Pokemon MMO Out of the Question at the Moment

Pokemon is big business. Games like Diamond/Pearl are huge hits on the Nintendo DS and the developers are certainly aware of the fact that players are thinking that the pocket monsters should be moving on other consoles as well. There are calls online for a Pokemon MMO and for a port of the game on the Nintendo Wii, which would allow the creatures to be seen in their full 3D glory.

Junichi Masuda, who is the design director on the series, has pretty much shut down all hopes for a MMO featuring Pokemon in the near future.

He said that “At this point, we're not thinking of going in that direction.” He added than any project based on the franchise needs to focus on the “got to catch them all” philosophy and that “trading is a core concept of Pokémon. So when you're trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one you want and which one they want. I would like to emphasize real-world communication. You don't see each other online.” So, they basically want a MMO game filled with fans interested in the characters and no players who are only there for the competitive aspect.

Even if Pokemons are not coming to the Nintendo Wii or to the PC in the form of a MMO, it's pretty certain that a new handheld game will be released, taking advantage of the special features of the DSi, which is a big hit in Japan and set to arrive in North America shortly and in Europe before the end of 2009.

The idea of taking pictures of things and incorporating those images into the game has been considered interesting by those in charge of the Pokemon titles, but they don't yet know how it will be introduced in a game. Will we see in-game special Pokemons that have the player's face seamlessly integrated in their features?