Pokemon History 1998 thru 2016
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1998 – 2000: Introduction to the rest of the world
North America
Shigeru Miyamoto, August 1999
Possibly the first person to show interest in a North-American launch of Pokemon was Minoru Arakawa (born 1946), 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. 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 game. 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.
Of pivotal importance to Pokémon's global expansion was, Alfred R. Kahn CEO of US-based 4kids Entertainment, NoA's licensing agent since 1987. Convinced of Pokémon's potential, Kahn agreed to invest an undisclosed sum in return for both the anime and the licensing rights. Pokémon became one of the first Japanese media franchises in which both the localization of the anime and the licensing of merchandise was handled by a single company, and it was one of the first times this company was not Japanese.Kahn suggested the name "Pokémon", adding an acute accent to the e to assist with pronunciation and to "give it a little flair". NoJ president Hiroshi Yamauchi officially approved the project in late November, and subsequently announced it at Space World 1997. However, three weeks later, the "Denno Senshi Porygon" incident happened, which Kubo felt made even more people resistant to the idea of an overseas introduction.
The slogan "Gotta Catch 'Em All" was selected as literally the franchise's 'catch phrase', and the English variant of the Japanese "Pokemon, Getto Da Ze!" (Get the Pokémon!). Grossfeld came up with it. The phrase "miraculously managed to gain approval" by the Federal Communications Commision (FCC), which normally prohibits the use of injunctions in ads directed towards children (e.g. "You must buy this!"). While the tagline does sound commanding, the FCC reasoned that the act of catching is at the core of Pokémon's play. Therefore, the phrase was allowed. The series theme song was written by John Loeffler and John Siegler. In commissioning the track, Grossfeld specifically requested the song's chorus to be written around the "Gotta Catch 'Em All" phrase, firmly embedding the slogan into the theme.
Pokemon TV Anime Shudaika Best of 1997-2012
The Pokémon anime was first broadcast on 7 September 1998. Pokémon Red and Blue were released 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.
New Nintendo 3DS XL Handheld Console Pokemon Sun and Moon Solgaleo and Lunala
1999 – 2000: Pokémania
In North America, the success of the debuting Pokémon franchise was almost immediate. Red and Blue sold 200,000 copies in its first month. By December, the Pokémon anime had become the highest-rated syndicated children's show during the weekdays.
Pokemon Trading Card Game: Scarlet and Violet 151 Collection Ultra-Premium Collection
By April 1999, there was a general consensus in the US that Pokémon had become a phenomenon and the newest children's trend. By some, the fad was referred to as "Pokémania", including journalists of Time and USA Today. In the US, severe scarcity occurred of Pokémon goods, especially Pokémon cards, causing companies to miss profits. A Milwaukee Journal Syndicate 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". Similarly, USA Today reported on 10 November '99 that factories making Hasbro's Pokémon toys had expanded production by 20 times, but demand still exceeded supply. In Europe, scarcity of Pokémon merchandise also occurred.
Partly due to the Pokémon craze, Nintendo saw a 250% increase in profits in '99 compared to '98, reaching a six-year high. The Pokémon franchise accounted for over 30% of Nintendo's '99 revenue. Pokémon's popularity also caused a sharp increase in sales of the Game Boy, the Game Boy Pocket, and the newly-released Game Boy Color. The financial windfalls came at a right time. In 1996 and '97, the Nintendo 64 was rolled out, but it was defeated by Sony's PlayStation in the fifth-gen console war, causing Nintendo to lose its home-console market dominance. The global success of Pokémon compensated this loss somewhat. Buckingham & Sefton-Green went even further, writing in 2004: "while Nintendo is now among Japan's most profitable corporations, it could be argued that the company would have struggled to survive without Pokémon".
Pokemon Trading Card Game: Mew VMAX League Battle Deck
Pokémon: The First Movie premiered in North America on 12 November 1999, and in Europe the next year. Despite being poorly received by many film critics, it became one of the most successful Japanese animated films of all time. In the United States, November '99 appears to have been the peak of the Pokémon craze, which was attracting an increasing amount of criticism. 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. While a huge financial success, the Burger King promotion quickly turned sour. Restaurants often ran out of Pokémon toys to include with their meals, resulting in crying children and angry parents. On 27 December, Burger King issued a recall after a 13-month-old girl had died suffocating on one.
Pokemon Mega Adventure Builder Zubat's Night Flight Set
On 15 October 2000, Pokémon Gold and Silver were released in North America. Within a week, the pair had become the fastest selling game of all time, an accomplishment it kept for two years until Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In Europe, Gold and Silver were released on 6 April 2001.
Pokemon Charizard Deluxe Edition Nanoblock Constructible Figure
The Pokémon Company and Pokémon USA established
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 Pokémon 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. As of May 2023, a total of 22 Pokémon merchandise shops exist in Japan. An American Pokémon Center also existed in New York City from 2001 to 2005. It then reopened as Nintendo World, later renamed Nintendo New York.
Pokemon Snorlax Stay Chill Short Sleeve Unisex Cotton T-Shirt
2001 – 2006: End of the craze, business reforms
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 was promoted to director, succeeding Tajiri, who appointed himself executive director. Masuda was concerned that the end of Pokémania indicated the end of Pokémon as a whole: "After Gold and Silver came out, it was a huge hit around the world, but shortly after everyone was saying, 'That’s it. The Pokémon fad is over! It’s dead!'." Determined to keep the franchise going, GF not only wanted to "prove people wrong" with Ruby and Sapphire, but already started planning their sequels: Diamond and Pearl (2006). They also began planning remakes of older installments, starting with FireRed and LeafGreen (2004), recreations of the original Red and Green.
Pokemon Trading Card Game: Trainer's Toolkit (2023)
Ruby and Sapphire were released in Japan on 21 November 2002, and in the rest of the world the next year. The games introduced 135 new Pokémon, bringing the total amount to 386. Because of this, Golin Harris, NoA's ad agency, advised them to move away from the "Gotta Catch 'em All!" slogan. They reasoned that if new, younger players were drawn into the franchise with Ruby/Sapphire, they would find the concept of "catching them all" to be a daunting if not impossible task if they didn't also have Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal. Dockery (2022) noted that "from both a marketing perspective and, really, a legal perspective, it would not be to the company’s advantage to keep pushing that slogan. The phrase was referenced and used sparingly from time to time in the coming years, but never again was it at the forefront of Pokémon’s marketing". However, the slogan did occasionally resurface in a prominent manner, including in the English theme songs of season 17 (which was a remake of the first theme song) and season 19.
In March 2003, Pokémon UK was established in London as a British representative of The Pokémon Company.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Nintendo Switch
2006 – 2015: Generation 4 – 6, TPCi created
In Japan, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were released for the Nintendo DS on 28 September 2006. On the same day, season 10 of the anime started, which is the first season of the Diamond and Pearl series (S10 – S13). The Diamond and Pearl video games were released in the West in 2007.
Pokemon Mega Construx Medium Pokeball Spring 2022 Case of 5
In 2009, Pokémon USA and Pokémon UK merged to form The Pokémon Company International (TPCi). This subsidiary of The Pokémon Company (TPC) has since managed the Pokémon franchise outside of Asia.
Mega Construx Pokemon Medium Poke Ball Case of 5
In Japan, Pokémon Black and White were released on 18 September 2010, again for the Nintendo DS. In the West, the games were released the next year. The anime followed suit with season 14, the first season of the Black and White series (S14 – S16).
Pokemon Elements Triple Pocket Mini-Backpack
Pokémon X and Y were released worldwide for the Nintendo 3DS on 12 October 2013. It was followed by Pokémon Sun and Moon, for the same console, in November 2016.
Pokemon Umbreon Funko Pop! Vinyl Figure #948
2016: Pokémon Go
In 2016, the Pokémon franchise spawned a second worldwide craze with the release of Pokémon Go, a mobile augmented reality game. The app originally began as a Googles April Fool's 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.
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