November 22, 2023 – The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Pokémon Company, Takuto Utsunomiya, has expressed his ambition to ensure the longevity of the Pokémon series IP for “centuries.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Utsunomiya, when asked about his current role at the company, stated that his responsibility is to ensure that Pokémon outlives all of us.
“I think about Pokémon every moment of every day,” he explained. “Our goal is to make the Pokémon IP last for centuries, ensuring its survival throughout our lifetimes.”
Utsunomiya also emphasized the importance, and simultaneously the difficulty, of not only continually catering to existing Pokémon fans but also ensuring that the younger generation continues to discover and engage with the series.
“(IP developers) often easily focus on adults because they have a lot of disposable income, and you can see their reactions in real-time on social media. However, we need to make sure we still capture the interest of young players. Kids are honest — they won’t play something they don’t like. If your brand feels outdated or boring to them, they’ll immediately abandon it.”
Utsunomiya revealed that one way the series could expand in the future is by showcasing more of Pokémon’s behaviors in the wild, moving beyond merely viewing them as interchangeable role-playing game characters.
As reported earlier in May this year, Pokémon Company announced that in the past 27 years, the Pokémon series games have sold over 480 million copies globally across all platforms, making it the third-best-selling video game IP in history, trailing only behind Tetris (495 million) and Mario (over 776 million).
