>>36358558Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモン Hepburn: Pokemon, Japanese: [pokemoɴ]; English: /ˈpoʊkJˌmɒn, -ki-, -keJ-/) is a media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, a Japanese consortium between Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. The franchise copyright is shared by all three companies, but Nintendo is the sole owner of the trademark. The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995, and is centered on fictional creatures called "Pokémon", which humans, known as Pokémon Trainers, catch and train to battle each other for sport. The English slogan for the franchise is "Gotta Catch 'Em All".
The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy that were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. It spans a video game series, a trading card game, an anime television series, a film series, books, manga comics, music, toys, and merchandise. Pokémon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, with over ¥6 trillion ($59.1 billion) in total revenue. It includes the world's top-selling toy brand, the top-selling trading card game with over 25.7 billion cards sold, the second best-selling video game franchise (behind Nintendo's Mario franchise)with more than 300 million copies sold and over 800 million mobile downloads, and the most successful television show based on a video game with 20 seasons and over 1,000 episodes. The franchise is also represented in other Nintendo media, such as the Super Smash Bros. series.
