The Pokémon Company International opened up a new job listing for a Corporate Development Principal a few days ago, and it looks like the position requires the candidate to have a grasp of Web3, including blockchain.
The listing was spotted on TPCi’s Greenhouse page (via LinkedIn) where all of the company’s job listings are posted, and caught the attention of many Pokémon fans online thanks to @pory_leaks on Twitter. Initially, the job description seems harmless, with the role specialising in corporate strategy, relations, and development and innovation. But in the ‘What you’ll bring’ section, it seems one of the requirements is that the successful candidate is knowledgeable in the world of Web3.
Under the third bullet point, the job listing states that you’ll bring “Deep knowledge and understanding of Web 3, including blockchain technologies and NFT, and/or metaverse”. And just underneath, it states that the person should also be “deeply connected” to others in the Web3 and metaverse spaces.
Perhaps not the news many Pokémon fans were looking for. Last year, The Pokémon Company took an Australian company to court over an NFT game that was promoting an upcoming NFT game called ‘PokéWorld’.
This doesn’t mean that TPCi — which is a subsidiary of the larger Pokémon Company — is planning to move into the blockchain industry just yet, but this listing does suggest it’s potentially interested in dipping its toes in. Game Freak handles the development of the Pokémon video games, with Nintendo acting as the publisher alongside The Pokémon Company. Pokémon, of course, isn’t just video games — there’s a huge array of merchandise and media under the Pokémon umbrella, and the “catch ’em all” aspect might just lend itself to the metaverse and blockchain.
