this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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They don’t seem to realise how much this has cost them. Post-Iwata Nintendo was already going to struggle, and they’ve just doubled down with the same arrogance in a market where a $6 game beating a $60 one is becoming more and more common.
My second console was an NES when I was 7. I’m in their biggest demographic, and Pokémon’s biggest demographic too – one that isn’t growing, by the way.
The Switch is the last one I would’ve been willing to buy. They’re another brand that thinks they have automatic access to my purchasing choices, and another one I’ve personally blacklisted based on behaviour. With emulation, we’d always say “yeah, it’s a dick move,” but you can at least understand it, even if they have no intention of releasing some of their most-wanted backlog or letting you transfer your digital ROM purchases. But going after indies just for showing them up as complacent, fat dragons trying to patent “mid”? Lawsuit or not, get fucked.
I’m not the only one, either. I think the only people left are those who see Nintendo as video-game iPhones and autopilot into a purchase, and the diehards who have dedicated Amiibo rooms.
I grew up with Nintendo and Pokémon too. However, if you had an NES when you were 7, you are no longer Pokémon's target demographic. We just aren't. I like playing the games, but they're targeted at a much younger audience.
Yup, lemmy users frequently seem to have this strange idea that lemmy is somehow representative of the Nintendo customer base. I agree that I find Nintendo’s business practices terrible and their last Pokemon mainline title was frankly boring and uninteresting. But the reality is also that Scarlet/Violet was the second-best selling Pokemon game ever.
llikely due the pandemic, where nobody has anything to do at home, so naturally people are going buy pokemon games more than before.
How long until people can stop blaming the pandemic for things?
Right that's the issue they keep targeting the same age group when they did have the option to try and keep their old fans too.
Honestly the core games could easily have all included the hard mode from B/W2 would have probably kept me engaged for at least a couple or more games
They really didn't need any radical changes to keep their old fans either
And then repeat the mistakes of companies like Harley where their demographic is literally dying off?
I think it would make sense for their core games to stay targeted at the youth. Then use their spin offs like Legends to try new things like a more "mature" game.
See this is where you ignored the last part of my comment. If you hadn't you'd get why the Harley example makes absolutely no sense
Nintendo could make some pretty small QOL adjustments that would make older fans very happy and not really make much of a difference at all to younger fans.
I never suggested to make their games more mature. There's plenty to do that's still friendly to their target demographic that would still keep the older demographics engaged
A simple demonstration of this are the Yugioh and Digimon franchises which consistently appeal to a wide age range.
A toggleable hard mode is really that much to ask for?
A menu option to disable exp share?
Fuck man just give me another pokeathlon
I don't see how any of these optional things would ruin the expirence, be expensive to implement, or are that much to ask for.
Hell I'd love to be able to go into buildings again, but I guess that would ruin the games irrevocably
pokemon just had better marketing, yugioh and digimon are much more complex than pokemon(probably too complex for the simplicity of pokemon).
the problem is masuda, he clearly stated he was going to make slop int the first iteration of the switch console(sword and shield), and every other game. and people still bought it and complained about it.
the card game is almost unplayable because of scalping.
I'm blind in that case because I don't see anything that contradicts the Harley example in your statement.
Maybe when I said they didn't need "radical changes" you thought I meant they shouldn't change the games? Because I meant they wouldn't have to make any radical changes to their current products to make them more appealing to their older fans. I'm saying they could keep basically all the changes that make the modern games modern and add some simple things like menu options for difficulty and maybe some optional content similar to old events (contests, pokeathelon, etc.) or a really a long list of small tweaks that dobt change the modern games much at all. Just enough change to make them more appealing and challenging for those that want that.
That could be the confusion.
Except kids don't give a shit about Pokémon, and the only ones that do is because of their parents.
I got twin 6year olds. Pokemon is huge in their circles. Played through one of the latest games with them on switch over the last year.
I'd be interested in understanding if people who think Pokemon is becoming irrelevant spend any time outside of Lemmy or their own circles. I see so much hate for Nintendo and Pokemon specifically, but as a parent and someone who spends a lot of time at kids' activities, I see no sign of either slowing down.
I may not like Nintendo as a business and a lot of Pokemon games are too similar for my taste, but pretending they are in decline seems crazy to me.
They're out of touch but don't realize it for the exact same reasons that theyre out of touch in the first place. It's literally just the Abe Simpson speech about not being "with it" anymore
https://youtu.be/5DlTexEXxLQ
Except I guess in this case, they're still with it, just don't realize that it is still... It? I've lost my own plot
That just isn't true. Pokemon never became unpopular, but only had some lesser years. I have a 13 yo half brother and pokemon has been an ever popular thing in his whole school.
Well I will shut up then, it seems I'm not around kids enough to know what they are into.
i remember pokemon kinda fell off for a few years, before coming back with black and white.
Got a 9 year old, him & his friends are into Pokemon.
I didn't say it was their largest audience, but it's clearly who is targeted. They don't care about you and I. We're already fans, they need new fans.
i feel like alot of the current customers are milleneals who grew up with pokemon, at least in the competitive scene, its all grown ass people fighting over a kids game, and scalping it.
Like you, I grew up playing vidya. Cut my teeth on atari and ColecoVision, owned NES, SNES, gameboys, Wii, PS1/2 and XBox. Like you, the console makers drove me from the console market into the loving arms of PC gaming. In the good old days with nintendo, you could import cartridges from Europe and Asia for titles that weren't being released into the US market. Then Wii started it's bullshit with region locking consoles, killing my ability to import and play games not for my region, and I was done. Nintendo north America refuses to publish titles released in other countries because it wants to maintain it's image as a family friendly console. (It's a shame because the console itself really was innovative with the motion controls for gaming.) Sony drove me away when it decided to remove the other OS functionality AFTER customers had purchased the PS3 that contained that feature. Then there was the XBOX red ring of death. On top of it, many of the console exclusives which are supposed to be AAA titles end up being pure garbage that are just reskins without innovative game play. Like how many different versions of Mario Kart, Zelda, and pokemon do you expect people to play before being bored AF? 100% Agree with you.
And even those might suffer some causalities, depending on how things go:
This comment is hilariously out of touch.
Like "old man yells at clouds" levels. Holy shit my sides. You must be trapped in the most insular of echo chambers.
Edit: this just in: Nintendo doesn't care what a 50 year old, terminally-online nerd thinks.
“Hilariously out of touch.” I love doing these petty over effort responses, so here we go.
My comment about indie games beating AAA increasing over the years is pretty easy to show. At the time of this comment Palworld has the 3rd highest player peak of all time on Steam at 2,101,867.
The peer release for pokemon Z-A sold 5.8 million. Palworld has sold 25 million.
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“But Palworld came out first.” This is an early access indie game that has possibly beaten, or at least matched, Game Freak’s flagship. Judging by the complete lack of effort and the poor quality of Z-A, that flagship is sinking fast.
Source: https://steamdb.info/charts/?sort=peak
Click “About” and you’ll see that the top ten over the last year have been dominated by indies or small studios. This isn’t just the PC scene either.
The age demographic is objectively older. Nintendo themselves (yes, six years ago, but still their data):
“According to our latest data, we have seen that the ratio of players in their 20s and 30s has risen for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon compared to past Pokémon titles for Nintendo 3DS.”
Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/170201_2e.pdf
More recent (2021):
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Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2021/211105e.pdf
A more recent take, though not official:
Source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/nintendo-says-i-pokemon-i-players-are-now-older-than-ever
Accusing me of being in an echo chamber when I’m actually invested in Nintendo is wild. I put my money where my mouth is, so I do this weird thing where I trawl through their PDFs, look at the market as a whole, follow the trends and form my opinion based on that.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Dude, Z-A isn't a flagship. It's in the Legends line and not a mainline release. The numbers aren't so lopsided when you look at mainline games.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/05/pokemon-scarlet-and-violet-is-now-the-second-best-selling-game-in-the-series
Also, these are two different target audiences again. Palworld is aimed at us who grew up with Pokémon and now have disposable income. Pokémon is still aimed at a younger audience.
Even if that's their target audience, it doesn't matter because that's not who is buying and playing them the most. And guess what matters most? It's the group that are actual paying customers.
Not to Nintendo or Gamefreak. They care more about their next customer, not their current customer.
You're completely missing/ingoring mine and the other user's point.
Sure, they might focus on a certain demographic as theur customer, but that's not what actually makes them money. They're not paying attention to reality and it's going to bite them in the ass
But be honest here.
Has it ever bit them in the ass?
You are invested, not because nintendo gives a shit about your demo, but because you are unable to move on.
Nintendo still does not give a shit about your demo, because your demo will just buy whatever garbage is thrown in front of them.
So you got that going for you i guess.
Weird response, mate. It doesn’t seem like you read what I said. I’ve already said I’ve blacklisted Nintendo, as in, I’m not buying their stuff any more. That’s moving on.
When I say I’m invested, I mean I follow the gaming industry as a whole and made a gaming pie on 212 for fun. It’s not some emotional attachment to Nintendo, it’s just interest in the market.
This is my last reply, because you’re just being contrary instead of actually talking about the points raised. So it's just going to drift off topic and bloat the thread.
Sorry, i guess im saying things incorrectly.
Nintendo doesnt care about the things you care about, and never will. They will not fail, or lose significant sales numbers. They have always been this way and will always be this way.
Its just funny it took you nearly 50 years to see it.
The echo chamber tells you your hobbies are important.... but uh.... here we are with the highest sales numbers Nintendo has probably ever had.
You read like one of those people who leave negative reviews on an MMO after 3000 hours.
That's exactly why Palworld has done so well. Nintendo/Gamefreak left that demographic untouched and ripe for someone to come along and cater to them. Nintendo decided that instead of competing for that demographic they would rather try to use the legal system to beat Palworld.
My point here is that this guy has supported Nintendo for 40 fucking years and now has finally stopped despite Nintendo always having been the way they are.
At no point have they been a good company, and likely, will never be a good company.
But now, after spending literal decades shipping the brand, he has stopped.
Its honestly hilarious.
Would you like to share your nuanced opinion with the class?
I mean, they’re definitely being rude but suggesting Nintendo being dickheads has any appreciable ding on their success is just fantasizing. They’ve been litigious dickheads for as long as I can remember and they’re doing better than ever.
Do you really want to read whatever diarrhea that knob vomits up in response?
If it means they waste their time spewing paragraphs that I don't care to read, then yes.
Wow, you two are some miserable bastards. Go seek help.
Terrible mental image there. "If your knob is vomiting diarrhea, use vomnito the knob anti nausea medicine recommended by 4 out of 5 doctors. Doctor number 5 is a sick puppy who likes it"