To say that began almost 30 years ago is a massive understatement. Between the video games, TCG, a slew of television series and films, manga, and an incredible amount of associated merchandising, the IP is one of the most prolific of all time. So many fans, in turn, means a huge audience of people looking for information on the franchise, and for many of them, Serebii has become the number one source.

Serebii.net first began in 1999, founded by Joe Merrick when he was just a teenager. Since then, the site has exploded in popularity - at this year’s Pokémon European Championships, Merrick even had his first official meet and greet. Serebii has become known as one of the most reliable sites in the fandom when it comes to timely, accurate reporting that aggressively combats misinformation and the site’s massive, encyclopedic database.

ScreenRant interviewed Joe Merrick at EUIC to discuss combating misinformation, the biggest changes in the fandom over the past several decades, and what’s next for future Pokémon generations.

Combating Misinformation & Managing Fan Expectations

“Speculation Is Fine, Misleading Is Not.”

Leaks and rumors in the Pokémon community have existed for essentially as long as the franchise has, from the 2024 Teraleak incident to the idea that Red and Blue’s Missingno could delete save files. For Merrick, combating an ever-rising number of s that peddle unconfirmed - and often outright incorrect - ideas has become a constant battle:

“Have you ever tried punching a waterfall? It's never going to end, but because of how the internet is, you have creators who obviously want the attention. You've got people on social media platforms, which I won't name, which obviously want the attention, and so they're just sharing whatever they can because they think people will keep reposting it and then say, ‘Oh, I follow these people for it.’ But it's just so wrong so often, and it's become just so obnoxious. Then these people who are leaking start fighting with each other, and it's ridiculous.”

When these claims fall flat, it’s often not the original ideators that face criticism, either, with Merrick saying, “I want people to have the actual information out there, but that's why I continue the website, because having the information out there is key. But when you see everything going wrong, I have seen people believe it. They believe this wrong information, and when it turns out to not be true, they don't go after the people who spread that information. They say, ‘Well, I was told this was going to happen, but this isn't in this game. How dare they?’”

Merrick recalls one incident from 2020: “There was a livestream that Pokémon was hosting from the International Space Station - I posted that, people went, ‘Oh, this is clearly going to reveal Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes,’ and people just continued that narrative. I tried to say, ‘No, this is just a special New Year's celebration.’ Then when it happened, no revealed remakes, people said, ‘I can't believe Serebii would lie to us.’ People who aren't the people who are misleading are the ones that get blamed. People say, ‘Oh, you're allowed to speculate’ - speculation is fine, misleading is not.”

Do Future Generations Of Pokémon Games Have A Problem?

“It Could Cause People To Turn On The Franchise.”

Considering the criticism recent games like Scarlet and Violet received due to performance issues, I asked Merrick if addressing these problems in future releases needs to be a priority, to which he offered an interesting perspective: “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is about to be the second best-selling Pokémon game of all time, so what happens online is not necessarily the consensus, but it's definitely something that needs to be addressed. Obviously, with Scarlet and Violet, they were a bit janky, but you also need to look at context: what was happening during the development of that game?”

Even with this context, though, Merrick agrees that new games need to improve, saying, “It's definitely something they need to prioritize, because if they keep having such negative press and content creators, especially as younger audiences very much listen to what content creators say, it could cause people to turn on the franchise. They need to make sure it's consistent; at the very least, a consistent frame rate and most problems would go away.”

If they're making a new feature which has five animations, that's 7,000 animations which need to be made just for this one tiny feature - the scope of that is so much different to when it was a sprite-based game.

However, it’s also important for fans to not suddenly demand too much of a franchise that Merrick says has “never been a looker,” arguing that “the consensus that, ‘Oh, it suddenly should be one of the best-looking games of all time,’” ignores just how much work would go into making that happen.

“One of the examples I give is that there are about 1400 different Pokémon models. If they're making a new feature which has five animations, that's 7,000 animations which need to be made just for this one tiny feature - the scope of that is so much different to when it was a sprite-based game. It's definitely something which people online, especially people who are in the field, in the industry, should definitely consider. It's like the comparison of Breath of the Wild, Breath of the Wild had 20 unique enemy models, whereas Pokémon Sword and Shield had 663.”

The Origins Of Serebii & Pokémon’s Biggest Evolutions

What Helped Usher In “The Second Renaissance Of Pokémon”

The origins of Serebii go back almost as many years as Pokémon itself, beginning when Merrick was only a teenager: “I was 13, it was school, and I didn't want to play outside. It was the late nineties, and the school just had a computer lab installed. I went in there, and the internet was new, and I was like, ‘I'll build a website, what should I build it on?’ Pokémon was not here yet, but it was growing, and I thought it'd be Pokémon. It just made sense, and it just snowballed from there.”

Since Serebii began, Merrick has seen the hobby change in many ways, particularly when it comes to the overall community, stating, “It's definitely got a lot more fan-orientated. Events like [EUIC], there were some back then, but not that many. Now you've got EUIC, NAIC, LAIC, Worlds, you've got GO Tour, GO Fest, you've got so many.” The competitive side has evolved for the better, too: “It has grown significantly. Before, you'd have competitions where it'd be like 400 people, 500 people, and now, thousands of people, and that's just incredible.”

Next year marks 30 years of the IP, but looking even farther forward, Merrick thinks predicting the future is difficult: “That's really hard to say, because 10 years ago, we didn't have Pokémon GO, and the franchise - as much as I loved it - it was in a bit of a lull. Then Pokémon GO kind of brought the second renaissance of Pokémon. It was like Pokémon was back, you had people running to get a Lapras, like mobs just destroying Central Park.”

New releases like Pokémon TCG Pocket have inspired even more players to dive into the hobby, which makes the future even more uncertain: “With things like TCG Pocket, it's reaching so many different audiences, so you just can't quite say where it's going to go.” The Pokémon Company has always been unpredictable as well, with Merrick musing, “Who would've thought they'd make a sleep tracker? I don't know, maybe they'll have chips in our brains.”

How A Niantic Sale Could Affect The Pokémon GO Fandom

“I Fear It's Going To Become Even More Microtransactive”

Recently, fan concerns have risen about a potential sale of Niantic, the company behind Pokémon GO, and what that could mean for the state of the game. When I asked him about the potential effects, his main concern involved monetization, stating, “Pokémon GO, unfortunately, has been getting a bit more monetized. Pretty much every event has got a ticket now, a paid ticket which gives rewards.” With a sale, “because if a company's buying another company, they want a return of investment,” Merrick fears that “it's going to become even more microtransactive than it is right now.”

However, Merrick has sentimental ties for the game that make him hold out hope, sharing that, ”I love playing Pokémon GO - I proposed to my wife playing Pokémon GO. It would make me quite sad to see it go like that, but it's just a tricky situation.” The proposal was “intricately” planned, taking place at a Pokémon GO Fest: “I put the ring in a Love Ball, and she was playing, and I turned around and was on my knee with a ball open,” joking that he, “did think about Master Ball, but the connotations of that was…”

This proposal isn’t the only way Pokémon has bled into Merrick’s personal life - his constant work on Serebii is inherently linked to his day-to-day life from the moment he wakes up: “On an average day, there's a mobile game update at 6 AM or 7 AM, and that's usually how I start my day.” It makes having a social life quite difficult, because, “I never know what's going to happen next, so I can't plan. Every trip I make has to be cancelable, because I don't know if there's going to be a game that suddenly shadow drops.”

Despite these constant stressors, Merrick is overall exceedingly grateful for what Serebii has allowed him in life, saying, “It is tricky, it does take over life a bit, but then it gives me some amazing opportunities, and I think that offsets it.” At heart, Merrick is a Pokémon fan first, and, like many players, is able to quickly rattle off his dream team: “Celebi, Zarude, Zygarde, Guzzlord, Melmetal - the sixth one always varies, so today let's go with, for VG reasons, Calyrex.”

Source: JoeMerrick/Twitter, The Official Pokémon YouTube channel/YouTube