Michael Beckwith 
Developer Game Freak is set for a major refresh of its staff with a sizable recruitment drive, and that’s big news for the Gen-10 Pokemon games.
Initially reported on by DenFamiNico Gamer, the Pokemon developer will be holding a new recruitment campaign on August 30. There is a long list of roles Game Freak is looking to fill, including ones that are unambiguously related to the Pokemon series. While this might sound like standard fare for the game industry, it’s a major shakeup for Game Freak.
The studio behind most mainline Pokemon games is shockingly small, estimated at around 200 employees. The prospect of the team expanding with new hires will be a welcome one to some fans. It’s also possible that this hiring spree is in preparation for the 10th generation of Pokemon games, though this isn’t entirely the case.
Is Game Freak hiring for Pokemon Gen 10?
Game Freak is likely hiring developers for the 10th generation of Pokemon games, though it has numerous projects in development.
Game Freak’s hiring spree isn’t exclusively for Pokemon Gen 10. Development on the next set of games has likely already begun.
Typically, the gap between new mainline entries has been roughly three years or so. With Pokemon’s ninth-generation Scarlet and Violet launching in 2022, it stands to reason that Gen 10 would be targeted for a 2025 release. It has been suggested the next games could launch in 2026 to coincide with the franchise’s 30th anniversary but, if that is the case, development would still have to be underway. Even so, many of these new employees would likely wind up working on Gen-10 anyway, as well as Pokemon Legends Z-A.
That game is Game Freak’s next major project and is already scheduled for a 2025 launch. There is also the possibility that Game Freak has other projects in mind are unrelated to Pokemon. The list of job openings is long, but not all are explicitly earmarked for the Pokemon franchise. In fact, some are specifically attached to a new IP.
This new IP could be Project Bloom, an action-adventure title announced last year. The only other thing known about it is that Private Division, a Take-Two subsidiary, is meant to be publishing it for Take-Two’s 2026 fiscal year. However, the project’s status is uncertain since Private Division is reportedly being shut down or sold, per IGN.
Is Game Freak expanding?
Game Freak may or may not be permanently expanding, but The Pokemon Company seems to be expanding its operations.
Despite the long list of new hires, this doesn’t necessarily mean Game Freak intends to expand. It’s well-known that the studio is small, even though it’s responsible for one of Nintendo’s biggest cash cows. In recent years, the mainline Pokemon games have been criticized for poor performance, a lack of voice acting, and other issues. Fans have posited numerous reasons for this, including that the studio needs more people. This is part of the reason that there’s been some excitement about this recruitment drive.
However, many of the advertised roles are only for a contract position. It can also be argued that having a larger development team doesn’t automatically mean the games would get better. In fact, in 2019, Game Freak co-founder Junichi Masuda stated a smaller team was preferable for development. With the series still selling extremely well, Game Freak arguably has little reason to change its approach to Pokemon for Gen-10
That being said, there have been signs of The Pokemon Company itself shaking things up. Last year, in an interview with ComicBook.com, COO Takato Utsunomiya appeared to recognize that development environments have changed. Although he seemed committed to keeping to the company’s “fairly fixed kind of a cadence” for releasing new products.
“I think we’re still operating in that way, but there’s more and more conversations, as the development environments change, about how we can continue to do this, while making sure that we’re ensuring really quality products are also being introduced,” Utsunomiya said.
This is perhaps the closest the company has come to acknowledging the rough state Scarlet and Violet launched.
Earlier this year, it was also discovered The Pokemon Company had set up a new subsidiary called Pokemon Works. Some immediately assumed it will serve as a support studio and assist Game Freak with development on future Pokémon games. At the time of writing, though, the company has not stated precisely what Pokémon Works will do.
