Pokémon's Next Games Cost Less Than a Corporate Retreat, And It Fucking Shows

For a franchise that has a net worth greater than God, you’d think they could spare a little more cash on the actual games.

A recent leak has spilled the beans on the budgets for the next mainline Pokémon titles, and the numbers are so low they feel like a joke. According to the leak, Pokémon Legends Z-A is working with a cool 2 billion yen, which is about $13 million. The next big one, Gen 10, gets a slightly more generous 3 billion yen, or around $20 million.

I've seen marketing budgets for mobile games that are bigger than that.

A License to Print Money

Let's put this in perspective. The Pokémon Company is a multi-billion-dollar entity. The games sell tens of millions of copies without breaking a sweat, regardless of their quality. These budgets aren't just conservative; they're practically an insult.

This isn't about funding a passion project. This is a calculated business decision designed to guarantee obscene profit margins. It's a strategy that ensures they could release a half-broken mess and still make a killing. Which, come to think of it, sounds vaguely familiar.

You Get What You Pay For

The sentiment online is pretty clear: are they serious? After the technical dumpster fire that was Scarlet & Violet, you’d think the company would throw a bit more money at development to avoid another round of public humiliation.

But this leak suggests the opposite. It seems the plan is to continue coasting on brand recognition alone. I'm not saying throwing money at a game magically fixes everything, but when you're charging full price for a game that runs like it's being powered by a hamster on a wheel, maybe…just maybe…a bigger budget could help.

It’s a bold strategy from a company that recently patented the idea of summoning monsters to fight other monsters. With that kind of groundbreaking innovation, who needs a decent budget?