Yes? You realize that this entire new "family-friendly" orientation (e.g. this new Family Pokémon Card Game box) is at least partially, if not majorly, thanks to Pokémon GO right? Pokémon GO got the general public - people who wouldn't have cared about Pokémon otherwise - to get into the hobby. A lot of these people are really young kids or adults who may not have the time or passion to play competitively, but they'd like to play nonetheless, so they made these products to cater to that audience.
So, yes, Pokémon GO did get the public interested in TCG, as evidenced by the fact that they're making this product for this audience especially. And Pokémon GO is literally a watered down version of the video games so if someone started playing GO and decided that they liked Pokémon video games the natural next step would be to play the main series. So GO got the public interested in the video games too.
I understand what you're saying here and I think to some extent, you're right. However, Pokemon GO didn't do much about the narrative surrounding the popular video games and even the TCG. I do realize that it's all Pokemon anyways, but from what I've seen among video gamers and TCG players, they usually gravitate towards one thing and don't really care about the rest. I don't mean this as a generalization, but I believe it applies to a lot of fans. In addition, most GO players didn't really go deeper into Pokemon, they just chose to spend every waking moment on the mobile app game and walk around like zombies.
Secondly, I see no connection between Pokemon GO and this new product that Japan is releasing. Yeah, it is a waterdown version of the videogames. I agree that it would've been cool for fans to get involved with the videogames too, but it hasn't really been happening.
Guess we can agree to disagree. I think one thing we can both agree on is that this new product will affect Pokemon in a different way than Pokemon GO did and will be just as revolutionary for families and people of all ages. Thanks for sharing!
