I Can't believe They Haven't Made This Yet

This is not a thread for your game ideas that you think are brilliant, (not saying that they aren't), this is a thread for ideas that any idiot working at a video game company must realize is a guaranteed money maker. It's an idea so guaranteed to succeed that the company is leaving gobs of cash on the table by not doing it. So I want to know what those ideas are and why you think they haven't been done.

The Pokemon MMO. This game should have been made 10 years ago when Everquest and WOW were launching and that game would probably now be as big as WOW thanks to Nintendo constantly changing venues, new Pokemon, it's TV show and their trading cards. Even though Pokemon has seemingly died down it's still ridiculously popular and constantly finding new audiences. Imagine if they launched a Free to Play version of that game now where you buy slots to hold Pokemon or items like Rare candies and TMs. You could sell the HMs to people as a way to get to new locations in the game. Plus the best part is you wouldn't have to do a PVE and PVP server. It could all be just one large server where gamers link up, battle and capture Pokemon together.

The reason this brilliant idea hasn't been made is simple; Nintendo owns the license. Judging by how Nintendo has acted the last couple of years I feel it's safe to say that Nintendo treats the internet like some sort of fad. A lot of games that use their multiplayer services are lessons in how to design non-intuitive peer to peer connections through the web.

Nintendo also seems scared by kids having any kind of negative experience they can't control. Never mind that there are a couple of MMOs that already cater directly toward kids Nintendo is too scared to even try.

What, this again?

Creating and maintaining an MMO with enough content to keep players entertained takes a lot of resources. If there's any reason Nintendo hasn't made a Pokemon MMO yet, it's not fear, it's that developing such a game isn't on their radar.

How can Pokemon be both "seemingly dead" and "ridiculously" popular in the same sentence? Most of us will always prefer the Red/Blue/Gold/Silver days. The new games are targeted at the new 13 years olds.

An MMO seems risky but I did always want them to put a portable style game on the Wii or NGC but instead we just got the weird dark Pokemon games.

I speak for some when I say a big part of Pokemon is the portability. Take that away and you divide the playerbase. Divide the playerbase and you divide profits. It's a big risk, and Nintendo could stand to lose a lot of money.

If a Pokemon MMO had been built ten years ago that would have likely severely limited sales in other sectors of Nintendo's business, probably systems and games. I can't tell you how many parents I have come across that have bought a DS just so their kids could play Pokemon. It's a good idea and it would make money short term, but no MMO lives forever so I don't think it quite fits the category of money left on the table.