SWOT An Analysis fo for: PO POKÉMON by by Fr Frank Go Gonzalez
Last Re Revised: 03 03/05/2017
Executive Summary
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Opportunities
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Threats
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Recommendation
5
SWOT Analysis for: POKÉMON by Frank Gonzalez
Last Revised: 03/05/2017
Executive Summary
I want to be the very best like no one ever was…
If you reed this singing in you mind, or even keep it playing into your mental soundtrack, then you know that Pokémon has been a really successful franchise across the time. It’s been 20 years now (21 this year, actually), Pokémon has its very own commemoration day, has being in TV, movies, anime series for seasons, as well as manga, advertising, mascoting and almost every media you can name. This is also a franchise that has rescue Nintendo from oblivion and allowing Nintendo to have the place it has now in the industry, and Pikachu is as well known as Mario when it comes to think about Nintendo’s mayor mascots. Created by Satoshi Tajiri, it has evolving constantly having the rooster growing from 151 pokémon in the first generation, to 801 with the latest addition, this giant has his Strengths as well as turn downs, let’s crack down the franchise status in the following analysis! Strengths Solid Story: Each game has more or less the same story: the noobish guy who ●
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needs to get introduced to the pokemon world and ends to be the new champion of the region, while in his path to success, happens to take down a criminal (of some sort) organization with a leader with worldwide domination plans. Pokemon has know how to twist this plot over 7 generations now, and even more: Fans expects to be this way. Easy to learn game mechanics: It is not hard to learn how to play, all the basics to go through the game can be learned from the first 10 minutes of the game, and no matter what pokémon you pick, you will be using the 4 movements and the paper/rock/scissors method, going from challenge to challenge, filling the dex, getting badges, creating party of 6 pokémon to be carry with you, making them evolve and trading with friends. Also, Pokemon introduces new mechanics like the mega evolutions and the newly added z move. High cap skill gameplay able. Nevertheless it is simple enough, this could be as sophisticated as chest! Players gather around the worlds championships and organize their own local/social media tournaments, with new strategies coming up, party design and moveset design as well. Spin offs. Tons of games had being incorporated to the franchise in several formats, from TGC to smartphones, or even games with different mechanics (like pokemon ranger or pokemon snap) made some of them for other consoles, like the resent Pokken Tournament, which is a fighting game. Also it has it own manga, anime and movie series.
SWOT Analysis for: POKÉMON by Frank Gonzalez ●
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Last Revised: 03/05/2017
Collection. Gotta catch’em all! The official website pokedex number is a grand
801 total over seven generations over the last 20 years! A great job has done the Franchise keeping the same awesome artist and designer Ken Sugimori, allowing all of them to have the coherence of inhabitat the same world Mascoting. A number of pokémon has been selected to appear in some other games, media, or being chosen to represent companies like airlines or even Japan teams, sport events and so forth! Pikachu being the most recognizable character of the franchise, is now also coins issued by New Zealand, worth 1 New Zealand Dollar! Have to mention that Pikachu was the official mascot for Japan Soccer Team in FIFA’s World Cup 2014, and it is going to be one of many gamer mascots in the next Tokio 2020 Olympics!
Weaknesses ●
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Casual v Hardcore. In a game with high skill cap, is hard to balance the fun for
hardcore gamers and what is actually fun for casual gamers, and I think this issue is affecting several games, but in pokémon this brings a variety of problems, like some listed above. Over all, hardcore gamers get disappointed with the story cause they look at it as a turn down, while casuals got frustrated by high skilled players found in online battles. Also, designing not-core-mechanics (like Pokeplaza or the character customization) is constantly changing from game to game, sometimes bringing back good things, but some other those got forgotten, making the community to enrage for one or another reason! GTS spams. The Global Trade System has always had the same issue: people offering a low level pokémon, very common, asking for a rare pokémon, high level, rare rate gender, etc… I know some pokémon breeders (or makers) use this like a way to do some fun giveaways, but without taking those on count, you can find this problem for a really high number of posts like this, over 25 or so, for several different pokémons (take caterpie, rattata, yungoos, etc…) Hexed Pokémon battle. Game Freak has always have the same problem: some players have some ways to hack the game and fabricate their own pokémon, making them with the bests stats, natures and movesets, or even the level and item they would. And then, use those cracked pokémon on online battles with a little or not much problem, no filter (some attempt has been made, but with little success), making online battling very frustrating for players or being forced to do the same in order to be competitive. Unbalanced long metas. Patching is not occurring frequently, if any. Usually you have to wait till the next game to get things fixed, balanced while a lot of games uses a 2-4 week meta or even weekly hotfixes (take your favorite MOBA for instance), yeah, I know this is another genre, but battling online is one of the most important endgame elements.
SWOT Analysis for: POKÉMON by Frank Gonzalez ●
Last Revised: 03/05/2017
Pokémon expectations! Sounds like something good, right? But pokémon
maniacs take this the hard way! For ex, starters... Starters are the most expected pokémon for each generation and its always a challenge to design one. Last generation starters are some of the most poorly received from all… is this a bad sign? It might be, not necessarily but the truth is that they weren’t very popular. Besides, the pokémon types are weird and weak. Opportunities Nintendo Switch. With the arrival of the new Nintendo console, being this ●
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mobile and able to display different screen resolutions, the incorporation of variety of physics, HD graphics, music, all this must be added to this franchise, bringing it to a whole new level. For instance, think in animations for the entire battle and not only for the move turn, just like in the anime, where pokémon are interacting and when the trainer calls a movement, the pokémon execute it while wrestling, or like in the Pokken Tournament. Would be awesome Banning system. As we said, some pokémon are unbalanced in a meta, and tend to be in every single party, so you can have a battle with not much variety between teams, while having a pool of 801, makes no sense at all. You can fix this by adding more items mechanics, but the cost may result being too complex to casual gamers Adding more types. Pokémon has 9 types of pokémon, and each pokémon is able to have 2 types (some may say 3 counting the mega evolution change, but still, only 2 at a time). And Game Freak has being having the same problem for the lasts generations, making appealing pokémon, but with somehow bad type convitation, which results in an useless pokémon at the end for the numerous weaknesses it have (Alola Sandslash Steel/Ice, for instance, being 4x weak against Fighting AND Fire types, and 2x weak against Ground), so, if they add a third type for this pokémon, like +Water, they could mitigate this weakness. Canon. Lore is very important for a game that has being for this long and present in several media, websites (wikias included) and a lot of fan art as well. And Pokémon has several plot holes that can be easily filled with the establishment of a canon, that tells what is official canon (cause the animes series is not canon). i think this would open a new branch for this already successful franchise, where players will be delighted to explore.
Threats Platforms. Well, you have to own a Nintendo 3DS (or 2DS) in order to play this ●
games. This has been a lifesaver for Nintendo over the years, resolving bankrupts in more than 1 occasions. But now, with Android and iOS making games with great graphics and able to reproduce the same game mechanics, Pokémon might be left behind if not take the leap
SWOT Analysis for: POKÉMON by Frank Gonzalez
Last Revised: 03/05/2017
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Niche. Nintendo tends to manage exclusive franchise (recently exploring mobiles
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with Pokemon Go, Pokémon Shuffle or Mario Run). While this games have been well accepted (massively, you would say, in case of Pokémon Go), those are not focused on the same game mechanics than the mainstream games, are more like spin offs. So, alike the previous point, you have to be real fan of the series in order to purchase the portable console AND the game (or games, if you buy both versions of the game, which is not needed, but a lot of people like too) Pokémon. Well, not learning of your mistakes is always very unwise, and Pokémon franchise has not being doing this faster enough and players, who loves the games and characters, are going to remain loyal to some point Competition. Not having/ having. Pokémon really don’t have competitors, and having 20 years now, give it a wide advantage to any game to even try. While this may some dreamy, this makes this game to be the only choice for people that can get bored of the same stuff, although this has being working for this long
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Recommendation
Overall, I think there are a few changes to be done and the first would be to set more interaction between platforms, specially with Pokémon Go and the latest Sun and Moon at the moment, but for more sure for the first game for the Nintendo Switch. I would implement the third type for each pokémon in order to fix balance and do the reworks for the pokémon that are under performed. Also, a better patching system focused in two main aspects: banning hexed pokes and balancing would be in the first order to implement. I would take advantage of the vast community that is already builded around the Pokemon and start to set the canon, which I will use to do a series of games based on the story lore (another spin off), and that would be awesome based in the recently concluded “Pokémon Generations” series, released in YouTube for the lasts months, with a great acceptance, and having the community asking for more. Would be very important to provide Pokémon world with more constant updates and video material to respond to the players expectations, and maintain the core game elements, such as the story, well character design and the collection additions they way they are. I would explore the possibility of make a fan version based generation with the participation of all the community and draw by Ken Sugimori because we all love it. Also will do voting to give the community more voice in the next character elections for participations on some other game franchise, like Smash Bros series. And, definitely, taking advantage of my positioning in the genre, and all the generations being taken place in specific themed location, I would start a project of “Pokémon World”, where the player may interact across the regions (Kanto, Johto, Kalos, Alola), and making this MMO for sure.
