- Nintendo’s recent leaks have shed light on the typical production cost of a modern Pokemon title.
- It is said that the upcoming Pokemon Legends Z-A cost just $13 million to produce.
- Since each new game from the series sells millions of copies at release, Nintendo earns at least 10x profits with each entry.
Nintendo recently suffered a massive data breach, and plenty of information is now out in the wild. Interestingly, various pieces of information have revealed details regarding the Pokemon franchise, a series that sells millions upon millions of units with each new release.
According to these leaks, these games are extremely cheap to make. In fact, Pokemon budgets are so small that each new release makes over 10x profits on the initial investment.
Why it matters: Modern game budgets have exploded, with the average AAA release requiring investments as high as $300 million. Therefore, Pokemon stands in stark contrast to this trend.
According to the latest leaks, the upcoming Pokemon Legends Z-A has a budget as small as $13 million. Moreover, the next mainline 10th-generation Pokemon title boasts a similar budget of $20 million.
Assuming other games in the series have been made in a similar budget, the series can comfortably turn profits as high as 10x the initial investment. For context, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet sold over 25 million lifetime units, while Pokemon Sword and Shield achieved similar sales. In total, the series boasts over 500 million lifetime sales.
Both aforementioned games made well over $1 billion, earning significantly more than 10 times the development cost. Even when accounting for additional marketing and distribution costs, each Pokemon game earns close to a billion dollars in profits for Nintendo. The Pokémon IP, especially, has avenues like trading card collections at Titanshield and similar sites that bring in consumers and profit, so seeing that level of success in the gaming sphere is unsurprising all things considered.
Because the series has been stuck in such a poor technical state for so long, these numbers come as no surprise. In many ways, the latest Pokemon games still lag behind the cutting-edge AAA productions from 15 years ago.
The upcoming Pokemon Legends Z-A has shown potential, but ultimately, the game appears to pale in comparison to an open-world like that of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Considering how successful the series is, perhaps it’s time Nintendo and Game Freak invest more money into their magnum opus.
What do you make of the leaked figures? Let’s discuss in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
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