How Pokémon Became a (Soulless) Brand

Hello fellow jerry cans, hopefully you enjoyed the new video, talking more about Pokémon's business and management side rather than the games themselves. I've always wanted to make this video for months, and glad I finally got the chance! This was actually one of the most fun I had making a video, because I have to do some deep critical analysis for video game reviews, but it's so easy to bash corporations and their decisions. Join Discord and become part of the Jerry Can community: discord.com/invite/YqRFCneGSZ 0:00 Intro 1:30 Part 1: What is a Brand? 2:38 Part 2: The Pokemon of the Past 6:05 Part 3: The Consequences of Pokemon Go 8:55 Part 4: The Fall of Pokemon 13:05 Part 5: Who Cares?

I like to call this era “Nostalgia Hell.” We have Nostalgia movies, Nostalgia games and Nostalgia on top of Nostalgia thanks to Disney. Big companies like Disney and Game freak manipulate us instead of entertaining us.

I feel like Pokemon has always been a brand. From gen 1, they've branched out into different media and tried to get Pikachu and friends' faces on anything that could be used. I feel like the post GO era just made it more apparent that they were a brand and started their souless downfall. The only reason I feel we distinguished Pokemon as a franchise rather than a brand was because they were consistently making quality experiences.

The worst part of this is fans defend it. I was on GameFaqs recently explaining how Pokémon lost its soul and I was just mocked. If people voted with their wallets and were less group think we might not be here.

I remember being embarrassed as a kid because I liked Pokémon and none of my friends did, I tried to hide the fact I enjoyed the games and show. Nowadays it's weird if you don't like Pokémon. How far we have truly come

Everything i used to know and love is crumbling to a soulless, money-hungry, brand. Nobody can stop it, except for the brand itself.

I grew up with this franchise and lived during the pokemania of the late 90s, the drop of mainstream relevance in the early 2000s, to what it is today. From hype to niche to mainstream, this has always been the case. You had famous artist sing for the soundtrack of Pokémon the first movie, to hulk hogan promoting Pokémon day in New York, and even weird Al and Zach and cody involved with the games show etc It’s just more noticeable now because Pokémon is more mainstream than ever and not just some foreign Japanese phenomenon, to kids today Pokémon feels like it has always been part of the cultural zeitgeist so it’s become common ground to have normie artist like Katie Perry and Ed Sheeren to promote it

Its so sad for me to see my favourite franchise from when I was a child having become like that - It now only feels like a husk to sell money and nothing more

For me, the greatest problem with the current state of Pokémon is the sheer amount of content that is released in short span of time. Even if the games were Breath of Wild quality it's like i couldn't care about it. It's just too much. I can't give a damn about gen 9 pokémon if i still haven't gotten used to gen 8.

I always thought of Pokemon eventually stopping the creation of new "core games" and new Pokemon(at around 1000), and as it "brand" was firmly entrenched, it would eventually take the ultimate step of creating its own Amusement Park(s).

I realized when Pokemon GO became such a massive hit with the plebs that the winds were changing. And I hate that I was right.

I love how Post Malone and Ed Sheeren’s videos are only including Gen 1 Pokémon. Nice to see the pandering branch out into even music.

Pokemon in 202X is a pure form of "Don't ask questions, just consume product."

Pokemon has always been this way to an extent. Pretty much any company that wants to be successful has to. But after watching the success of Pokemon GO and seeing how much success can come from minimal effort, they really went full speed ahead. Sun/Moon felt like the last gamed where there was any passion put into the projects. After that, the only soul came from games that weren’t mobile apps and weren’t heavily influenced by Game Freak (so, PMD DX since Spike Chunsoft is pretty much allowed to do what they want).

This is how Pokemon dies a very slow death by abandoning their hardcore fans. Casual fans will move on to the next popular brand.

The saddest part is that no matter how mediocre their products have become. Even if the games are too easy and linear. Even if the anime is poorly written. It isn't their problem because it will still sell anyway because it's Pokemon.

Deep down I had sort of felt the same way, but you've done an excellent job of turning my feelings into words. Great work as always!

Honestly I believe in everything you just said because let’s be honest here I bet that even game freak knows that even if they made one very bad Pokémon game it would hands-down still sell no matter what and I bet they know it as well

I say it once and I say it again, I’m not gonna buy/support a new game until I know it’s something special

The biggest difference for me, (and this applies to almost all franchises that have survived and continue to produce content in this modern era) is that the old games let you have an adventure and explore, where as these new games are more akin to guided tours.