Due to the popularity of the Pokemon franchise, there are many misconceptions about who owns it, who makes the games, who handles the properties, and so on. You might think that because Nintendo is the host of their games in most cases, they own the company and profits most from its successes. But you’d be wrong. The company is more than one entity, and it’s an independent one at that. Nintendo has a small part of it but doesn’t control them. One of the key partners in the company is Creatures Inc., and they have had a big change-up that might surprise you.
In short, the CEO and President of the company, Tsunekazu Ishihara and Hirokazu Tanaka, have stepped down from their roles and will be replaced by Yuji Kitano and Tomotaka Komura in fused and new roles. Why is this important? Ishihara is the President of The Pokemon Company. He’s the guy you hear from when the franchise has announcements, such as with February’s Nintendo Direct. Ishihara is the man in the featured image above.
Currently, Ishihara is still the head of the company, but many wonder why he would leave one role and stay with the other. If you’re unfamiliar with Creatures Inc., they help make the games you adore in many ways. First, they’re the ones who help make and animate the 3D models for the various games featuring Pokemon. Then, there’s the Pokemon Trading Card Game, which Creatures Inc. oversees. So that’s two big parts of the company and its franchise that this team handles. So you might want to look for their name the next time you boot up one of the games.
As ComicBook.com notes, this shouldn’t be an immediate cause for concern. There have been shakeups like this in the past where people move in and out of positions within the various companies under the Pokemon banner. Sometimes it’s to get new leadership roles, and sometimes it’s to bring in new faces to help expand the potential of what is already in place.
No matter what, The Pokemon Company has some work to do. When they released Gen 9 last year, it was met with record sales and record-setting backlash thanks to the unpolished state the games were released in.
Fans expect more from the company and its affiliates, and with the Gen 9 DLC on its way this year, they mustn’t make similar mistakes. Otherwise, there may be shifts for a much grimmer reason.
