to the brand constantly reinventing itself as they have continued their world domination by entering every industry imaginable.
Key examples have been their blockbuster film release of Detective Pikachu, the record-breaking mobile game Pokemon Go and their constant nostalgic collaborations with adult fashion brands.
Their strategy though for their Nintendo Switch games has continued to be targeted at children and the newer generations, leaving adult fans to feel increasingly disconnected from the franchise.
Why are Adult Pokemon fans struggling to get excited about new games?
User schuey_08 took to Reddit to address these concerns. Posting on the NintendoSwitch subreddit resulted in thousands of Pokemon fans young and old expressing their opinions.
The post highlights an adult fan perspective of their frustrations with the games not living up to the developer’s “intriguing” ideas, highlighting that the games are “unpolished” and that there is “still left much room for improvement.”
After further highlighting that Pokemon is focusing more on its world-leading brand image than their “promise to improve the performance of those games.” The user ends by saying if things don’t change then they will stop playing.
Thousands of users flooded in giving their views, with the majority of users sharing similar views, “The mainline entries just aren’t for me anymore and haven’t been for a long time”, a user said.
Other users weren’t so harsh, praising the game Scarlet and Violet, as well as Arceus with one user stating: “Arceus was legitimately fun as hell.”
Overall the Japanese giant’s strategy still continues to be a roaring success, but certainly highlights a growing problem for their more seasoned Pokemon fans.
Pokemon has recently announced their new anime series Pokemon: Path to the Peak as they look to take a new direction stepping away from their iconic main character Ash Ketchum.
