Nintendo & Pokémon Company Reportedly had a Difficult and Adversarial Relationship: “there were really a lot of butting heads moments”

Former Nintendo of America employees Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang recently talked about a difficult working relationship between Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in the U.S. They shared their experiences in episode 159 of the Kit & Krysta Podcast.

The two discussed how the U.S. branches of both companies often clashed, especially when planning events like the first Pokémon Day in 2016. One of the main issues was control over branding and messaging. According to Kit and Krysta, there was a competitive atmosphere that created tension between the teams.

“We really can’t undersell the kind of at times adversarial relationship that there was because, you know, like [it] kind of depended on what branch you were dealing with because like we would interact with Game Freak developers when they would come over and they were great and wonderful and very sweet and nice. Even like The Pokémon Company in Japan, when you would get a glimpse of them, they seemed okay, but it was really the US teams that were very [*hits fists together], and there were really a lot of butting heads moments.” Kit said.

One specific disagreement involved the wrong pronunciation of the Pokemon name, this led to frustration from The Pokémon Company.

“It was also, again, this is something that changed around this time, but , you know, ‘Letter of the Law’ versus ‘Spirit of the Law’, where we were cracking down on your pronunciations, and we would have Reggie do a video,” Kit said, ” and they’re like, ‘Reggie needs to re-record this.’ We’re not going to re-record. It’s close, it’s Reggie, like we can’t get on his schedule again. You’re just going to have to deal with it. ‘Oh, we’re going to hold a grudge about this! Oh, we’re really mad!”

Another strange disagreement involved ice sculptures of Pokémon. The Pokémon Company was not happy with the details of the sculptures, such as one Pokémon’s toenail being the wrong size. Because of this, they demanded the sculptures be destroyed, which upset the Nintendo team.

And they were melting down my beautiful ice sculptures! Like, ‘Oh, Oshawott’s toenail isn’t quite to proportion. Melt ’em all down.’ […] There was a lot of stuff of that ilk.

Kit and Krysta also mentioned that some people who worked for The Pokémon Company had previously been Nintendo employees. When Nintendo moved its Sales and Marketing Office, some workers had to leave, which may have caused some resentment. This could have contributed to the competitive relationship between the two companies.

Despite these conflicts, both companies worked together to promote Pokémon. However, Kit and Krysta made it clear that there was often a struggle over who had more control. While some competition can be good, it seems that this rivalry caused frustration on both sides.

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