The "Pokémon" franchise celebrated its 25 years of existence and success with several events and the announcement of new games -
The Pokémon Company / Nintendo
The first
Pokémon
game
was released on February 27, 1996 on Game Boy, happy 25!
Games, cartoons, derivative products… The license now weighs 100 billion dollars, more than Hello Kitty, Star Wars or the Disney princesses
Several games are planned to celebrate this anniversary, including the remakes of
Pokémon Diamond
and
Pearl,
and especially the first
open world
with
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Finding its inspiration in the passion of Japanese children for stalking and collecting insects,
Pokémon
was created on February 27, 1996 by Satoshi Tajiri in the form of a Game Boy video game.
The principle is simple: “catch them all”, to use the song from the French credits of the cartoon.
Because
Pokémon
and its pocket monsters quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, available in many products and derivative works: stuffed animals, films, collectible cards - and for resale for $ 750,000!
Twenty-five years later, the license is quite simply the most lucrative of all time, according to Statistas research, with an estimated total turnover of $ 100 billion.
Stronger than "Star Wars"
Pokémon
thus does better than another Japanese brand, Hello Kitty (84.5 billion), but especially than other all-designated franchises, and American, such as Winnie the Pooh (80.3 billion), Mickey Mouse (80, 3 billion),
Star Wars
(68.7 billion) or the Disney princesses (46.4 billion).
The
Pokémon Go
game
, which introduced geolocation and augmented reality mechanisms, is no stranger to this success according to Jason Bainbridge, professor at the University of Canberra and Pokémon specialist: “It really resurrected the franchise.
We all knew
Pokémon
, but suddenly we all wanted to play it again ”.
The proof,
Pokémon Go
had its best year in 2020, despite the coronavirus and the confinements.
Remakes and an open world game
It may not be a coincidence that the next iteration,
Pokémon Legends: Arceus,
will be an
open world
, an
open world
game where players can experience the Sinnoh region as it once was, before the existence of Trainers and the Pokémon League, and create the very first Pokédex.
By the release, scheduled for early 2022 on Nintendo Switch, hunters and trainers already have an appointment in Sinnoh at the end of 2021 with the games
Pokémon Sparkling Diamond
and
Pokémon
Sparkling Pearl,
remakes of
Pokémon Diamond
and
Pokémon Pearl
released on Nintendo DS in 2006 And in
New Pokémon Snap
, available April 30, they will play budding photographers for an ecological study of Pokémon, two of the key elements of success for Jason Bainbridge: "the imagery close to nature and the many characters" .
A birthday in games, songs and tributes
The festivities for the 25 years of Pokémon take place both in the various games of the franchise but also in music with a virtual concert of Post Malone on Saturday and soon special songs by Katy Perry or J Balvin, and in bookstore with a book complete,
Homage to Pokémon, the origins of the saga
, published by Yinnis.
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