Recently, Nintendo suffered a large-scale data breach, and a large amount of internal information flowed into the public domain.It is worth noting that many of the materials reveal the development details of the "Pokémon" series of games - this top IP with sales of tens of millions of copies per game has a surprisingly low production cost.

According to leaked information, the development budget of this series of games is extremely limited, and the profit margin of new games generally exceeds ten times the initial investment.This figure is in sharp contrast to the norm of contemporary AAA game development: the current development cost of mainstream masterpieces is usually as high as US$300 million.

The latest information shows that the development budget of the upcoming "Pokémon Legend Z-A" is only US$13 million, and the budget of the tenth generation sequel is only US$20 million.If the historical works in the series maintain a similar cost level, and based on the cumulative sales of "Pokémon: Crimson and Purple" exceeding 25 million copies and the sales performance of the same magnitude as "Pokémon: Sword and Shield", the revenue of a single game will exceed 1 billion US dollars. Even if marketing and distribution costs are included, the net profit will still be close to 10 billion.

Looking at the technical performance of this series in recent years, such an amazing input-output ratio may have already been revealed.The technical capabilities of most of the latest "Pokémon" games are still at the level of 15 years ago, failing to meet contemporary AAA standards.Although "Pokémon Legend Z-A" shows some progress, its open world design still has a clear gap compared to "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom".

What do you think about this? For a super IP like "Pokémon" with cumulative sales exceeding 500 million, should Nintendo and Game Freak increase investment in development?Welcome to discuss in the comment area.