Topic: 150 Million Sold. $15 Billion in Retail Sales.

[Robert]

A lot of people just have to catch 'em all it seems, and here comes Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness to let them.

 POKÉMON FRANCHISE APPROACHES 150 MILLION GAMES SOLD
 
 Newest Pokémon Game Launches Oct. 3 With Novel Storyline
 
 REDMOND, Wash., Oct 4, 2005 – Pokémon has not only proved itself as a leader in the video game industry, but it also has become an obsession for millions of zealous fans. Pokémon has spawned more than $15 billion in worldwide retail sales, while the franchise is on the verge of selling its 150 millionth game worldwide. Without fail, every new Pokémon game sells more than 1 million, while the legacy has grown in the United States since its introduction in 1998. But the newest game speaks for itself – Pokémon® XD: Gale of Darkness launches Oct. 3 for Nintendo GameCube™ and is the next step on the ladder of success for Pokémon. As fans have grown up, so has the game.
 
 The role-playing game brings with it nearly 40 hours of game play and a fantastic new storyline. The legendary Lugia™ tragically has been turned into Shadow Lugia: the ultimate Shadow Pokémon that supposedly can't be purified. The evil organization Cipher is dedicated to world domination and uses Shadow Lugia to steal a Pokémon-carrying cargo ship. Now players must snag and purify the Shadow Pokémon, saving them from a life of evil deeds.
 
 The game is inundated with fascinating and original features: Players can use a new method to help purify up to nine Pokémon at once in the Purify Chamber. Taking full advantage of the Purify Chamber means building up a collection of purified Pokémon to place around the Shadow Pokémon: the more the Pokémon, the faster the purification.
 
 Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness also runs deep with inventive game-play components. The option-rich Vs. Mode allows players to compete in extreme 3-D battles with their favorite Pokémon. A mini-game called Battle Bingo appeals to players of all ages. It's much like real bingo: Players must fill in their card squares by battling Pokémon.
 
 In addition, the game is highlighted by great battles, astonishing graphics and mind-boggling effects. For Pokémon loyalists, Nintendo resourcefully incorporates the Game Boy® Advance by offering players the ability to import their preferred Pokémon and watch them battle in full 3-D on Nintendo GameCube – the Vs. Mode allows players to import all their Game Boy Advance Pokémon from games like Pokémon® Ruby, Pokémon® Sapphire, Pokémon® FireRed, Pokémon® LeafGreen and Pokémon® Emerald. The craving for Pokémon continues to escalate with Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, which is Rated E for Everyone.
 
 Pokémon USA, Inc., a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, manages and oversees the property outside of Asia, which includes licensing activities, brand promotions, publication of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, TV animation, home video entertainment, the official Pokémon.com Web site and pokemoncenter.com, an e-commerce site. Nintendo of America manages marketing and distribution of Pokémon video games and the Pokémon Trading Card Game in North America.
 
 Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996 for play on Nintendo's Game Boy® and has evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. Pokémon was introduced in North America in September 1998 and has since generated more than $15 billion in worldwide retail sales. More than 40 million Pokémon video games have been sold in the United States, including Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire, which were the No. 2 and No. 3 best-selling video games of 2003, according to the NPD Group.
 
 The Pokémon Trading Card Game, fueled by organized play programs around the world, has spurred global sales of more than 14 billion cards to date, while the Pokémon animated series on Kids' WB!, now in its eighth season, consistently ranks within the top three shows for boys ages 6 to 11. For more information, visit www.pokemonxd.com.
 
 The worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home and portable video game systems. Each year, hundreds of all-new titles for the best-selling Game Boy® Advance SP, Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo GameCube™ systems extend Nintendo's vast game library and continue the tradition of delivering a rich, diverse mix of quality video games for players of all ages. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games and more than 353 million hardware units globally, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario™ and Donkey Kong® and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere.
 
 For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at www.nintendo.com.
 

[Mario]

<1997> Pokemon, what is this? This wont take off.
<1998> Well, it took off, but it's just a fad, it'll die.
<2000> It'll die soon...
<2003> It's still a fad!
<2005> Well damn.

The one thing I dislike about this is that they're trying to pass Pokemon XD as a new Pokemon game for Pokemon fans to love. If it's anything like Colloseum, and it looks VERY similar to me at this point, it's going to be absolute crap and a disgrace to the franchise. I'll still give it a chance though.

[wandering]

From the brief, like, 5 seconds a played it at the Nintendo World Store, it actually looked pretty cool. But we'll see.....

In any case, Pokemon NEEDS a boost right about now, either through this game or (if it turrns out this one sucks) maybe something on the REV. It can't run off of cookie-cutter sequels, mostly crap TV shows/movies, and Pickacu's irresistable cuteness forever. At some point it's going to need a massively awesome console game, at the least....  

[Mario]

Pokemon DS...

Online.

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario

The one thing I dislike about this is that they're trying to pass Pokemon XD as a new Pokemon game for Pokemon fans to love. If it's anything like Colloseum, and it looks VERY similar to me at this point, it's going to be absolute crap and a disgrace to the franchise. I'll still give it a chance though.

Geez what was such a disgrace about Colloseum? That it wasn't a GBA clone? Pfft. Whatever.

[Mario]

What was good about it? I just didn't like it, the characters/art are the lamest i've ever seen, everything is too linear (my main gripe, others can be overlooked), the battles took WAY too long, the story sucked, the graphics were unappealing, and the Stadium aspect of it, which I enjoyed on the N64 games was totally butchered. It has nice music though.

[Bill Aurion]

Your opinion sucks...

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill Aurion
Your opinion sucks...

i'll second that.

[odifiend]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
What was good about it? I just didn't like it, the characters/art are the lamest i've ever seen, everything is too linear (my main gripe, others can be overlooked), the battles took WAY too long, the story sucked, the graphics were unappealing, and the Stadium aspect of it, which I enjoyed on the N64 games was totally butchered. It has nice music though.

You forgot the announcer (kind of -  that's why the battles were so long)!  He added the spice to any battle.
"This battle was raging from the word GO!"
I guess you could hear the music though.
Minigames were gone, GCN-GBA cables meant battle parties had to be already to go... If I wanted that I'd just buy a game link cable and the list goes on...
Since I am a Pokewhore I might rent this if I can find it, though.

[Ian Sane]

Pokemon has got to be the only franchise I can think of that is both deserving of selling 150 million yet undeserving at the same time.  The Gameboy Pokemon RPGs deserve to be played by every person who has ever played and enjoyed a videogame.  Most of the spinoffs and the cash-in Yellow/Crystal rehash junk deserve to be in a landfill (thought Snap is pretty fun for a rental and the pinball games are pretty fun).

The problem with Colloseum is that it removed features from Stadium (which was a pretty weak game to begin with) and then it's RPG mode was devoid of everything that makes Pokemon so great in the first place.  A Pokemon game where you don't catch wild Pokemon?  Who's the idiot who thought that was a good idea?  My brother loves Pokemon yet he hated Colloseum.  That's like me hating a Zelda game.  It would take almost an intentional effort to pull that off.

I will proclaim huge praise for Red/Blue and Gold/Silver which are two of the most brilliant games any company has ever made.

[Toruresu]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
Pokemon DS...

Online.

This game will be it, period.

[nickmitch]

I regret buying Pokémon Snap. The only thing that I could do with it was compete with my brother on how fast each of us could beat it. Seriously, It took an hour if you actually tried.
Pokémon Colleseum was ok. It just wasn't what we really wanted and XD is just a sequel and The Pokémon company laughing at us. But I do think that Nintendo will break out a MMO pokémon for the rev. I really just want a game where I can go everywhere and collect all 386 of 'em.

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian SaneThe problem with Colloseum is that it removed features from Stadium (which was a pretty weak game to begin with) and then it's RPG mode was devoid of everything that makes Pokemon so great in the first place.  A Pokemon game where you don't catch wild Pokemon?  Who's the idiot who thought that was a good idea?  My brother loves Pokemon yet he hated Colloseum.

Well, i'm not going to tell you what to like or dislike, but I've always seen Stadium/Colloseum as battle games or games where you get to see (your) pokemon battles in 3D, not as replacements or sucessors to the GBA games. Neither do I think they should be successor games to the GBA ones. Moreover, though, more people have GBAs then Cubes so it makes sense to put the main games on GBA/DS and the 3D battles / side games on Cube/Revolution.

And hey if you want to take a cynical view on it, it makes even more sense to keep the main games on GBA/DS since if you moved the main game(s) on to the console you'd have one less system selling game to sell GBA/DS which are far more profitable to Nintendo.

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That's like me hating a Zelda game.  It would take almost an intentional effort to pull that off.

Wow, there isn't a Zelda game you don't like? You even like Wand of Gamelon and WindWaker? Comon, there has to be something about a Zelda game that you hate. You're Ian after all, you're negative on Nintendo for everything....

[Bill Aurion]

The CDi games don't exist...Got it?  They DO NOT EXIST! >=|

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: TVman
I regret buying Pokémon Snap. The only thing that I could do with it was compete with my brother on how fast each of us could beat it. Seriously, It took an hour if you actually tried.

Uh... you never competed on who could get the most point per picture? A 10,000 point snap of Mew is pretty difficult. Try baiting pikachu to the surfboard, you get more points for that too.

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Pokémon Colleseum was ok. It just wasn't what we really wanted and XD is just a sequel and The Pokémon company laughing at us.

Yea... I don't know about you, but I like these side quest games on the cube. If you don't have a cube, or refuse to buy one because 'there are NO other good games and it's the ONLY game you buy for it' , then your ok. It's just a side quest and not a must have game.

Quote
But I do think that Nintendo will break out a MMO pokémon for the rev. I really just want a game where I can go everywhere and collect all 386 of 'em.

I doubt it, the pokemon MMO if anywhere would be on DS. That's not to say that Pokemon Revolution can't be 'online' with trading and battling and such after you beaten the feature game, but it won't be a 'regular' Pokemon game or MMO. I doubt it. Based on Statium1/2/Colloseum/XD.

[Ian Sane]

"Moreover, though, more people have GBAs then Cubes so it makes sense to put the main games on GBA/DS and the 3D battles / side games on Cube/Revolution."

Well I just want one good 3D Pokemon RPG.  There is no valid reason why Nintendo hasn't given us one other than the fact that they know they can rip the Pokemon fans off with junk so they don't bother.

"Wow, there isn't a Zelda game you don't like? You even like Wand of Gamelon and WindWaker? Comon, there has to be something about a Zelda game that you hate."

The CD-i games don't count since they're not even made by Nintendo.  Plus I've never played them.  Wind Waker is great.  It's easily my least favourite of the 3D Zeldas but it's still fantastic.  The only Zelda games I don't really care for are the NES ones but that's mostly due to limitations caused by the time period they were in.  My parents were very anti-videogame during the NES days so I never got a chance to play them until after far better sequels had been released.  I'm not going to crap on Nintendo because a game that was brilliant at the time hasn't aged well.  Even Zelda II would probably be pretty cool if they made a game like it now with better technology.  It's got a Metroid feel to it.

[Nephilim]

I proberly got my enjoyment out of snap then Colloseum

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian SaneWell I just want one good 3D Pokemon RPG.  There is no valid reason why Nintendo hasn't given us one other than the fact that they know they can rip the Pokemon fans off with junk so they don't bother.

Well, how about the cynical reason I put forth? You won't want just ONE good 3D Pokemon RPG. You'd tell me you'd be happy going back to a 2D pokemon afterwords? I 'd say no, you'd want an even better 3D one and would jibe that they're ripping us off with 2D/low end 3D. I'm not privy to Nintendo's finacials or such, but i'm sure they'd like to sell GBAs and more DS since there more customers there and make wicked profit on sytems alone vs cube or revolution. It wouldn't be a reason you'd want to hear, but it'd make sense, keep the system sellers on the systems you want to sell and to hell with what you want. You think this is Sony where they'll tell you want to hear? (but not deliver)

I dunno perhaps i'm being to cynical. And the answer is just as you surmise, that Nintendo is stupid. But, they've managed to make it so far, dispite "BLAST PROCESSING", 32x, CD based systems, CD/DVD playback, Online, graphically superior handhelds, and of course having all their good ideas ripped off, etc... So they must be doing something right and not be as stupid as they are otherwise alleged to be.

[ThePerm]

Quote
Originally posted by: 31 Flavas

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian SaneStadium/Colloseum as battle games or games where you get to see (your) pokemon battles in 3D, not as replacements or sucessors to the GBA games. Neither do I think they should be successor games to the GBA ones. Moreover, though, more people have GBAs then Cubes so it makes sense to put the main games on GBA/DS and the 3D battles / side games on after all, you're

maybe if  they released some 3d pokémon games that  were  more like  a cross between the  gba  games and  zelda  people  would have had  as  many  cubes  as  gba?

[Ian Sane]

"You won't want just ONE good 3D Pokemon RPG. You'd tell me you'd be happy going back to a 2D pokemon afterwords? I 'd say no, you'd want an even better 3D one and would jibe that they're ripping us off with 2D/low end 3D."

Yet somehow this logic doesn't apply to Metroid or Zelda which both thrive in 2D portable and 3D console games.  If Nintendo released a real 3D Pokemon RPG on the Cube for Christmas 2002 they could have beat the Xbox.  I cannot think of a bigger no-brainer instant million seller killer app than this.  This is THE game.  Not every Pokemon fan buys Nintendo consoles.  If they did then the sales would reflect that of the Gameboy which went from a forgotten relic to the most popular system around pretty much because of Pokemon alone.  There are literally millions of Pokemon fans who own Nintendo portables but not Nintendo consoles.  Nintendo releases a real 3D Pokemon RPG and all those fans would buy it, assuming Nintendo hasn't scared them all away with their crappy console spinoffs yet.

Nintendo has had the biggest dream killer app of all time right in front of their face since 1998 and they're incredibly stupid to have not done anything about it yet.

[KnowsNothing]

I suppose the ideal time was to have a Pokemon RPG early in the cube's life, but really, starting a couple years ago it'd be smarter to transfer the project to the Rev.  Especially now that they have the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.  So perhaps we'll have a nice, online, CEL-SHADED, super-duper RPG at or near the Rev's launch?  WHO KNOWS?  I DON'T.

[Mario]

I greatly enjoy Pokemon Snap!

31 Flavas, i'm not being a cynical hater, I just bought Pokemon Colloseum for $100(AUD), and felt ripped off, but life goes on! Some (most) people just didn't like the game, you did, more power to you! I liked Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, so I was thinking "hey, if I don't like this fancy RPG thingy there's always the stadium aspect to lean on!", unfortunately I was wrong, it was TOTALLY butchered, you can't even RENT Pokemon anymore! No mini games either!

I'm not really interested in a 3D proper full RPG for consoles anyway, I want the main series to stay on handhelds.

[Caliban]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Even Zelda II would probably be pretty cool if they made a game like it now with better technology.  It's got a Metroid feel to it.

I so totally agree with you except for the Metroid part you mentioned. I played this game way back when it was out and I loved it to death and still do and at that time I have never heard of Metroid lol. Actually now that I think about it, Wind Waker does have some things in it resembling to Zelda II.

On topic, Well I didn't get Colloseum because I'm still waiting for a true 3D representation of the Pokemon world, and so i won't get Gale for that same reason. Damn it, I want Pokemon Online DS or Pokemon Online for the NRS.

[nickmitch]

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Originally posted by: 31 FlavasUh... you never competed on who could get the most point per picture? A 10,000 point snap of Mew is pretty difficult. Try baiting pikachu to the surfboard, you get more points for that too.

Yeah, we took just about every picture that you can take it that game. It was the only thing giving it value. Balloon pickachu was the hardest to get because I mostly got all the other special pics by luck.

Quote
Yea... I don't know about you, but I like these side quest games on the cube. If you don't have a cube, or refuse to buy one because 'there are NO other good games and it's the ONLY game you buy for it' , then your ok. It's just a side quest and not a must have game.

Well if you think of them as a fun, little distraction from the rutine then they're aceptable, but I think they're fun either way.

Quote
I doubt it, the pokemon MMO if anywhere would be on DS. That's not to say that Pokemon Revolution can't be 'online' with trading and battling and such after you beaten the feature game, but it won't be a 'regular' Pokemon game or MMO. I doubt it. Based on Statium1/2/Colloseum/XD.

My vision of the pokémon MMO has it letting you start from any region you want, so I thought that it'd be better as a console title since it'll take up so much space.