The franchise began its eighth and current generation with Pokémon Sword and Shield, which were released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on November 15, 2019. The main games and their spin-offs, the anime, manga, and trading card game are all updated with the new Pokémon properties each time a new generation begins. These generations are roughly chronological divisions by release when an official sequel in the main role-playing game series is released that features new Pokémon, characters, and possibly new gameplay concepts, that sequel is considered the start of a new generation of the franchise.

3.7 Generation VII (Nintendo 3DS & Nintendo Switch)Īll of the licensed Pokémon properties overseen by The Pokémon Company are divided roughly by generation.

This makes Pokémon the fourth best-selling video game franchise, behind Nintendo's own Mario franchise, Tetris and Call of Duty. As of March 2021, the series has sold over 380 million units 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. Pokémon is estimated to be the largest media franchise, with successful anime series, movies, and merchandise, with spin-off game Pokémon Go having crossed 1 billion mobile game downloads worldwide. 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. Remakes of the games are usually released around a decade after the original versions for the latest console at the time. The core games are released in generations, each with different Pokémon, storylines, and characters. It is a prequel to the 2006 Nintendo DS games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. The upcoming core series game, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, will be released on January 28, 2022, for the Nintendo Switch. The most recently released core series games, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, were released worldwide on the Nintendo Switch on November 19, 2019.

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. Pokémon is a series of video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company under the Pokémon media franchise. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

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