Pokémon is a series of video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company under the Pokémon media franchise. Created by Satoshi Tajiri with assistance from Ken Sugimori, the first games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green, released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy, later released outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue and the main series of role-playing video games (RPGs), referred as the “core series” by their developers, have continued on each generation of Nintendo’s handhelds. The most recently released core series games, Pokémon Sword and Shield, were released worldwide on the Nintendo Switch on November 15, 2019.The upcoming core series games, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be released in late 2021, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus in early 2022, both for the Nintendo Switch. They are remakes and a premake of the 2006 Nintendo DS games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, respectively.
The core games are released in generations, each with different Pokémon, storylines, and characters. Remakes of the games are usually released around a decade after the original versions for the latest console at the time. While the main series consists of RPGs developed by Game Freak, many spin-off games based on the series have been developed by various companies, encompassing other genres such as action role-playing, puzzle, fighting, and digital pet games.
Pokémon is the world’s largest media franchise, with successful anime series, movies, and merchandise, with spin-off game Pokémon Go having crossed 1 billion mobile game downloads worldwide. By November 24, 2017, more than 300 million Pokémon games had been sold worldwide on handheld and home consoles, across 76 titles, including spin-offs. As of March 2021, the series has sold over 380 million units worldwide. This makes Pokémon the fourth best-selling video game franchise, behind Nintendo’s own Mario franchise, Tetris and Call of Duty.
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