Pokemon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara recently spoke about a potential follow-up to the recent Detective Pikachu Returns spin-off game in an interview. The niche Pokemon mystery spin-off series now has two games and a Hollywood film, yet its future isn’t entirely clear at this point.
A sequel to the original Detective Pikachu game on the 3DS felt like a given after the massive success of the 2019 Detective Pikachu film starring Ryan Reynolds and Justice Smith. It wound up taking four years, but Detective Pikachu Returns finally arrived in October 2023 and has seen a similar reception as the original title thus far. In an interview concerning the game, Tsunekazu Ishihara talks about what may lie ahead in the future of the spin-off series.
The Next Detective Pikachu
Ishihara’s recent Japanese interview with Famitsu covers the development of the game along with a number of other interesting details. When asked about the possibility of a Detective Pikachu 3, Ishihara says, “I can’t make any promises at this point, but if Detective Pikachu Returns is well-received and there is a lot of demand from everyone, there is room for a spin-off.”
Ishihara says the future of the series would likely be a spin-off due to Detective Pikachu Returns being an end to the stories of Tim and Harry, the main human characters from the first two games. Any future game would need to follow new characters and maybe even a new Pokemon as the coffee-drinking, wise-cracking detective besides Pikachu.
Ishihara says a new game hinges on fan demand. The fact is, there’s always demand for new Pokemon games, and Detective Pikachu Returns has already shown positive sales numbers with the same magazine conducting Tsunekazu’s interview also reporting that the game has sold more than 100,000 copies in its first two weeks since release.
