Many gamers in the current generation remember when Pokemon came out of nowhere and quickly became the phenomenon that it still is today. Yo-Kai Watch may very well be that next craze, with the handheld series debuting in mid-2013 that also got a manga and anime series. The fast growing franchise has remained a Japanese exclusive over the last few years, but today’s Level-5 Vision event confirmed that it would be coming to the US and just who would be publishing it.
Courtesy of Siliconera, it was revealed that Yo-Kai Watch would be hitting the US in 2016, published by Nintendo. Similar to Pokemon and other popular monster catching series, there is a massive toyline as well associated, which will be handled by Hasbro outside of Japan.
Level-5 and Nintendo are definitely banking on Yo-Kai Watch being the next big thing for kids and adults alike. The series has done exceptionally well in Japan already, with the games often leading the country in game sales and the anime movie even had the highest opening weekend in the box office for any Japanese movie since 2000. This all sounds like a recipe for a successful transition to the US, but we’ll have to wait and see if it is the next Pokemon or not in 2016.
