Franchise: Yo-kai Watch

According to Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino in an interview with Weekly Famitsu, the idea for Yo-kai Watch came about from a desire to create an IP that was similar to Doraemon, in that it could be "loved by many people over a long period of time." Hino had done extensive research into what gave something appeal and longevity while still being relatable to people, eventually coming up with Yo-kai Watch after much trial and error.

According to former Level-5 Abby employee Matt Matoba, while there were multiple factors that led to Level-5 Abby shutting down, a major factor was mismanagement of the Yo-kai Watch series, specifically the decision to remove Nintendo as a producer of the series. Nintendo had requested a "large portion" of the series' profits in return for publishing the games and advertising them, but Level-5 broke off the partnership under the belief that the cut was too big. While Matoba couldn't recall the exact percentage of the cut, he argued any percentage would still have been worth it purely for Nintendo's advertising, which had more than doubled their userbase, concluding with "Any percent of something is better than 100% of nothing."