Pokemon Generation 10 budgets that were included in Game Freak's latest batch of unverified but massive leaks According to former Nintendo marketing executives Keith Ellis and Christa Young, it's likely not the full amount.
Leaked last year's Pokemon appeared again this week with information about Pokemon Legends: ZA and beyond. Most notable was the purported title of the next main game, Pokemon Winds and Waves, as well as the budget, which was reportedly hovering around $20 million or 3 billion yen (all of which should be taken with a grain of salt, as budgets can change and leaks can be false).
During their latest podcast, Ellis and Young explain that they already had an inkling that most Switch exclusives probably wouldn't cost as much to make as blockbusters on other consoles. Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West budgets leaked like making Pokemon's supposed allowance look like chump change.
But the duo weren't prepared for how low Gen10's budget was. “Even this information shocked me,” Ellis says.
“I'll say I think that [the $20 million figure] “It's strictly game production, and there are other things that go into the overall budget, like marketing, which for Pokemon games is a significant amount of money,” he continued.
“We know about this money,” Yang said of his time with the company. “We have never seen development budgets, but, of course, we understand what they are, marketing budgets. And obviously this is a AAA game, a very important game for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company in the market. So those marketing budgets were pretty significant.”
Pokemon's marketing also gets a little murky when you consider that it's constantly on the cross-media promotion train. Card sets, new anime seasons, merchandise, games, Pokemon GO, and events at various museums continually help ensure that the series never leaves the public consciousness for too long.
In the meantime, check out Pokemon Legends: ZA Complete Map and find out How to catch all the Legendaries in Pokemon Legends: ZA.
