Pokémon is a
media franchise published and owned by Japanese
video game company
Nintendo and created by
Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable
Game Boy role-playing video games developed by
Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own
Mario series.
Pokémon properties have since been
merchandised into
anime,
manga,
trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated
its tenth anniversary in 2006,
and as of 28 May 2010
, cumulative sales of the video games have reached more than 200 million copies.
In November 2005,
4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc., a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia.