We\u2019re all now used to every big-name game coming out in five differently priced versions, each containing more in-game stuff than the last, but no matter which you choose you will still be buying the same game. That\u2019s never been the case for the mainline\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon\u00a0series, starting even with its very first English-language release in 1998 with Pok\u00e9mon Red and Pok\u00e9mon Blue, each version subtly (but to fans, crucially) different. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? The reason is wonderfully silly.<\/p>\n
Creating two versions of what mostly boils down to the same game is certainly not an obvious choice. It introduces a huge amount of confusion to an unaware audience, not sure which is the most recent game or whether they\u2019re making a mistake by buying one over the other. To those familiar with the series, it\u2019s a huge feature and selling point, and deciding which version of the game you\u2019re going to buy and why is a big part of the experience. But given the fear of alienation and confusion, it\u2019s hard to imagine most marketing executives would ever allow such a conceit to survive its first boardroom whisper. Yet one of the best-selling game series of all time suggests it can work out OK.<\/p>\n
But why? Well, as\u00a0GamesRadar<\/a>\u00a0spotted via Genki_JPN\u2019s X account<\/a>, in a recent shareholders meeting Nintendo director Shigeru Miyamoto was asked if anything could ever outsell Mario Kart 8. This caused him to recall a conversation with the creator of the\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon franchise, Satoshi Tajiri, about how the monster-catching games could ever outdo the success of the Mario\u00a0games. Via machine translation, Miyamoto told investors<\/a>, \u201cA long time ago, Tajiri-san, the director of Pok\u00e9mon, joked with me that if you want to surpass Nintendo\u2019s Mario you\u2019ll have to sell two copies of the game to each customer.\u201d<\/p>\n In a shareholders meeting Shigeru Miyamoto shared a story about Pok\u00e9mon creator Satoshi Tajiri and one of the reasons Pok\u00e9mon Red and Green came to be!<\/p>\n “A long time ago, Tajiri-san, the director of Pok\u00e9mon, before creating the first Pok\u00e9mon game, once joked to me \u2018If you want to\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/YTS4AvAbu9<\/a><\/p>\n\n