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30 Years of Pokemon – What Now?

Asani Schwartz, Freelance Writer

January 27, 2026

Pokemon has been around since 1996 in Japan, and later came to America. Pokemon itself is the highest grossing franchise and has the highest selling amount of video games out there. What exactly is Pokemon, and what is next for the beloved franchise?

1989 marked the development of the first Pokemon games known as Red and Green. The idea was pitched by Satoshi Tajiri to APE, another gaming company. However, someone who worked for Nintendo was in the room where the pitch was held. He brought the idea to Nintendo itself, where the president said that this is the game they need. Throughout the next 7 years, they worked on this game and added ideas. These included the PokeDex (a digital encyclopedia of Pokemon you captured) and Pokemon types, like grass or fire. The two games released on February 27th, 1996 and many in Nintendo had little to no hope of Pokemon gaining traction. They promoted the game through manga and by creating a secret Pokemon (Mew) that was unobtainable in the actual game. By September of the same year, the games sold around 1 Million units. The cards themselves were released in October of the same year and were heavily inspired by Magic the Gathering. They were an immediate hit and sold quickly. The anime was subsequent, and was also a big hit as they developed their next two games Gold and Silver. The anime and game came to America in 1998, and the cards followed in 1999.

After all of the effort put into Pokemon and the Pokemania fanatics, what is happening now? Where will it go?

Pokemon Go is still being updated frequently, with new events coming weekly to monthly. Pokemon Legends ZA came out in December of 2025. On January 30th of this year, there will be brand new Pokemon related events happening. Pokemon has already leaked a possible new park in Universal Studios Orlando and Japan. A new game was teased and available for preorder soon called Pokopia, where you play as a Pokemon itself. The game is very similar to Animal Crossing, another popular Nintendo game. New card packs called Ascended Heroes will be releasing soon as well. There are also rumors of a new Pokemon generation coming out, which means new and different Pokemon.

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About the Contributor

Asani Schwartz, Freelance Writer

Asani has been writing for years now and her curiosity for the world is encapsulated in her writing. Her writing can be scattered, meaning that she writes what she thinks initially and edits it later. She is working on a book currently. Although not yet named, it is about psychology and her way of viewing the world around her. This may not sound interesting but the book isn’t meant to be surface level observations. It’s more. Asani was born January 4th, 2009. She was born in Brooklyn and moved to Lindenhurst after her mom’s death when she was 2. A lot of her writing is about how to deal with grief as well, even if it’s been many years. She lives with her father and helps work at his comic book store. Asani is also a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and instructs at her dojang. This gives her the opportunity to work with kids since her goal is to be an English teacher and to transition into a school psychologist. Music and poetry are her strong suits, as she is a singer in chorus and has written multiple songs. Asani believes that her writing should change how someone thinks. She wants her writing to mean something to other people. She wants to make them cry, either happy or upset, about an observation or a piece of writing she has created. She has hope that everyone will enjoy her writing.