In early April, The Pokémon Company released Pokémon Rumble World—its second free-to-play title of the year. As with any free-to-play title, it was met with some harsh opposition by those who oppose the model. Those critics weren’t alone, however, as even the development team struggled with the decision to go free-to-play. Ambrella director Norio Matsumura and president Muneaki Ozawa recently sat down with Famitsu to discuss the rationale behind this decision and how it faced opposition within the staff.

The decision to go with the free-to-play model actually stemmed from high in The Pokémon Company itself. According to Matsumura, the idea came from Tsunekazu Ishihara, the president of The Pokémon Company:

“Mr. Ishihara (the president of the Pokémon Company) suggested: ‘Let’s try out F2P.’ Personally I think that refreshing controls and the nature of continuously returning to the game are concepts which suit free games very well, so I thought there was a chance of success. However, many members of the staff are against F2P games…”

— Norio Matsumura

It turns out that he was correct in that regard. Many members of development staff were opposed to titles where money could be freely spent, so they implemented the upper spending limit to help counteract that fear:

“It felt like a dream that more people could play the game when it’s distributed through the eShop for free. On the other hand, many staff members of our company like traditional packaged titles, so they voiced opinions like, ‘I’m afraid of a title in which you can pay infinitely and it is out of my league.’ As that was the case, I thought people could play with peace of mind if there was an upper limit for in-game purchases.”

— Norio Matsumura

While free-to-play titles are often faced with harsh criticism over microtransactions and the pay-to-win mentality,

Pokémon Rumble World seems to have done a decent job avoiding these pitfalls. The fact that the developers themselves were faced with such hesitance allowed them to develop a way in which everyone felt comfortable with the system.

Are you surprised that the developers struggled with the idea of making a free-to-play title? Do you think they implemented the feature wisely? Let us know what you think below!

Source: Famitsu (via Nintendo Everything)

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