>>48606932Pokemania was already dead before RS even released.
Masuda was seeing all the overseas merch get replaced with Star Wars and the like, no one cared anymore because the anime was trash during Johto, the movies were oversaturated, the TCG was losing its luster as people stopped playing and trading to focus on collecting and investing, the games were never important to Pokemania, other franchises were quick to exploit the power vacuum of Pokemania's decline, the PS2 hit the scene and offered growing kids an alternate venue for videogames without looking like a "baby" by sticking with Nintendo (especially thanks to the PS2 doubling as a DVD player), and ultimately the fad had been going for a few years at that point, so decay was inevitable.
