Based heavily on the videogame of the
same name, the Pokemon Trading Card Game has taken on a huge following
of its own. It's managed to attract fans of the original game as well
as build up a strong userbase comprising of TCG fans both new and seasoned.
A poke (no pun intended) around these very pages will reveal that one of the reasons The
In Thing rose to success was because of the incredible popularity of the
Pokemon Trading Card Game. Such is the power of the Pokemon franchise
that today it is still one of our biggest sellers.
Satoshi Tajiri
Satoshi Tajiri the creator
of the Pokemon games used to collect bugs and insects as a child. Occasionally
he would fight them against his friends bugs. This passion for collecting,
coupled with a longstanding love for computer games lead to him creating
the first Pokemon Games under his company Game Freak.
A Little About Pokemon
Pokemon was released in 1995 on the
Nintendo GameBoy; the most established and successful videogame console
to date, the game was a huge success in Japan because it contained the
most popular ingredients in Eastern video gaming. Here was a deceptively
deep Role Playing Game that encouraged the social aspect of gaming,
playing on the popular pastimes of collecting, and rewarding players
for trading and battling Pokemon between two GameBoys.
The Pokemon Trading Card Game
With the collectable aspect
and stat heavy nature of Pokemon, its translation into a Trading Card
Game was only a matter of time. On October 20th 1996 the Pokemon trading
card game was distributed in Japan and by March 1997, 3 million Pokemon
games were sold. Pokemon TCG was quickly becoming a phenomenon. In his
game, Satoshi Tajiri had shaped a world where monsters could be captured
and then trained to fight against other monsters. Eventually getting
its own TV series of the same name in April of 1997.The series which
is still being made today was a huge hit in Japan, America and Europe
The Pokemon phenomenon has been one of the most profitable things ever.
New games, cards, and merchandise are still being sold across the world,
in many, many different languages. Its popularity is still a force to
be reckoned with; and as new games are released with new gamers taking
up the challenge, the Pokemon franchse still has the strength and staying
power to take on those newcomers.
The benefits of stocking Trading Cards
CDU boxes mean that Pokemon boosters and decks can be located on the counter as an impulse buying product. The nature of trading cards is that extra cards will always be needed to complete sets and build customised decks. As booster packs are ‘blind packed’ the buyer is never sure what cards they have until the packet is opened, which provides a constant market for the TCG stockist. As well as constant media campaigns led by the game’s creators, countrywide tournaments also help to raise awareness and keep a thriving underground subculture alive.
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