如果說寶可夢是世界頂級IP，應該沒有人會反對吧？而就在最近，寶可夢公司的首席運營官（COO）宇都宮崇人在接受《衛報》採訪時表示：我們的目標是讓寶可夢繫列能長存數百年時間，至少確保有生之年內，寶可夢繫列依然存活
原文有點長，我就先簡單說說自己的看法吧，後面友原文＋機翻和文章的來源
現在的寶可夢繫列已經陪伴了無數人的成長，初代寶可夢誕生於1996 年，最早登陸 Game Boy 遊戲機，而在三年後的2026年，寶可夢這個IP也將迎來她的30歲生日（至今已有27年的歷史）
寶可夢給人們帶來的情緒價值是無可替代的，也是不可或缺的，這就是為什麼在技術力飛速發展的今天，以弱技術力呈現寶可夢世界的寶可夢遊戲卻依舊有大量訓練家買單的原因
而寶可夢這一IP是否會存在數百年，我不得而知，但是時間會給出答案。在這一IP延續百年之前，我希望我可以玩到讓我感覺“酣暢淋漓”的寶可夢遊戲吧！
以下內容為原文＋機翻
原文鏈接：
當田尾立時還是個孩子時，他對昆蟲產生了濃厚的興趣。在東京郊區町田市長大的他，整個夏天都會掀開植物，搜索灌木叢中的小動物，小心翼翼地把每隻新發現的昆蟲加入他的收藏。這個引人注目的愛好讓他在操場上被調皮的同學戲稱為“蟲先生”，但田尾立最終笑到了最後。畢竟，正是這種形成時的痴迷激發了他的巔峰之作——《寵物小精靈》。
When Satoshi Tajiri was a child, he developed a fascination with insects. Growing up in the greater Tokyo suburb of Machida, he’d spend summer days peeling back plants and scouring the undergrowth for creepy crawlies, carefully adding each new insect to his collection. This eyebrow-raising hobby earned him the playground nickname “Mr Bug” from his teasing classmates, but Tajiri had the last laugh. After all, it was this formative obsession that inspired his crowning achievement –Pokémon.
三十三年後，最初的兩款野心勃勃的Game Boy遊戲已經發展成為全球最賺錢的媒體特許經營品牌，超過了《星球大戰》和漫威等巨頭。田尾立在2012年從他可愛的創作中退了一步，他的開發公司Game Freak現在是更大的“寵物小精靈公司”的一部分，該公司的首席運營官宇都宮孝人如今坐在我面前橫濱。
Thirty-three years later, that first duo of ambitious Game Boy games has blossomed into the world’s highest-grossing media franchise, beating behemoths such as Star Wars and Marvel. Tajiri took a step back from his cutesy creation in 2012, and his developer Game Freak is now part of a larger Pokémon Company – whose COO, Takato Utsunomiya, now sits in front of me in Yokohama.
任何觀看過《寵物小精靈Presents》直播的人都會立即認出宇都宮孝人。作為一位以其花哨的寵物小精靈襯衫而聞名的COO，這位打扮得一絲不苟的首席運營官已經向世界介紹了幾代新的寵物小精靈。“我的工作？我整天整天都在想寵物小精靈，”他笑著說。“我們的目標是讓寵物小精靈活下去數百年，確保它能在我們壽命之後依然存在。”
Anyone who’s watched a Pokémon Presents live stream will immediately recognise Utsunomiya. Earning a reputation for his flamboyant Pokémon shirts, the impeccably groomed COO has introduced the world to several new generations of Pokémon. “My job? I spend all day every day thinking about Pokémon,” he says with a smile. “Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years – making sure it survives well past our lifetimes.”
在今年的寵物小精靈世界錦標賽——這是第18屆此類活動——整個橫濱港城被皮卡丘的遊行和藝術裝置所佔據，有2,000名選手和10,000名粉絲在一個格外潮溼的八月進行了朝聖，無論是兒童還是成年人。“我認為過去我們有兩個不同的觀眾群體——年輕孩子和成年人——但現在我們開始看到一個家庭觀眾，他們一起享受這些體驗，”宇都宮孝人說。
During this year’s Pokémon world championships – the 18th such event – the entire port city of Yokohama was overtaken by Pikachu parades and art installations, as 2,000 competitors and 10,000 fans made the pilgrimage during a particularly humid August, children and adults alike. “I think in the past, we had two separate audiences – younger kids and adults – but now we’re starting to see a family audience where they’re enjoying the experiences together,” says Utsunomiya.
“很容易只關注成年人：他們有很多可支配的收入，你可以在社交媒體上實時看到他們的反應……但我們必須確保我們仍然能夠吸引年輕孩子，”他繼續說，“孩子們非常誠實——他們不會玩他們不喜歡的東西。如果你的品牌感覺陳舊或無聊，他們會立即摒棄它。”
“It’s easy to just focus on adults: they have a lot of disposable income, you can see their reactions in real time on social media … But we need to make sure that we are still keeping the younger kids interested,” he continues, “Kids are very honest – they won’t play something they don’t like. If your brand feels old or boring, they will immediately dismiss it.”
儘管田尾立等人創作的原始角色，從噴火龍到吉利蛋，耿鬼到暴鯉龍，仍然是最經久不衰的可識別的，但如今有超過1,000只小怪物供當代的孩子們捕捉。雖然一些最近的設計已經偏離了舊有的昆蟲和可信動物——看看受到劍、枝形吊燈甚至冰淇淋啟發的寵物小精靈——Game Freak的設計仍然是寵物小精靈最大的資產。開發者是否仍然能夠設計出和最初的151只一樣具有標誌性的怪物呢？
Though Tajiri and co’s original characters, from Charizard to Chansey, Gengar to Gyarados, are still the most enduringly recognisable, there are now more than 1,000 little monsters for today’s kids to catch. While some recent designs have moved away from the insects and believable animals of old – see Pokémon inspired by swords, chandeliers and even ice-cream – Game Freak’s designs are still Pokémon’s biggest asset. Can the developer still design monsters as iconic as the original 151?
“我確實認為我們可以繼續創造大量新的寵物小精靈，而且如果我們想要繼續將寵物小精靈傳遞給下一代，我們必須創造更有吸引力的寵物小精靈，”宇都宮孝人斷言道。“想出新的寵物小精靈的創意是Game Freak真正擅長的領域。那些在孩提時代玩寵物小精靈的人現在進入了Game Freak，並在那些團隊中，創造新的寵物小精靈，提出新的想法。”
“I do think we can continue to create lots and lots of new Pokémon, and really we must create more appealing Pokémon if we want to continue passing on Pokémon to the next generations,” Utsunomiya asserts. “Coming up with new Pokémon ideas is an area that Game Freak really excels in. People who grew up playing Pokémon as kids are now entering Game Freak and are on those teams, creating new Pokémon and coming up with new ideas.”
田尾立最初構想寵物小精靈是作為一款視頻遊戲——Game Boy的鏈接線啟發了定義該特許經營品牌虛構世界的交易和對戰——但在2023年，遊戲只是更廣泛的寵物小精靈謎題的一部分，還有長壽的動畫系列、電影、交換卡和商品，以及《寵物小精靈Go》等分支。在這一切的背後，視頻遊戲對業務有多重要呢？
Tajiri first dreamed up Pokémon as a video game – the Game Boy’s link cable inspired the trading and battling that defines the franchise’s fiction – but in 2023, games are just one piece of the wider Poké puzzle, alongside the long-running anime series, movies, trading cards and merchandise, and spin-offs such as Pokémon Go. With all that going on, how essential are the video games now to the business?
“視頻遊戲真正是品牌的核心——這將繼續保持，”宇都宮孝人回答說，“遊戲確實是體驗每個寵物小精靈設定的最佳方式。我們真的努力將它們視為活生生的生物；你在遊戲中看到它們以及它們在那裡的行為……在最初的遊戲中，圖鑑中的描述和遊戲中實際看到的情況之間存在相當大的差距。但從《傳說：阿爾宙斯》和《硃紅/紫羅蘭》開始，你可以在遊戲中看到Bidoof等寵物小精靈在那裡建巢，還有寵物小精靈成群結隊地行進。因此，它們的設定現在更加真實。當涉及到傳遞在原始圖鑑中看到的描述時……我們在那方面還可以做很多。”
“Video games are truly at the core of the brand – and that will continue,” replies Utsunomiya, “the games are really the best way to experience the settings of each Pokémon. We really try to treat them like living creatures; you see them in the game and how they’re behaving there … In the original games, there’s quite a gap between the descriptions in the Pokédex and what you actually saw in the game. But starting with Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet, you see [Pokémon like] Bidoof creating dens in the game, and you have Pokémon travelling in packs. So there’s a newfound realism of their setting. When it comes to delivering the descriptions seen in the original Pokédex … there’s a lot more we can do there.”
近年來，寵物小精靈並非一帆風順。2022年的遊戲《硃紅》和《紫羅蘭》在視覺上令人失望，並且受到了技術性故障的困擾（而不是可愛的收藏品式故障），它們糟糕的技術性能引發了前所未有的負面反應。
It has not all been rosy for Pokémon in recent years. 2022’s games, Scarlet and Violet, were visually underwhelming and plagued with bugs (of the technical kind, rather than the cutesy collectible kind), their poor technical performance inciting backlash the franchise had never seen before.
“無論我們是否公開回應，我們都始終密切關注社區中正在發生的反饋和對話，”宇都宮孝人表示。“在某些方面，我們並不總能百分之百地與社區的某些要求保持一致，也不能始終提供他們想要的。但我們這樣做是希望讓寵物小精靈延續很長時間，我相信粉絲和玩家在這方面與我們是一致的。”
“Regardless of whether we publicly respond, we’re always paying very close attention to the feedback and conversations happening in the communities,” Utsunomiya says. “There are certain aspects where we can’t always be 100% aligned with what parts of the community are asking for and what we want to provide. But we do this with the desire to keep Pokémon going for a very long time, and I believe that the fans and players are aligned with us in that respect.”
除了遊戲之外，寵物小精靈最近的發佈越來越多地滲透到現實生活中，推出了引人注目的睡眠跟蹤應用《寵物小精靈Sleep》，以及一個名為《寵物小精靈Smile》的口腔衛生伴侶應用。它似乎越來越像是寵物小精靈被定位為不僅僅是對戰怪物，更像是融入我們日常生活的吉祥物。
Outside the games, Pokémon’s recent releases have been spilling over more and more into real life with the eyebrow-raising sleep-tracking app, Pokémon Sleep, and a dental hygiene companion app called Pokémon Smile. It increasingly feels as if Pokémon are positioned less as battling monsters and more as mascots that slot into our day to day lives.
“每個人都必須睡覺。如果我們可以在你無論如何都要做的日常生活方面添加一些娛樂元素，那就有機會，”當我向他提出這個問題時，宇都宮孝人笑道。“寵物小精靈在美洲、歐洲和日本最受歡迎——如果將這些地區的人口相加，大約有十億人。因此，在這些領土之外仍然有超過七十億左右的人口。我們真的希望世界其他地方的人也成為充滿激情的寵物小精靈粉絲。因此，我們需要學會融入世界各地的價值觀和文化。”
“Everyone has to sleep. If we can add a bit of entertainment to an aspect of daily life you have to do anyway, there’s an opportunity there,” laughs Utsunomiya, when I put this to him. “Pokémon is at its most popular in the Americas, Europe and Japan – and if you combine all those populations, it’s around a billion people. So, there are still more than seven billion or so people outside those territories. We really want to have the rest of the world become passionate Pokémon fans. So we need to learn to incorporate those values and cultures around the world.”
對於那些不瞭解寵物小精靈現象的人，或者自新千年以來已經脫離這一現象的人，這些可收藏的小生物如今比以往任何時候都更受歡迎。原始的Game Boy遊戲仍然是該系列最暢銷的，銷售超過4600萬臺，但2019年的《寵物小精靈劍/盾》在任天堂Switch上已經銷售了2600萬臺，而整個遊戲系列總共銷售了超過4.6億份。《寵物小精靈Go》仍然有大約8千萬活躍玩家。日本最成功的娛樂出口品中顯然有一種持久的吸引力。在田尾立開始追逐捕捉蟲子的“抓住它們全部”的任務中，寵物小精靈公司現在正致力於征服全世界。
It may surprise those outside the Pokémon phenomenon – or those who have fallen off the wagon since the turn of the millennium – that these collectible critters are more popular than ever. The original Game Boy games remain the series’ bestselling, at over 46m units, but 2019’s Pokémon Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch have already shifted 26m, and the games as a whole have sold over 460m in total. Pokémon Go still has an estimated 80m active players. There is clearly something enduringly appealing about Japan’s most successful entertainment export. Where Tajiri started out on a catch-em-all quest to capture bugs, the Pokémon Company is now on a quest to capture the world.
“寵物小精靈具有一種只是普遍存在的特質，”宇都宮孝人認為。“當第一款遊戲在日本發佈時，通常認為視頻遊戲只是為男孩準備的，但我們很快意識到更多不同背景的觀眾也在玩這些遊戲。我們很快發現這些遊戲在世界其他地方也非常吸引人……如果通過寵物小精靈，人們可以相互連接——無論他們身在何處，是誰，這將使我們非常高興。”
“That there is something that is just universal about Pokémon,” reckons Utsunomiya. “When the first games came out in Japan, it was typical to look at video games as something that are just for boys, but we [soon] realised a much more diverse audience were playing them. We soon found that the games were very appealing to the rest of the world as well … It would make us very happy if, through Pokémon, people can connect with each other – regardless of where they are, or who they are.”
原文鏈接：‘Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years’: Pokémon’s chief’s plans for Pikachu and pals
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