Pok�댩mon is a media franchise published by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games, Pok�댩mon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own Mario series, with over 215 million game units sold. Since its inception, the Pok�댩mon franchise expanded into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media.
The Pok�댩mon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game with a goal similar to a Pok�댩mon battle in the video game series. Players use Pok�댩mon cards, with individual strengths and weaknesses, in an attempt to defeat their opponent by "knocking out" his or her Pok�댩mon cards. In 1998, Nintendo released a Game Boy Color version of the trading card game in Japan. Players soon began to collect the cards as well as play with them.