That would be killer, a MMO

TheThoneStar has a point. A lot of people buy DS solely for Pokemon. They also buy other games, but that is the reason they get it above PsP.

Nintendo can't afford people to get tired of Pokemon, and thus only 2 games over 5 years works fine.

 You forget about the expansion(Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, Platinum) and Pokemon D/P only sold 16 million, compared to the the 82 million DS units that have been sold.

And yet none of those titles are why Nintendo kept handheld dominance. None of those titles are given credit for keeping Nintendo afloat in the late '90s.

I don't disagree that creating a Wii PKMN RPG would be awesome, and could very possibly be an amazing thing for Nintendo and gaming as a whole, but Nintendo has good reasons for fearing what doing so could mean. Personally, if I were in charge of it, I'd probably not risk it either.

@Oyvoyvoyv: And who says Nintendo will stop making portable Pokemon games once they make a home console one? Nintendo could have two different teams assigned making one game for each platform. I don't believe that Pokemon is a portable franchise, it could do wonders in a home console. I'm not talking about a MMORPG, but about an RPG with the structure of the Pokemon games for the handhelds.

 I kinda meant 1 was Diamond/Pearl and 1 was Platinun. The console versions aren't really games by the same measure, at least not the ones I owned (although I think I only owned the N64 one...?). They're just there to let you see your Pokemon 3D or play on full screen.

And TresTres, of course they wouldn't stop making portable. The point is, Pokemon's main focus is pushing the handheld hardware. If it comes out on Wii, that power may be decreased.

@theonestarr: This gen NSMB, Animal Crossing Wild World, Nintendogs, Brain Training, More Brain Training, Mario Kart DS all sold on par with Pokemon D/P, meaning that Pokemon is no longer what keeps the handhelds afloat. There's been other 6 titles that had the same effect, and all of them have a console counterpart (save for Nintendogs).

@trestres One of the best things about Pokemon is having an epic JRPG on the go.  Also trading, battling, etc with the link cable, wireless, etc, is another one of Pokemon claims to fame.  I don't think that formula would be well executed on a home console, even with Wifi and what have you.

Nintendo appears to be keeping two franchises -- Pokemon and Kirby -- to have their main games on handhelds only.

This would not be surprising. After Tetris, Pokemon made the Gameboy a force and has continued ever since. Only battle and spin-offs of Pokemon have ever made their way to consoles.

Meanwhile, Kirby started off on the Gameboy, then jumped to consoles -- especially the SNES and N64. But since then the only console game has been a racer spin-off, the mainline GC game was canceled, the mainline Wii game is MIA, and a favorite SNES game has been updated for the DS.

Mike from Morgantown

 I've been wanting this forever. N64, Gamecube and now Wii. I don't see it happening though. =[

@SmokedHostage

Good points, I really never considered the whole trading/battling aspect with a console Pokemon. They could make it work though. It wouldn't be as good but hey, you gotta give a little(ease of portable trading/battling) to get a little (good graphics and gameplay via Wii, being able to throw the Pokeball using the Wii Remote would be so cool!)

Edit: and it would be really cool if you could customize your trainer like in Battle Revolution but with even more options. =D