Far FAR more people can afford and play videogames now than they could in the 90s. The brand has officially entered the nation with the single biggest population as of 2019. The internet provides more marketing than cable television could hope to. Pokemon is on consoles with far more to offer than the Gameboy which was not much more than a pokemon machine. Yet, the sales haven't surpassed what they had two decades ago while other franchises are breaking their own records year after year. Why is that? Did pokemon really garner such a bad reputation that 1/3 of its previous playerbase wants nothing to do with it again?