Junichi Masuda, the former managing director of Game Freak and one of the founding members of the company, has left the post to hold a new, much higher position as “Chief Creative Fellow” of The Pokémon Company.
Masuda has played a key role in the creation and development of the Pokémon franchise. Programmer of the first Red / Blue Pokémon (and, in fact, Japanese Pocket Monsters of 1996), he became the director of the main series of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire in Pokémon X and Y. Along with these roles, he created often the music for the series as well, in addition to directly participating in the name and design of many of the monsters. Now, it has risen to a much more powerful position, with responsibilities for the Pokémon franchise as a whole.
The developer worked on all the major games in some way, and was even the person who wrote the base game concept paper for Pokémon GO.
In 2018, Masuda made it clear that he was ready to move on from directing Pokémon titles, and told the official Pokémon site that Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee, would be his last time at the helm. I wanted Game Freak’s “younger generation” to have a chance with the series.
Four years later, and he has officially left the studio, but not the franchise. Acquire a splendid title of Chief Creative Fellow of The Pokémon Company (which looks like it should be a rank above Top Ideas Chap), where it looks like his role will continue with his innovative approach to pocket monsters. This new title gives you a much greater responsibility for Pokémon in general, including card games, screen adaptations, brand management, manga, and more.
This is an important move also for mainline Pokémon games, given Masuda’s constant involvement with the series since its inception. It means that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be the first main entries in the series with which Masuda will not have participated directly, which will probably give newer developers a better chance to print the games.
“I would like to express my gratitude to all Pokémon fans,” Masuda said in a statement. “I hope to transcend the boundaries of video games by trying to bring more surprises, fun and excitement to people around the world, while doing my best to connect people, expand the circle of the ‘game’ and help create a better world. because we share it. “