Pokémon is marking a major milestone this year, celebrating its 30th anniversary on February 27th. Fans are eagerly anticipating news about the rumored next mainline game and other exciting projects. Meanwhile, a new title called Pokopia is set to introduce a fresh take on town life simulations in early March. However, looking back at the series’ beginnings, it took a very long time for the concept to come together.

This insight comes from The Pokémon Company president and CEO, Tsunekazu Ishihara, who shared his thoughts during a special video presentation. The franchise as a whole was honored with the prestigious Andrew Yoon Legend Award, which recognizes a sustained body of work that shows exceptional artistic achievement and innovation.

Ishihara used this moment to reflect on the series’ modest origins. He explained that the original games were created with very limited resources at the time. He emphasized that Pokémon Red and Green required a great deal of trial and error to get everything right and bring the project to completion. He even revealed that the entire development process ended up lasting six years. This duration is quite surprising when you consider that game development cycles back then were usually much shorter than they are today. What we now consider a normal development time was actually quite rare during that era.

We all know that the effort paid off in the end. Much like many of us, Ishihara believes the success came down to having a strong foundational idea that the team was confident in. He stated that despite the challenges, everyone felt sure about the main gameplay elements that would become the foundation of the Pokémon video game series: catch, raise, trade, and battle. These core mechanics were designed with nostalgic themes and warm feelings in mind, as they were tied to fundamental childhood experiences of connecting with nature.

That said, Ishihara admitted he was uncertain at first about how the games would appeal outside of Japan. He worried that many of the formative childhood experiences that inspired the game might not be shared by players in other parts of the world. As we now know, there was nothing to be afraid of. After the initial massive success, Pokémon’s core themes of friendship and our often complicated relationship with the world helped shape the franchise’s lasting identity.

There were no specific comments from Ishihara about the next main game, other than the company’s continued commitment to using those foundational principles as a major driving force. However, that could change very soon as the anniversary celebrations continue.