Pokémon When do you think Pokémon will end?

[Alolan_Apples]

Like all series, the Pokémon franchise will eventually come to an end. But due to the rampant success of Pokémon Sword/Shield (despite higher price, less Pokémon, and less story), I don’t see Pokémon ending anytime soon. But it will still end some day.

What generation do you think will be the last generation for Pokémon?

 

[Midoriya]

I don’t think Pokemon will ever “end” per se, but they’ll definitely eventually stop making new Pokemon. At that point it’s hard to say how the franchise will live on, but I’m sure it will live on in some way or fashion. There’s already so many things related to Pokemon including the TCG, spinoffs, Pokemon GO, and Pokemon in other forms that it’s hard to believe it will just die completely someday.

 

[toadsworthy]

Like all series, the Pok?mon franchise will eventually come to an end. But due to the rampant success of Pok?mon Sword/Shield (despite higher price, less Pok?mon, and less story), I don’t see Pok?mon ending anytime soon. But it will still end some day.

What generation do you think will be the last generation for Pok?mon?

You say "like all series" but in what reference? I can't think of a series as powerful as pokemon, mario, LoZ that has seriously just ended. Even Sonic keeps coming back.... to some degree of success. As well as Pokemon has become a staple of lot of things and even gaming as a whole. I don't think its ever gonna go away as long as nintendo is a functional company. The era of video games themselves is very small and like i said there aren't other series like pokemon that have come and "died" per say. I don't think video game history is ready for a titan like that to just go down and I think nintendo franchises like mentioned above will have plenty of staying power and I don't think video game history has seen anything like these franchises so its unknown to say how they will continue that history

 

[MapleSilver]

I doubt it will end anytime before 12th generation. Pok?mon is the largest entertainment franchise in the world and it shows no signs of slowing down. Of course everything will end eventually but I'm sure Pok?mon's time won't be anytime soon. Even if it stopped being quite as profitable I doubt they would just immediately pull the plug. Most franchises like this die after many, many years of poor sales. As Toadsworthy said, even Sonic is still around today.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

In my opinion, the series will last for a long time. It will even outlive the point where they will no longer make new species.

 

[Megan.]

I guess whenever they stop making new pokemon. I don't think we have to worry about it coming to an end any time soon though!

 

[Xara]

i feel like at one point they’ll stop making new species and shortly after that it’ll end

 

[Flyffel]

As long as they keep developing good games (Sword and Shield are good imo), it will never end. If the games, at some point, turn into a soulless shell of the former glory, it might die out slowly. And then get rebooted...

Or maybe it will end because of other (tragic) happenings in the real world that have nothing to do with Pok?mon specifically.

Edit: I also don't think that they'd ever stop designing new Pok?mon completely. But they might start pushing alternate forms of older Pok?mon even harder to provide new content without inflating the national dex like they started doing with megas, then alolan and now galarian and gigamax formes.

 

[pinkfawn]

I voted that the franchise will continue, but new Pokemon will stop, or slow down.

I think starting very soon, each generation will start having less and less new Pokemon. Hopefully this isn't any time soon, but if they want to keep all Pokemon in all games (hopefully they will now, learning from backlash) I think they should cut down the amount of Pokemon. I know we are really only getting about 60-80 a generation, but for their best interest I think once Gen 12 or so hits they'll drop down to 20-30 new Pokemon per generation.

I love Pokemon for the collecting aspect (couldn't care less about competitive battling), but right now I am trying to fill the National Dex on Pokemon Home and it's a bit of a nightmare. Up until gen 7 I have a living Dex, but I've got to play through Sun and Ultra Sun completely in order to get all the missing Ultra Beasts and otherwise exclusives. If they keep adding more it'll just become a disaster for collectors. I'm not saying that everyone will have issues with the collecting, I'm just personally having a hard time mapping out what exactly I need and where to get it fastest. I like having a living dex, so trading for dex entries and trading back isn't really an option for me in the long run.

 

[jefflomacy]

Pokemon is the world's largest media franchise and will be the first to ever gross 100 billion dollars in revenue. It stomps out Hello Kitty by a whopping 12 billion dollars and Star Wars by 27 billion.

Pokemon will not end in your lifetime, or mine. They will continue making new designs well beyond our lifetime, although when all of the original staff is gone, there is always a risk of a significant decline in quality. People like to give new Pokemon designs a hard time, but I tend to think they lack perspective. They don't realize how good Pokemon fans actually have it as far as unique, original designs are concerned. Every single generation has a handful of excellent designs that impress me. Sure it has some stinkers (inanimate object Pokemon are my least favorite for sure), but when you have so many designs it's inevitable.

Pokemon moving in the direction of a game every other year with DLC in between will be good for the franchise. I think now that they have developed a game in 1080p for a modern handheld, the next game will be a significant improvement over Sword and Shield. Despite all its faults, Sword and Shield still has a fun gameplay loop. I know people who complained about it but already have 300+ hours in it. So don't take their complaints too seriously. Pokemon is on a resurgence path to greatness at this time and it will not slow down any time soon.

Sword and Shield opened the doors to a lot of YouTubers making videos about how Pokemon is a "corner cutting" franchise but let's be real here: most of these people don't play Pokemon and picked up Sword and Shield expecting Breath of the Wild for some reason. Nothing is more cringe-worthy than watching a YouTuber who knows next to nothing about Pokemon making a long negative review video of Sword and Shield. They fail to recognize that drastic change in the fundamental gameplay loop of Pokemon is simply not desired by most of the fanbase. The sales numbers prove that. It's even better when they make a review video about Sword and Shield, but going back through their channel history might have at most a review of Let's Go. They're trendy, and hating on Pokemon Sword and Shield is just trendy right now.

It's wild to think about, but I've been playing Pokemon since 1998, starting with Red and Blue. It's been a game I can pick up and have a blast playing, regardless of the generation, for as long as I can remember.

 

[Halloqueen]

Barring any societal or economic changes or catastrophes, or perhaps some overhaul within the company that drastically alters the franchise for the worse, the Pok?mon series can probably be expected to go beyond 12 generations. How far into the future it goes past that is anyone's guess.

 

[Romaki]

I think it'll be a strong brand until society decides it doesn't need any brands anymore, which might be never. Like Mickey Mouse will turn 100 this decade and that's only dying because anything new would just be a repeat at this point. But Pok?mon doesn't rely on a single figure, like one day there might be a new protagonist in the anime and we might see a "second generation" where all the Pok?mon we know now today will become completely irrelevant.

But also there might be a giant shift someday in our society where Pok?mon becomes uncool and the brand can't recover. It's unlikely, but we really don't know what the future looks like. Most media just sees a dystopia in our future, so who knows how we'll live our life in 50 years for now. As long as our society stays the same, Pok?mon will remain relevant.

 

[sleepydreepy]

Pokemon is pretty iconic, so I don't think it will ever "end." Perhaps they will stop making new pokemon eventually, but I think the franchise is gonna live on for a really long time, and even as it starts to get "old" I'm sure it will still be popular even as a cool "retro" thing. It's definitely gonna outlive us

 

[Buttonsy]

I honestly feel like it would take an apocalypse or at least complete restructuring of society to end a franchise that major.

 

[Corrie]

I voted that the franchise will continue, but new Pokemon will stop, or slow down.

I think starting very soon, each generation will start having less and less new Pokemon. Hopefully this isn't any time soon, but if they want to keep all Pokemon in all games (hopefully they will now, learning from backlash) I think they should cut down the amount of Pokemon. I know we are really only getting about 60-80 a generation, but for their best interest I think once Gen 12 or so hits they'll drop down to 20-30 new Pokemon per generation.

I love Pokemon for the collecting aspect (couldn't care less about competitive battling), but right now I am trying to fill the National Dex on Pokemon Home and it's a bit of a nightmare. Up until gen 7 I have a living Dex, but I've got to play through Sun and Ultra Sun completely in order to get all the missing Ultra Beasts and otherwise exclusives. If they keep adding more it'll just become a disaster for collectors. I'm not saying that everyone will have issues with the collecting, I'm just personally having a hard time mapping out what exactly I need and where to get it fastest. I like having a living dex, so trading for dex entries and trading back isn't really an option for me in the long run.

They're already making less and less new Pokemon. Gen 6-8 have had less Pokemon than say, Gen 5.

 

[pinkfawn]

They're already making less and less new Pokemon. Gen 6-8 have had less Pokemon than say, Gen 5.

Yep, as I mentioned each Gen is starting to only get 60-80 new Pokemon, which we saw beginning in Gen 6. I'm thinking going forward we will get way less than that, which honestly at this point might be something needed. I get foggy with names starting in Gen 7.

 

[ForgottenT]

It's the highest grossing franchise in the world, won't end in our lifetimes.
But I do hope they start appreciating the fans again, Sword and Shield were awful.

 

[Corrie]

Yep, as I mentioned each Gen is starting to only get 60-80 new Pokemon, which we saw beginning in Gen 6. I'm thinking going forward we will get way less than that, which honestly at this point might be something needed. I get foggy with names starting in Gen 7.

It sucks because I like having the variety but yeah it's just becoming too many to remember.

 

[peachmilke]

honestly considering it’s mass success I see it being around for awhile to say the least, I do think they need to begin to put more effort in or people are going to get even more fed up.. but there will always be some people who will still loyal to the franchise no matter what so idk

 

[necrofantasia]

as long as they can still get money, I don't think the games will end
the series is sort of a zombie at this point