That's right. Pokemon is a fad. A fad that has raked in over $15 billion. 

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/12/news/pokemon.biz2/

Online game aspires to Pokemon success
Chaotic, a new game launched by 4Kids Entertainment and Chaotic USA, combines Pokemon-style gameplay with online networking.
Business 2.0 Magazine
By Robert Levine, Business 2.0 Magazine
September 12 2007: 3:41 PM EDT

(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Most adults still find Pokémon difficult to grasp. The numbers are easier: The franchise, originally based on a trading-card game, has raked in a total of $15 billion for owner Nintendo. It was less lucrative for 4Kids Entertainment, the New York-based company that licensed the U.S. rights for Pokémon merchandise until two years ago. "We got a royalty, which was great," says 4Kids CEO Alfred Kahn. "But we didn't get the gross margin."

So 4Kids set out to beat Pokémon at its own game. The company formed a joint venture with Chaotic USA, which had snapped up a Danish trading-card game called Chaotic. The companies revised the game, added an online element, and are planning a U.S. launch in September that's tied in with a cartoon on the Fox network.

Each Chaotic card has a unique code that players can enter at Chaoticgame.com. That means they'll be able to play as easily online as in person. It also means that 4Kids won't lose as much money to counterfeit cards as it did on Pokémon. Indeed, every item in the Chaotic franchise - from T-shirts to action figures to bedsheets - will have its own code that can be entered online, enabling players to display and trade anything in their collections.

The idea is to mix the game-playing aspect of Pokémon with the preteen social networking of Club Penguin. Liam Burke, an analyst at Ferris Baker Watts, says it will likely soar - or sink without a trace. "This is a fad business," he says. "The highs are really high, and the lows are really low."

 Wow, CNN, way to fact check.  "Originally based on a trading-card game".  Originally based on a Gameboy Game in no way involivng trading-cards?  Fail.

Man...has it been that long since the first Pokemon games came out?

Yeah that artical made no sence, and doesn't even metion Wizards who was the original distributer of the cards game in the US / EU. choir is also correct that the gameboy games came first, and also many others before the cards game was created.

There is to many cards games out at the moment for kids, Dual Masters, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh i dont think we need another.

Also why is 4Kids complaining about the profit they made, did they not read the contract with Nintendo stating how much profit they would make from sales??

how nintendo hit upon this pokemon concept is just beyond me.

though in nintendo's existence, there's been mario, pokemon, and now Mii's... so once every 10 years? can't exactly be luck. of course, Mii isn't a game, but the games built around them are gonna make Mii's so big it's gonna be ridiculous.

speaking of Mii's... where are the Mii games i want? Wii Music, where art thou...

No it isn't, it's quite addictive imo. Have you played one?

Man i hate pokemon in every fricken way I hae't played 1 pokemon game in my life. However unlike u RolStoppable I do not think it's a fad especially since its made so much damn money for nintendo.

Rol doesn't think it's a fad, he thinks it is "fad" which is a german word and the opposite of spicy.

Give me Miis in Super Smash Bros and that's all I'll ever need......

oh noes! teh pokemanssss!

I liked the first r/b and especially the yellow Pikachu! edition. I think the card game is a lot of fun also... if you like playing watered down MTG. The Pokemon hentai is pretty amazing too.

The concept the article mentioned of everything being coded so you can register it online is interesting. Sounds like it could be as fun as entering a bunch of friend codes. Maybe if it's combined with an eye-toy it could take off.