is a
media franchise owned by video game giant
Nintendo and created by
Satoshi Tajiri around
1995. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable
Game Boy role-playing video games, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, falling only behind
Nintendo's
Mario series. Pokémon properties have since been
merchandised into
anime,
manga,
trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated on
27 February,
2006, and as of
1 December,
2006, cumulative sold units of the video games (including home console versions, such as the "Pikachu"
Nintendo 64) have reached more than 155 million copies.
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