How Pokémon Became a Global Phenomenon: Video Games

It’s crazy to think that one relatively small game developer gave birth to the massive, multi-media franchise we know today. Founded in the 1980s, Game Freak was initially a small self published video game magazine created by Satoshi Taijiri and illustrated by Ken Sugimori. The magazine found modest success, with its best performing issue selling over 10,000 copies, but it wasn’t long before Tajiri began to aim for bigger and better things. Growing disillusioned with the quality of the latest video game releases, Satoshi Tajiri decided to try his hand in video game development. After purchasing the hardware required and studying the basics, he alongside Ken Sugimori and Junichi Masuda would go on to develop games for big name publishers such as Namco, Sega and Nintendo. It was during the release of these games that Satoshi Taijiri would begin the initial concepts for what would eventually become Pocket Monsters. Tajiri would first conceive the idea after seeing Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld system, and its ability to connect to another with a Game Link Cable. Harkening back to his childhood hobby of collecting bugs, Tajiri envisioned trading creatures between systems. After a successful pitch to Nintendo, Game Freak would go on to develop the game for nearly six whole years, something that almost bankrupted the company on many occasions. “Pocket Monsters: Red and Green” was finally released in Japan on February 28th 1996. Although it was not expected to do well, the games quickly found success due to great reviews and also the fact that there were two versions, which led to many consumers purchasing both of them. Although the game was advertised to contain 150 Pokemon, Tajiri had secretly coded in one extra Pokemon to the game called Mew that not even Nintendo was aware of. Rumours of this secret Pokemon helped increase the overall interest in the game, and as popularity grew in Japan the games were eventually adapted into other forms of media – such as an anime series, manga and even a trading card game. But none of this would compare to the global phenomenon that was to come. The Pocket Monsters franchise finally made its way to the west under the acronym of “Pokémon” with the airing of the first episode of the anime series. Just a couple of weeks later on September 28th 1998, the “Pokemon Red and Blue” video games released to critical acclaim, and combined with the anime series, trading card game and an abundance of merchandise, the franchise was an instant mega hit. The games would go on to sell a combined 4 million by the end of the year in the United States, and worldwide sales reached over 31 million by the end of their run. During the peak of Pokemon’s popularity, Nintendo released a number of spinoff titles such as “Pokemon Pinball” and “Pokemon Snap”. The most impressive spinoff of the time however was “Pokemon Stadium”, which allowed players to battle with their Pokemon from “Red and Blue” in full 3D on a console via the Nintendo 64 transfer pack. “Pokemon Stadium” became the best selling console game of 2000 in North America, which was an incredibly big deal at the time considering how much the Nintendo 64 struggled against its competitor PlayStation. With the great success of “Pokemon Red and Blue”, Game Freak followed up with “Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition”, an updated version of the original games that was heavily influenced by the anime series. But a true sequel wouldn’t arrive for another year. The hotly anticipated sequels “Pokémon Gold and Silver” finally arrived on October 15th, 2000, and continued the success of its predecessors. The games were the highest selling of the year and are considered by some to be the best in the series. The mainline series of games continued onto Nintendo's next handheld system, the GameBoy Advance, with the release of “Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire” and the remakes of the originals “FireRed and LeafGreen”. The franchise cooled off a little during this generation, but soon found its footing again with the release of Nintendo’s best selling video game console of all time, the Nintendo DS. This system became the home for multiple Pokémon games thanks to its long lifespan, with titles such as “Pokémon Diamond and Pearl” and later “Pokémon Black and White”. Nintendo’s follow-up handheld console, the 3DS, initially struggled from poor sales. However thanks to a price drop and the release of the first ever 3D games in the mainline series, “Pokémon X and Y”, sales quickly began to pick up. But this was all nothing compared to the storm Pokémon was about to unleash upon the world. Developed by American Software company Niantic, “Pokémon Go” was released for iOS and Android on July 6th 2016. The game allowed players to locate and capture Pokemon in the real world via the GPS on their mobile devices. To say this game was a hit is an absolute understatement, as it ushered in the second coming of Pokemania. During the summer of 2016, you’d be hard pressed NOT to find someone on the streets trying their best to capture Pokémon. The game is one of the most profitable apps of all time, and has been downloaded more than 500 million times world-wide. Its success caused the sales of “Pokémon X and Y” to skyrocket and also put a lot of attention on the newly released “Pokémon Sun and Moon” just a few months later. The phenomenal success of “Pokémon Go” was enough to influence Game Freak's next release with “Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!” and “Let's Go, Eevee!”, the first mainline Pokemon games released for a home console, the Nintendo Switch. Both of these games would feature some of the same mechanics and would even allow players to transfer their Pokémon from “Pokémon Go”. Game Freak would later return to its roots a year later on the Nintendo Switch with “Pokémon Sword and Shield”, which would go on to sell more than 21 million copies worldwide. The mainline Pokemon video games are just as strong as ever, with gamers anticipating not only remakes of “Diamond and Pearl” but also a brand new direction for the series with “Pokémon Legends: Arceus”. This new title by GameFreak is set to take players to the Sinnoh region’s past, where they’ll have to capture and battle Pokemon in ways never seen before. Make sure to tune in for our next episode of How Pokemon Took Over the World, where we’ll be talking about the Pokemon Trading Card Game!