The success of Palworld speaks volumes about Nintendo/Gamefreak's failure to produce any meaningful gameplay innovation over the past few decades
To me the success of Palworld shows two things: 1, the survival-crafting genre is still a gold mine after all these years YET no AAA studio wants to touch it for some reason. Only Early Access indie games in the field. 2, Nintendo would break all records if they start releasing their games on multiple platforms.
games take years to make. If a AAA started making a survival game the second Valheim came out, it'd still be 2-3 years out. Indies are more agile and can capitalize on trends before they are sucked dry.
>2, Nintendo would break all records if they start releasing their games on multiple platforms.
if you need to spend 3 times the amount of money to make twice the money, the business choice is clear unless you can show something like stocks soaring over the decision. Japan hasn't had inflation for 30 years, so there's much less incentive to chase those kinds of stock gains. So you play it safe.
Also, why is death such a make or break feature for you?
It’s widely acknowledged Game Freak simply aren’t investing in the games in the way they should: Nintendo should be making Palworld, with their own IP. They’d take over the world.
The crux of it is that Pokemon games don’t need to be good to sell… so they’re crap instead.