Few businesses can match The Pokémon Company’s degree of success; they are recognized for creating one of the most recognizable video game franchises ever. Pokémon has enthralled players all across the world for the past 20 years and has grown to become a cultural phenomenon. The Pokémon Company is not only looking back at its incredible journey as the franchise celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2021, but it is also looking forward, realizing the endless prospects it presents to the upcoming generation of gamers.
Company Profile
Tokyo, Japan serves as the corporate home of the entertainment corporation The Pokémon Corporation. It is in charge of overseeing and licensing the hugely successful “Pokémon” franchise, which includes a variety of entertainment mediums such as video games, home video games, TV shows, movies, and trading card games.
Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures established The Pokémon Company in the middle of the 1990s to consolidate the fast-expanding Pokémon franchise administration. Its main function, when it was first established as The Pokémon Centre Company, was to manage the game franchise’s retail locations in Japan. “Pocket Monsters: Red/Green/Blue” and “Pokemon Stadium,” the original Pokémon video games, were created by Game Freak and Creatures, with Nintendo handling publishing.
The Pokémon Company’s responsibilities grew beyond shop management as the Pokémon games became more and more well-known globally. Its horizons were expanded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures to encompass animated films, trading cards, home goods, and television series (like the Japanese anime). At 32% currently, Nintendo owns the bulk of the corporation; the remaining shares are owned by Game Freak and Creatures.
All Pokémon video games have been published and licensed by The Pokémon Company since 2001. It manages the games’ financing and marketing, and Nintendo distributes them all over the world. The actual creation and design of the games is the responsibility of Game Freak and Creatures. The Pokémon Company also supervises the approval of any merchandise related to Pokémon that is sold worldwide, including goods from independent merchants.
In 2021, the Pokémon series will commemorate its 25th anniversary. Which traces its development from video games to a global sensation. To commemorate the franchise’s silver anniversary, The Pokémon Company is releasing a range of merchandise as part of a year-long event. Games like “Pokémon Brilliant Diamond” and “Pokémon Shining Pearl” are remade, and there are toys and memorabilia in addition to an album with Katy Perry and J. Balvin. A brand-new open-world game dubbed “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” is also scheduled for release in January 2022.
The Pokémon Company has offices in the US, UK, and South Korea in addition to its headquarters in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. The organization employs about 400 people in total throughout its locations.
The Pokémon Company Industry Profile
By 2026, the gaming market is expected to have grown from its $173 billion valuation in 2020 to $314 billion. Over the next five years, it is expected that the emergence of cloud gaming, in addition to traditional console gaming, will significantly contribute to the industry’s continued growth.
The Pokémon Company History
Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures formed The Pokémon Centre Company in 1998 to supervise the operation of Pokémon Centre retail locations in Japan. They later changed their name to The Pokémon Company to expand their clientele and seize new commercial prospects.
Pokémon U.S.A. was established in 2001 to oversee licensing activities within the United States. At this point, The Pokémon Company was owned by American media company 4Kids Entertainment, which later sold off its 3% part in 2005.
The Pokémon Company International was established in 2009 by the merger of Pokémon U.S.A. and Pokémon U.K., with an emphasis on operations in North America and Europe.
Pokémon Centre Co. Ltd. was established as a subsidiary in 2011 to manage the numerous Pokémon Centres across Japan. This corporation oversees the design and manufacturing of Pokémon Centre brand items in addition to managing its dozen stores across the globe, including those at Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport and Japan’s Haneda and Narita Airports.
The Pokémon Company Founder
Even though The Pokémon Company is essentially a subsidiary, several people have been instrumental in building the franchise into the multibillion-dollar business that it is today. Ken Sugimori, Satoru Iwata, and Tsunekazu Ishihara are a few of these.
Ishihara is the head of The Pokémon Company; he was formerly employed at Creatures. As the company’s art director and designer, Sugimori is in charge of supervising the creation of every Pokémon game and creating Pikachu, the recognizable mascot of the franchise. Conversely, Iwata led the development of platforms like the Nintendo Switch, Wii, and DS while holding the position of CEO at Nintendo from 2002 to 2015.
Revenue
2020 saw The Pokémon Company record its highest-ever net income of $170 million on $1.1 billion in revenues. When compared to the company’s net income of $143 million in 2019, this is a notable 21% growth.
Competition
Several industries compete with The Pokémon Company. Its rivals in the video game industry are Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Sony. Its main competitors in the merchandising space are Konami and Hasbro.
Globally, the three biggest producers of video game consoles are Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Additionally, they frequently publish exclusive titles for their systems. For example, only Nintendo publishes “Pokémon,” yet Sony produces games like “God of War” and “Spider-Man.” Since its introduction in 2017, Nintendo’s most recent console, the Switch, has sold over 84 million units. Both the Microsoft Xbox Series X/S and the Sony PlayStation 4, which were introduced in 2020, have sold 6.5 million and 10 million copies, respectively.
