Pokémon Director Not Interested In Social Games

More and more game publishers may be dabbling with social gaming, but don't think everyone's interested in developing Facebook games. You can count Pokémon Black and White developer Game Freak among the disinterested.

Game Freak's Junichi Masuda, director of Pokémon Black and White, told MCV that he hasn't felt any pressure to expand the series onto online platforms, citing player safety as a concern. “For example, Facebook and MSN are mainly for adults, but what’s very important is that everyone can enjoy a Pokémon game without feeling any fear," he said. "So that’s what I think about whenever I produce a new video game.”

Young Pokémon enthusiasts are certainly protected under the franchise's current structure. Can you imagine a situation where Nintendo would encourage fans to not only connect online but actually meet up in person with one another? That would be a completely terrible, potentially unsafe scenario, right? Oh, wait.