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Source: gamers.com

01/16/03

Nintendo to Milk Pokemon Slightly Less

By: Ravi Hiranand

January 16, 2003 10:37 AM PST

Reports from Japan this morning are indicating that Nintendo is planning to slow the licensing fervor for Pokemon that has seen Pikachu plastered on everything from lunchboxes to Pop Tarts to toilet seats. Nintendo is worried that Pokemon -- which has already faded in the United States but is still going strong in Japan -- will lose its appeal and brand value if it continues to flood the market with a deluge of products. Given that there are already 65 firms licensed to produce the 3,000 different Pokemon-related paraphernalia on the market, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a little late. Still, any effort to weed out the substandard -- be it with a sports team, be it in business, be it with cheap licensed trinkets of a fad that peaked years ago -- is a welcome one, and Nintendo plans to fully evaluate whether a potential product maintains or improves the power of the Pokemon brand (as well as the "product design"... Wait, you mean they didn't do that before?).

And of course, if you ever feel the need to buy any of these new and fully approved Pokemon-bandwagon-accelerating products, you can always stop off at one of the three worldwide Pokemon stores and witness the horror of rubber-stamping gone mad first-hand.