A burning question from Pokemon fans is and has been the question of why are Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 released to Nintendo’s DS handheld console rather than the newer 3DS?
TheVerge has shed some light on the subject in an interview with Pokemon producer Junichi Masuda, and the reasoning behind this seems to be quite a simple. The producer explains that a core part of the development process for each new Pokemon game is deciding who the game is intended for.
Masuda explained that the primary goal is to get as many people as possible able to play the game, and the DS enjoys a larger following. He explained that the creators want to ensure that fans that played the first Black and White releases would be able to play the sequel.
“Those who played Black and White may not have a 3DS, but they definitely played on a regular DS,” states Masuda.
Masuda also explained that the developer’s decision about which audience each game is meant to appeal to also helps them figure out what gameplay elements to pursue.
“There are some aspects of HeartGold and SoulSilver that were purposefully left out of Black 2 and White 2,” he says.
“HeartGold and SoulSilver were more focused toward those who played Gold and Silver a long time ago. It was a celebration and commemoration of those games. With that target audience, we were able to do things that maybe made it more convenient but may not have been so obvious for new players.
A lot of the developers wanted to do more with the characters of Black and White.
In the same interview Masuda did praise the 3DS, speaking positively about the console’s “cool features” and the new network features. So he days the Pokemon studio could challenge themselves with that hardware.
“So we’re definitely taking a look at it. We’re very interested,” he said.
