Origins The main idea behind
Pokémon was conceived by
Satoshi Tajiri. Tajiri was born on 28 August 1965, and grew up in
Machida, a suburb of Tokyo. As a child, he enjoyed discovering and catching insects and other small creatures in the various ponds and fields that surrounded his town. During
Japan's economic miracle, many cities, including Machida, were significantly expanded.
As a consequence, Machida's nature was largely destroyed. In his second year of
junior high school, an
arcade hall opened in Tajiri's neighborhood, introducing him to video games. While studying electrical engineering at , Tajiri began publishing a
doujinshi magazine titled
Game Freak. The title was inspired by the 1932 film
Freaks, which Tajiri was fascinated with at the time. He self-published the first issue of the magazine in March 1983, at the age of 17. At the time, magazines specializing in video games did not yet exist in Japan, allowing
Game Freak to fill a
gap in the market. Sometime later, Tajiri was contacted by aspiring
manga artist
Ken Sugimori, who became
Game Freak's illustrator.
Game Freak folded in the late 1980s, Through his work, Tajiri befriended
Tsunekazu Ishihara, a Japanese business man who, among other things, produced game-related shows for
Fuji Television. In 1986, Tajiri, Sugimori, and a few other enthusiasts started an informal development team called Game Freak, named after the magazine it grew out of. Over the next few years, they
independently developed the puzzle game
Quinty, working on it alongside school or their regular jobs. However, no one within the group knew how to make the
game's music. After consulting all his contacts, Tajiri got in touch with
Junichi Masuda, who became the group's composer.
Quinty was finished in 1989, and published by
Namco. Tajiri officially incorporated
Game Freak Co., Ltd. on 26 April 1989.
1989–1995: Development of Red and Green s connected with a
Game Link Cable Tajiri started to think of what was to become
Pokémon while completing
Quinty, and before he officially founded Game Freak. Around this time,
Nintendo announced the upcoming release of the
Game Boy, a handheld console that would revolutionize the gaming industry. Tajiri learned that the device would have a
link port, and with the corresponding
Game Link Cable, two Game Boys could be linked together. Sometime later, Tajiri remembered an incident while playing
Dragon Quest II (1987), a
role-playing game (RPG) for the Famicom (
NES). The game features randomly appearing items of varying rarity, including an extremely rare item called Mysterious Hat. Tajiri did not encounter any, while Ken Sugimori, who was also playing the game, encountered two. Upon recalling this experience, Tajiri realized that the cable now made it possible to transfer things from one cartridge to another. He noted that, until then, the Game Link Cable was only used for competing, but not for something else. Combining this inspiration with his memories of catching insects and other small species, Tajiri's idea would eventually evolve into a virtual recreation of his boyhood experiences, and an attempt to "regain the world that he had lost". He would later state that the game represents "the story of a boy's summer day".
capsules have been cited as an inspiration for Pokemon''. Tajiri and his Game Freak staff began pondering over a game centered on capturing creatures of differing rarity. Since the Game Boy is a portable device, these creatures could then be exchanged with other players in real life using the link cable. Once the player has caught a creature in-game, it was to be stored in miniaturized form in a special capsule. This facet of the game was inspired by
Ultraseven, a
tokusatsu show that Tajiri had enjoyed as a child.
The series' titular character owns a number of capsules containing miniaturized
kaiju (monsters), which come out and return to their original sizes when the capsule is thrown into mid-air.
Kaiju media in general were an important influence on
Pokemon, as many Game Freak staff members had grown up with them. Other influences that have been cited by Tajiri include:
gashapon, capsules with toy figures in them that can be drawn from vending machines;
collectible cards, such as
baseball cards,
Ultraman cards and
menko;
The Final Fantasy Legend (1989), the first RPG for the Game Boy; and
petting in Japan, with Tajiri noting that having Pokemon is similar to having pets. Tajiri initially named his project
Capsule Monsters, which GF's staff
commonly shortened to
Capumon. However, it later turned out that the term
Capsule Monsters could not be trademarked, and it was subsequently decided to call the game
Pocket Monsters, which became
Pokemon. In March 1989, Nintendo and
Shigesato Itoi co-founded Ape Inc., a company meant to give outside talent a chance to pitch new, innovative games. Ishihara, a friend of both Itoi and Tajiri, was involved with Ape's management (and would become its vice-president in 1991). Present during Tajiri's pitch was Takashi Kawaguchi, who worked at Nintendo's General Affairs Department and was also a manager at Ape. Kawaguchi brought the idea to Nintendo president
Hiroshi Yamauchi, who reportedly said: "This is it. This is the idea I've been waiting for." The development contract was signed at the beginning of 1990, with a planned delivery of the game in October. Tajiri directed the project, working under Ishihara. Ishihara was the producer – he managed the budget, staff, and work schedule, monitored the game's overall progress, and served as a liaison between Game Freak and Nintendo. Ishihara also contributed ideas to the development, and helped with
debugging. Sugimori was in charge of the graphics and character design. Masuda created all music and sound effects, and did part of the programming. The budget that Nintendo granted to Game Freak was low; However, as development progressed, GF's ideas and ambitions for
Pokemon grew.
Pocket Monsters was suspended indefinitely, and GF turned their focus on other titles (see ). After the game's initial development phase in 1990 and 1991, the staff "tinkered with it from time to time", as Sugimori put it. Still, development had mostly come to a halt until the summer of 1994, after the release of
Pulseman, upon which Tajiri decided it was time to make a serious effort towards finishing
Pocket Monsters. By this point, Game Freak's experience had grown considerably. Over the years, a number of new staff members had been added to the company. One of them was
Atsuko Nishida, a graphic artist who created
Pikachu, among others. Ishihara used his knowledge of card games to add more depth to the battle system, and among other things suggested Pokemon types. Ishihara also came up with the idea of the Pokedex, a portable encyclopedic device which players can use to keep track of the Pokemon they caught. Ishihara aspired to create video games of his own. As
Pocket Monsters Red and
Green were nearing completion, Ishihara founded
Creatures, Inc. on 8 November 1995. Co-ownership of the
Pokemon property, which Ishihara helped create, was subsequently assigned to Creatures. This resulted in
Pokemon having three legal owners: Game Freak, the main developer; Creatures, representing producer Ishihara; and Nintendo, the publisher.
Anne Allison wrote that Nintendo also bought the property after
Red and
Green were finished. Journalist Kenji Hatakeyama noted that the ownership structure of
Pokemon is uncommon. He wrote that "Pokemon is probably the only property in the world today for which the original rights are not concentrated in a single company", like
The Walt Disney Company does with their
IPs. Tajiri and Ishihara did consider merging Game Freak and Creatures at one point. However, Tajiri decided against it because he feared it would erase what he had built up since he was a teenager. "I felt threatened by the idea of changing how Game Freak was operating, and starting back over with Mr. Ishihara", he said. "It was an identity problem. If Game Freak ceased to exist, then so would I". Tajiri noted that, since Game Freak and Creatures both focus on
Pokemon, it sometimes felt more like different departments than different companies.
Pocket Monsters Red and Green were released on 27 February 1996. Nintendo had no high expectations of the games, and media largely ignored them.
By 1996, the seven-year-old
Game Boy console was considered dated and near the
end of its lifecycle. On the other hand, new Game Boys continued to be manufactured and sold. The console was widespread and, due to its age, affordable to children. Two media channels that would play important roles in the
Pokemon franchise were the
CoroCoro Comic, released monthly, and its sister magazine
Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic, released bi-monthly. Both
manga magazines are published by
Shogakukan, a long-time business partner of Nintendo, and have featured manga based on Nintendo properties (e.g.
Super Mario-kun,
Kirby of the Stars,
Donkey Kong). At the time of
Pokemons release, the main
CoroCoro magazine was read by one in four elementary school students.
CoroCoro's deputy editor-in-chief was . On Ishihara's suggestion, Kubo commissioned the creation of
a manga adaptation, written and illustrated by . Shogakukan, which frequently surveys their target groups, determined that the
Pocket Monsters manga was well received. To further promote
Red and
Green, the May issue of
CoroCoro, released on 15 April 1996, announced the "Legendary Pokemon Offer", centered around a mysterious, secret Pokemon called
Mew. Mew was a last-minute addition to
Red & Green. It is unobtainable in the game(s) through usual means, and was intended to be used at a later point in some post-launch activity. To participate in the promotion,
CoroCoro readers had to send in a postcard, and from the entrants, 20 were selected at random. The winners then had to send in their cartridge so that Mew could be uploaded onto it. The lottery was a success and increased
word-of-mouth.
Trading Card Game The
Pokemon Trading Card Game was one of the first
collectible card games (CCGs) developed in Japan. Its creation was influenced by
Magic: The Gathering, the first CCG in history. Indeed, the
Pokemon Trading Card Game can be considered a simplified version of
Magic. First released in the United States in 1993,
Magic had gained popularity not just in North America and Europe, but also in Asia. Ishihara was fond of
playing cards, Akihiko Miura, Kōichi Ōyama, and Takumi Akabane. All were former staff members of Ape and had previously worked on
EarthBound (1994): Miura was the game's main designer, Ōyama was its art director, and Akabane was one of its chief debuggers. While card games
have a long history in Japan, a collectible card game was a relatively new concept there, and at the time not widely known. Because of this, Ishihara had difficulties finding distributors. Sometime in 1995, Ishihara pitched the card game to Nintendo. They agreed to have the cards manufactured, subcontracting an unidentified printing company. However, Nintendo did not want the hassle of having to develop a distribution system from the ground up, i.e. finding retailers willing to sell a CCG. Ishihara was then contacted by Satoshi Kayama, director of a small firm called
Media Factory. Like Ishihara, Kayama was a fan of card games. He felt that CCGs would soon rise to prominence in Japan, and had been gathering information on the possibility of developing such a game in some form. When Kayama heard that Creatures had developed a CCG, he contacted Ishihara and offered to distribute it, signing the contract near the end of 1995. The first
Pokemon card set was released on 20 October 1996. Despite being ignored by the media, except for CoroCoro, the cards became an instant success upon release.
Anime production and premiere By August 1996, Kubo had become convinced of
Pokemons potential, and believed Shogakukan should create
an anime adaptation. Nintendo felt reluctant, believing that the property had developed enough as it had over the course of six months. At that time, they did not consider such a significant expansion to be necessary. Nintendo also noted that if the anime would flop, it would negatively affect future
Pokemon games. Ishihara initially opposed the idea, because he thought it would overly hasten the 'consumption' of the property: he feared that if the series would end, people would assume that
Pokemon has ended, and move on to the next thing. At the time, Creatures and Game Freak were planning the sequel(s) to
Red and
Green,
Pokemon Gold and Silver, and Ishihara did not want the anime to end before they could release their new games. Kubo was ultimately able to resolve the concerns of all parties involved. An important aspect of Kubo's bargaining power was the then-ongoing
Mini 4WD craze and its accompanying hit series ''
Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go!!''. Kubo had an important role in the creation of both, which impressed the stakeholders. To appease Ishihara, Kubo promised him that the anime would last for at least a year and a half. This was unusually long for a debuting anime, and required a big investment. Kubo's proposal for
Pocket Monsters was officially approved on 26 September 1996. For Nintendo of Japan, it was the first time they licensed a TV series. Kubo assigned independent producer to lead the project.
Shogakukan Productions, commonly called ShoPro, was Shogakukan's production company. The animation company they commissioned was
OLM, Inc. (Oriental Light and Magic), on Kubo's suggestion.
Kunihiko Yuyama, one of OLM's founding members, became the anime's director. ShoPro assembled a team of five writers, plus two supporting writers. All key people involved with the production of
Pokemon were well-experienced and had proven track records within Japan's anime industry. Yoshikawa felt that the team got lucky. "The probability of so many great people coming together at the same time is very low", he said. Per Tajiri's explicit condition, every anime team member had to play the game extensively, including the illustrators and voice actors. and "felt connected with each other through the world of
Pokemon", . A production council was formed to produce the anime. Different people appeared at different meetings, but four individuals usually present were Ishihara of Creatures, Sugimori of Game Freak, Yuyama of OLM, and independent producer Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa had the final say. The council decided on the anime's worldview, characters, general storyline, and various important details. The early meetings, which were also attended by Tajiri, usually started with a Q&A session in which Tajiri and Ishihara were asked about the Pokemon universe. The council was careful to have the anime be in concordance with the video game. Inevitably, there had to be differences between the two, but all agreed that the overall worldview as envisioned by Tajiri should not be disturbed. At the start of the video game, the player has to choose one of three starter Pokemon: Fushigidane, Hitokage, or Zenigame (
Bulbasaur,
Charmander, or
Squirtle). The council didn't want to unfairly popularize any of them, and wanted the protagonist to start out with a different Pokemon. They unanimously decided that a
Pikachu should be one of Pokemon's central icons. They expected Pikachu to appeal to both boys and girls, as well as their mothers. This would expand the franchise's audience, which was considered a core objective of the anime. During the council's first meeting, Yoshikawa brought up the issue on whether the Pokemon in the anime could talk, and if not, how they could communicate. In the video games, each has a specific cry. In
Anakubo's CoroCoro manga, most could speak. At first, the council believed there should be a mixture of Pokemon that could talk and some that could not. However, this idea was eventually discarded: the Pokemon had to make a specific cry. The council agreed that Pokemon were like animals, and while they and humans should be able to understand each other in the series, they should not speak each other's language. It was decided that Pikachu would repeatedly say its own name in various intonations. The role of Pikachu was given to
Ikue Otani. During try-outs, Yuyama had Otani voice Pikachu in normal Japanese, as well as in 'Pikachu talk', in which it only said the syllables of its name. Yuyama realized that, even in the latter style of limited communication, Otani was experienced enough to still convey the messages and emotions needed.
Pocket Monsters premiered on 1 April 1997. By November, it had become the highest-rated program on TV Tokyo.
"Dennō Senshi Porygon" incident In the evening of 16 December 1997, the
Pokemon franchise was hit by a crisis related to the broadcast of the anime's 38th episode, "
Dennō Senshi Porygon" (Computer Warrior Porygon). It was watched by approximately 4.6 million households. In the episode, the cast is transported into a virtual world, accompanied by a
Porygon, an artificially-made Pokemon. While flying through cyberspace, they are attacked by an anti-virus program which mistakes them for viruses, shooting "vaccine missiles" at them resulting in explosions of bright, rapidly swapping red and blue flashes. The intense stimuli brought about by the episode triggered a variety of adverse health effects in more than 10,000 viewers, primarily irritated eyes, headaches, dizziness, and nausea. A small part suffered a
photosensitive epileptic seizure, manifested in loss of conscious and/or convulsions. Hundreds of children were brought to hospitals, although some had recovered enough upon arrival and did not need to be hospitalized. No one died. Broadcasting of
Pokemon was halted, and new guidelines were implemented to help prevent similar events from happening. With the show on
hiatus, ShoPro and OLM worked on a feature
Pokemon film. By the time the incident occurred, its script was already written and storyboards were being made. In mid-January, the staff resumed creating new episodes. The anime series returned on 16 April 1998. The film, titled
Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (
Pokémon: The First Movie), premiered on 18 July 1998, becoming the fourth highest grossing film of the year in Japan. Ultimately, the incident did not damage the
Pokemon franchise – it in fact grew further during and after the anime's hiatus. While video rental tapes were removed from shelves, all other
Pokemon products continued to be sold as usual, and customer demand for them remained high. Helping matters was a general understanding among businesses that the anime was not canceled, but rather suspended, and many executives (correctly) expected the show to be resumed after precautions had been taken. Supermarkets and other distribution outlets responded calmly to the crisis, and did not remove
Pokemon products from their sales floors.
1998–2000: International expansion North America Possibly the first official to show interest in a North American launch of
Pokemon was
Minoru Arakawa, founder and then-president of
Nintendo of America (NoA). Arakawa visited Japan to participate in
Shoshinkai 1996, held 22–24 November. It was around this time when he first played one of the three
Pokemon titles released at the time. He thought the games were promising, but Nintendo of Japan (NoJ) had no plans at the time to release them elsewhere. He returned to America with a few cartridges and tested the game on his employees – they did not believe it would work in the US. At the time,
role-playing games (RPGs) were not very popular outside Japan, and NoA executives believed that American children did not have the
attention span for such a complex title. Americans were said to be more interested in sport- and action-oriented games, preferably with realistic graphics. Japanese people, by contrast, were alleged to care more about characters and plot. Up to that point, few Japanese properties had been successfully mainstreamed in the US, and if they were, it was alleged to be on account of having been properly
Americanized:
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was considered a prime example of this. Visually,
Pokemon was believed to be too
kawaii, or
cute. It was assumed that
Pokemon could not succeed on cute alone – it must also be
cool. In an effort to enhance the franchise's coolness, NoA considered a graphical redesign and contracted a few external artists to create some test-designs for the American market. and a new Pikachu that looked like "a tiger with huge breasts". Convinced of the franchise's potential, Kahn agreed to invest an undisclosed sum in return for both the anime and licensing rights. Kahn suggested to use the short version of the name, "Pokémon", adding an
acute accent (´) over the
e to assist with pronunciation and "give it a little flair". and subsequently announced it at
Space World 1997. However, three weeks later, the "
Dennō Senshi Porygon" incident happened, which Kubo felt made even more people resistant to the idea of an overseas introduction.
Market research turned back negative: American kids reportedly did not like
Pokémon. Arakawa ignored the study and, convinced of the franchise's potential, allocated an enormous budget to
Pokémons launch. The exact amount was not disclosed, but was reportedly equal to or more than $50 million (c. $ million in ), approximately the same amount as the launch budget of the
Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Arakawa admitted that it was "quite a bit of money", but NoA "had been doing well for several years, so we had a lot of money to spare". He opined that if
Pokémon would be as successful in the US as it had been in Japan, "an investment of 1 would turn into 100". NoA and 4Kids proceeded to plan "an all-out effort to repeat the phenomenon in the Western world". At
NATPE 1998, he asked ShoPro for a "kind of
carte blanche, to let me change the show as I think would work for this market", to which ShoPro agreed. However, no national TV station was interested in buying the anime or financing its localization. reaching "about 85 to 90 percent" of television households. However, many broadcasters gave it off-peak time slots, with starting times like 06:00 or 06:30. The phrase "miraculously managed to gain approval" by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which normally prohibits the use of injunctions in
ads directed at children (e.g. "You must buy this!"). While the tagline may sound commanding, the FCC reasoned that the act of
catching is at the core of
Pokémons play. Therefore, the phrase was allowed.
The series' theme song was written by
John Loeffler and John Siegler, and performed by
Jason Paige. The
Pokémon anime was first broadcast on 7 September 1998.
Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version were released three weeks later, on 28 September 1998. To localize the card game, Nintendo contracted
Wizards of the Coast, the creator of
Magic: The Gathering. The
Pokémon Trading Card Game was officially launched nationwide on 9 January 1999, although pre-sold in select stores in December. Coinciding with the North American launch of
Pokémon was the release of the
Game Boy Color on 23 November 1998.
1999–2000: Pokémania In North America, the debuting
Pokémon franchise quickly rose to success. By December 1998, the
Pokémon anime had become the highest-rated syndicated children's show during the weekdays. This attracted the attention of two media companies:
Warner Bros., co-owner of
The WB channel; and
Saban Entertainment/
Fox Family Worldwide, owners of the
Fox Kids channel. A bidding war ensued between the parties, which was won by Warner Bros. On 13 February 1999,
Pokémon launched on the
Kids' WB national television block. The debut episode became the most watched premiere in Kids' WB's history. By April 1999, there was a general consensus in the US that
Pokémon had become a phenomenon and the newest children's
fad. By some, the fad was referred to as "Pokémania", including journalists of
Time In the US, severe
scarcity occurred of
Pokémon goods, causing companies to miss profits. A
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, published on 3 August 1999, cited a
Toys "R" Us manager as saying that a supply of 600
booster packs would last 24 hours. The CEO of one card distributor stated that they were "thousands of boxes behind" on orders. In the same article, a Wizards spokeswoman stated that more employees and printers had been hired to increase card production. However, near the end of the month, a different Wizards spokeswoman told
The Washington Post that they had "exhausted most of the card-printing capacity of the United States". In part due to the
Pokémon craze, Nintendo saw a 250% increase in profits in 1999 compared to the previous year, The
Pokémon franchise accounted for over 30% of Nintendo's revenue that year.
Pokémons popularity also caused a sharp increase in sales of the Game Boy line. The financial windfalls came at a time when Nintendo lost dominance in the home console market, with the
Nintendo 64 being outsold by
Sony's
PlayStation. and was named the fastest-growing company in America in the 4 September 2000, issue of
Fortune magazine. Many businesses that timely obtained a
Pokémon license reaped considerable profits. In the summer of 1999, a massive run on stocks of publicly traded
Pokémon licensees caused their value to increase dramatically. However, by November, most investors were
shorting their shares. Realizing that
Pokémon was a
fad that would peak and fall at some point, investors were
bearish about its prospects.
Pokémon: The First Movie premiered in North America on 12 November 1999, and in Europe the following year. Despite being negatively received by many Western critics, it became one of the most successful Japanese animated films of all time. In the United States, November 1999 was estimated to have been the peak of Pokémania. Supporting the American release of
The First Movie was a promotional action with
Burger King, one of the largest in the history of the
fast-food industry. The success of the promotion resulted in supply issues; restaurants often ran out of
Pokémon toys to include with their meals. On 27 December, Burger King
recalled its Poké Ball toy after a 13-month-old girl died suffocating on one.
Pokémon Gold and Silver, the successors to
Red/Green/Blue, were released in North America on 15 October 2000. In Europe, they were released on 6 April 2001.
The Pokémon Company and Pokémon USA established ,
Ikebukuro. On 23 April 1998, Pokémon Center Co. Ltd. was founded as a joint venture by Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak. It was initially formed for the management of specialized merchandise stores called Pokemon Centers, of which the first location opened in
Nihonbashi, Tokyo, on 18 July 1998. Throughout the years, multiple Japanese Pokémon Centers would open and close. , a total of 25 Pokémon merchandise shops exist in Japan. An American Pokémon Center also existed in New York City from 2001 to 2005. It was then remodelled into Nintendo World, later renamed
Nintendo New York. After the release of
Gold and
Silver, Tsunekazu Ishihara began setting out a number of long-term goals for the
Pokémon franchise, which included releasing a movie every year. As part of Ishihara's plan, the Pokemon Center Co. Ltd. was reformatted into
The Pokémon Company (TPC), and officially renamed in October 2000. The goal of TPC is to centralize and streamline the global management of Pokémon. In February 2001,
Pokémon USA was established, an affiliated firm of The Pokémon Company. On 29 April 2000, the anime was bumped off
Kids' WB's No. 1 spot after holding it for 54 weeks. Around the same time,
Pokémon was surpassed at
Fox Kids by its rival
Digimon. In Europe, the craze peaked in 2000. On 20 January 2001,
The New York Times reported that
Pokémons trading card market had collapsed in the US. A June 2001 survey in the United Kingdom confirmed that
Pokémons popularity was waning there.
Joseph Tobin wrote: "By the summer of 2001, Pokémon's shelf space in Japanese and U.S. toy stores was but a fraction of what it enjoyed in the fall of 1999". By the end of 2001, Pokémania was fading globally, and by 2002, the fad was largely over. From 2000 to 2002, Game Freak developed
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the successors to
Gold and
Silver, for the newly released
Game Boy Advance. Masuda, who was appointed to assistant director during
Gold and
Silver, was promoted to director for
Ruby and
Sapphire, with Tajiri making himself executive director. In October 2001,
4Kids Entertainment signed a new contract with
Pokémon USA (PUSA), continuing to serve as
Pokémons exclusive licensing agent and anime localizer. The localization of the anime would be done by PUSA in cooperation with TAJ Productions. PUSA proceeded to replace almost all of the original English voice actors, who were still under contract with 4Kids. This decision "raised the ire of fans and the actors themselves". According to
Stuart Zagnit, who voiced
Professor Oak, the recasting was done to cut back on costs. and on 22 April 2007, in North America. A third version,
Pokémon Platinum, was released on 28 September 2008, in Japan and on 22 March 2009, in North America. They form the fourth generation (Generation IV) in the
Pokémon video game series.
Diamond and Pearl were designed based on the DS's various features such as its Wi-Fi capabilities and slot for Game Boy Advance cartridge. Pokémon president Tsunekazu Ishihara dubbed the games as the "ultimate" Pokémon titles because they allowed the player to trade and battle Pokémon including every Pokémon from previous iterations globally through WiFi, as opposed to previously only able to do so locally and with fewer Pokémon. The games' characters are 2D and the environments are rendered in 3D, and it is considerably difficult to differentiate them because Game Freak designed them this way to innovate the graphics while also retaining the traditional game style and feel. In 2009, Pokémon USA and Pokémon UK merged to form
The Pokémon Company International (TPCi). and on 6 March 2011, in North America. The games feature enhanced visual effects and increased use of 3D graphics. The developers excluded old Pokémon and strategies, while introducing over 150 new Pokémon to evoke a sense of novelty and to provide new players a more "leveled playing field" against old players. The games seek to attract both new players and returning players through its detailed walkthrough and the addition of C-Gear (a real-time communication tool to improve the trade and battle experiences), respectively.
Black and
White were followed by
Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, which were released on 23 June 2012, in Japan and on 7 October 2012, in North America.
2013–2018: 3D, Generation VI–VII, Pokémon Go In Generation VI,
Pokémon X and Y were released worldwide for the 3DS on 12 October 2013, and they are the first games to be released in this way. The developers focused on the themes of "beauty", "bond", and "evolution", and it is based on these themes that they created the games' core mechanic where Pokémon could achieve a higher form of evolution by strengthening their bonds with trainers; however, to maintain game balance, they limited this feature to a special, temporary phenomenon. The games' shift to fully 3D graphics allowed the player to freely manipulate the camera angles although due to technical limitations objects far away are rendered in lower
polygon models, and producer Hitoshi Yamagami addressed to 2D players that "Game Freak [developers are also] big fans of 2D graphics... So there are some elements in there that I [Yamagami] think fans of 2D will appreciate as well." When asked about the Horde battle and Sky battle types, he stated that Horde battles are to supplant the roles of "really strong pokemon " to help the player more easily progress through the games and also to add "more excitement to the battles and a sense of danger", and that they added the Sky battles to take advantage of the games' 3D camera angels capabilities. In Generation VII,
Pokémon Sun and Moon were released worldwide for the 3DS on 18 November 2016, and on 23 November 2016, in Europe. The developers chose Hawaii for inspiration due to its distinctive warm sunlight and clear moonlight and unique biomes that helped support the games' regional Pokémon variance concept. Ohmori said, as director, he aimed to focus on the concept of "Pokémon as these living creatures, [and really focus] on them being alive." Having the release date on the 20th anniversary of Pokémon in mind, he treated this project as a "celebration of that life, and to really express this respect for life". As he contemplated about life and its origins, Ohmori considered the significance of the Sun, enabling life with its
light, and the Moon's
impact on certain species' reproduction. He explained how the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth "work [together] to influence [one another], and life as a result grows and flourishes based on [this] relationship."
2016: Release of Pokémon Go In 2016, the
Pokémon franchise spawned a second worldwide fad with the release of
Pokémon Go, a mobile
augmented reality game. The app originated as a
Google April Fools' Day joke in 2014: the "
Google Maps Pokémon Challenge". The prank was conceived by
Tsunekazu Ishihara and
Satoru Iwata. On Ishihara's initiation, the hoax was turned into an actual video game developed by
Niantic. Ishihara was a fan of Niantic's previous
transreality game,
Ingress, and saw the game's concept as a perfect match for
Pokémon. with App Annie reporting that
Pokémon Go had generated around in revenue every day that month. The same month, Sensor Tower reported that the game had passed more than in worldwide revenue, beating every existing record set by
Clash of Clans and
Candy Crush by a wide margin. The average daily usage of the app on Android devices in July 2016 exceeded that of
Snapchat,
Tinder, Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook. By 2 September 2016,
Pokémon Go had generated more than $440 million in worldwide revenue, according to Sensor Tower. By 30 September, it had received downloads and grossed in 80 days, according to market research firm Newzoo.
Pokémon Go reached the milestone of $600 million in revenue after only 90 days on the market, becoming the fastest mobile game ever to do so.
2019–present: Generation VIII–IX, open-world gameplay Generation VIII debuted with the release of
Pokémon Sword and Shield on 15 November 2019, for the Switch. Director Shigeru Ohmori stated that they designed the games based on what they believed of the biggest
Pokémon theme of becoming/being "the greatest or strongest", which was expressed in the games'
Dynamax / Gigantamax Pokémon core mechanic and the games' increasingly powerful software and hardware capabilities. Ohmori further revealed that through developing the ''Let's Go
games as research projects for the Switch, they were able to gain valuable experiences and knowledge to develop Sword
and Shield''. He noted that they took advantage of the Switch's high resolution and TV connectivity to implement the games' gigantic-size core Pokémon mechanic. They envisioned the games' setting to be a "wide-open space" that is different from the traditional route systems and is constantly changing where the player can meet and explore with other players. In 2020, the
COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The resulting widespread ennui and excessive leisure time inspired a resurgence in popularity and interest of
Pokémon cards, which was further popularized by various
YouTubers and other
influencers, such as
Logan Paul. The craze resulted in severe supply shortages, and customers' inappropriate and obsessive behavior raised safety concerns in many retail outlets.
Pokémon cards' values skyrocketed, prompting collectors to submit cards and overwhelm
card grading agencies. The Pokémon Company responded by reprinting impacted products at maximum capacity to ensure price stabilization and general accessibility.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released on 28 January 2022, for the Switch as a prequel to
Diamond and
Pearl. It is part of Generation VIII. The game "represents a new approach for the
Pokémon video game series" as it transitions from traditional RPG mechanics to add real-time elements in their games. Unlike traditional
Pokémon games, the player can catch Pokémon by throwing a Poké Ball in real-time rather than triggering a battle; however, they can still choose the latter to weaken it for capture. Many in-game aspects, particularly its landscape, heavily resemble those of
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Generation IX was introduced with the release of
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for the Switch on 18 November 2022. The games are the first
Pokémon games to feature an entirely open-world experience as opposed to the partially open-world experience in previous
Pokémon games such as
Sword and Shield, and it also departed from the traditional gym mechanics and the elite four battles to opt for unique road quests. The games' improved multiplayer experience allowed for up to four players to travel together. Their DLC,
The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, consists of two parts,
The Teal Mask and
The Indigo Disk;
The Teal Mask was released on 12–13 September 2023 and
The Indigo Disk was released on 14 December 2023. An epilogue to
The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero was released on 11 January 2024.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A was released on 16 October 2025 for the
Nintendo Switch and
Nintendo Switch 2. It is part of Generation IX. A successor to
Legends: Arceus, this game returns to the Kalos region seen in
X and
Y. A DLC,
Mega Dimension, released on 10 December 2025. The official logo for the 30th anniversary of the franchise was officially unveiled by the official social media accounts on the new year of 2026. In January 2026,
Lego announced their first ever
Pokémon sets available for preorder to be released February 27, 2026. According to
Yahoo News, their massive $650 set sold out quickly and were already being resold on
eBay before their official release. On 27 February 2026, the franchises 30th anniversary,
Pokémon Winds and Waves were announced in a
Pokémon Presents live stream as the first Generation X games. The games are set to release in 2027. ==Media==