When Nintendo officially announced the Nintendo Switch, many fans were excited for a new hardware release from the Kyoto-based company – however, some were skeptical that a hybrid console would be successful, from both a commercial and a development perspective. Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara was apparently in the latter group.

Prior to the console’s launch, Ishihara told Nintendo the console wouldn’t be successful – news revealed in an interview with Bloomberg.

“I told Nintendo that Switch wouldn’t be a success before it went on sale, because I thought that in the age of the smartphone, no one would carry around a game console,” Ishihara said. “It’s obvious I was wrong.”

Ishihara noted the success of the hybrid console has been a learning experience for him. “I came to realize the key to a successful game is quite simple: software with absolute quality leads sales of hardware.” He continued by also noting despite its initial success, we shouldn’t overestimate the console.

“Playing style can be flexible if the software is attractive enough. Currently, it’s popular among the early adopters, but there needs to be one more step to attract a wider audience. I see more potential in Switch, but one shouldn’t overestimate its potential.”

Ishihara talked up the console’s portability and ease of development, saying that “unlike smartphones, the Switch is not a game device that assumes that there’s constant network connectivity. So from our perspective, it’s really not that different from DS or 3DS in terms of connectivity.”

Naturally, the Pokemon Company boss was asked for any new details for their June 2017-announced Pokemon game for the Nintendo Switch. While nothing new was revealed, he teased the possibilities they have with more advanced hardware, including:

• “With the Switch, we see it as a chance to create Pokémon that goes deeper and with a higher level of expression. As a result, that makes it an extremely important platform.”
• “Right now we’re using 7 to 8 inch screens, but on a high-definition TV you can express a whole different world with graphics and sound.”
• “Until now, games were made as one for one person, but now you can go home and play with everyone — so how do we tackle these themes, and how do we make sure it’s not complicated?”

So perhaps we’ll get a truly high-definition mainline Pokemon game that has true multiplayer of some kind, outside Pokemon battles? We’ll have to wait and see, as Ishihara told fans to look to their other upcoming Pokemon games instead:

“The Pokemon games work well on handheld devices, and we are developing games that work on Switch. I can’t give you details on what we are working on at this stage, but for now we would like everyone to focus on Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon due in November, and Pokken Deluxe on Switch due on September 22. We are currently focused on providing different playing styles for our customers.”

Pokken Tournament DX is launching worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on September 22nd, while Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon are launching worldwide for the Nintendo 3DS on November 17th.