Now we are a couple decades or so removed from the original launch of Pokémon in the West, it's hard to imagine there ever being a point where people were unsure about the possibility of it taking off outside of Japan.
But that was apparently a very real concern around the time of Red & Blue's release, with not only Nintendo of America doubting the series's potential, according to the former Nintendo of America localization director Leslie Swan, but also the toy manufacturer Toy Biz.
This information comes courtesy of a pair of interviews that Time Extension did recently with both individuals, in which they both shared their early memories of the classic multimedia series, and the doubts that seemed to surround its potential to be a breakout hit. Of course, it could argued that this is not necessarily a new insight into the project.
Back in 1999, Shigeru Miyamoto, who served as a producer on Pokémon, for example, told Gamespot that he was informed the game would "never appeal to American audiences" and that he "never thought there would be an English version".
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Power founding editor-in-chief Gail Tilden later shared with Polygon in a 2019 article that "an RPG on Game Boy just seemed deadly" and that Nintendo's marketing team and an ad agency considered changing the graphics of the game to better fit the North American market over concerns of how well it would translate.
However, in our interview with Swan, she not only echoed these points, but attributed Tilden for being part of the reason Pokémon happened outside of Japan, despite reservations within Nintendo: "Pokémon launched when I was still working on the magazine, and actually, Gail Tilden, who I was saying was the managing editor of Nintendo Power, she got tapped to go over and work in product development before there really was a localization team to help launch Pokemon in the United States, because it was not a done deal.
"It took some persuading to get people to really think it was going to take off in the United States," she continued. "Gail really worked hard to make it happen."
Interestingly, though, it appears that Nintendo wasn't the only ones who had concerns about the series's chances of success, with Jesse Falcon revealing to us earlier this year that 4Kids Entertainment purchased the licensing rights in 1998, it offered Toy Biz the opportunity to help merchandise the games and TV but ultimately passed as those at the company didn't "get it".
"We were working with 4Kids Entertainment," said Falcon. "Which was their reps. And 4Kids brought this new property to us from Nintendo. We looked at it and said, 'We don't get it. We don't know what this is.' And of course that was a big mistake, because that was a huge hit. The deal wasn't for any of the trading cards, but it was for all the other stuff."
Toy Biz did ultimately end up obtaining the license to make Pokémon toys after the Pokémania phenomenon began, including purchasing the license to create magnet figures and Pokémon-branded marbles in the year 2000, but of course, this would eventually come at an increased price than if it had decided to jump in early and covered significantly less products than the initial offer had entailed.
"That happens from time to time," Falcon said about the missed opportunity earlier this year, "Sometimes you just get lucky with those things, and sometimes you don't."