Pokémon developer Game Freak is transitioning to an optional 4-day work week

Game Freak, the company behind the Pokémon franchise, has announced that it will transition to an optional four day work week.

In an initiative it calls a “selective weekly three-day system”, staff who wish to can take an additional day off work in addition to Saturday and Sunday.

The company says that this scheme will target full-time employees who are raising children under school age or who need family care.

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Game Freak states in a press release that it wants to “more flexibly realize work styles that suit individual circumstances.”

Game Freak is the latest developer to experiment with hybrid working in the wake of the pandemic.

Earlier this year, Bandai Namco Mobile, a Barcelona-based studio stated in a blog post that it was transitioning to a four day work week structure.

“Work-life balance has always been a priority for us and since the beginning of our studio, we have empowered our teams to strike the right balance between their professional and private life based on their unique needs thanks to unlimited holidays, hybrid working, and no set working hours,” the studio said in the blog.

The Pokémon Company, which is part-owned by Nintendo and Game Freak, revealed earlier this month that it had agreed to acquire the firm that prints its trading card game (TCG), Millennium Print Group, for an undisclosed sum.

Game Freak is currently working on several Pokémon titles including Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. They are due for release later this year on Nintendo Switch.