Can It Get Any Bigger?

"It's like: 'Can it get any bigger?'" Nintendo's Peter Main, senior vice president of sales and marketing, told Reuters today. "The answer is, absolutely. Pokemon, unquestionably, is on every youngster's lips. Got to find them. Got to get them."

Undoubtedly Nintendo has stumbled upon the biggest gold mine the video game industry has ever seen. According to the Reuters report, Pokemon has been responsible for over one half of all US video game revenue in the past year.

"The phenomenon is still fairly small,'' Main said. "With the movie and all the toys, it will probably be about a billion dollar industry in the US this year, headed for what we think is a number almost three times that next year.''

Nintendo is also preparing for massive sales for its new Pokemon Yellow game. Since its release on October 18, more than 1 million units have been sold.

"I suspect we are going to have pandemonium about that product in the next few weeks," Main said. "We're basically locked on supply, and it's just part of a combination of the Pokemon 'bigger than anybody had expected,' phenomenon along with the Game Boy going right off the charts."