Damn, I gotta be honest with you.
I sat down to write about economics, markets, serious stuff — and what does Google News serve me under the "Economy" section? The announcement of two new Pokémon games: Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves.
And the worst part? This is economics. Big-time economics.
The Monster Nobody Takes Seriously (But Should)
The Pokémon franchise is the most valuable media property on the planet. Not Marvel. Not Star Wars. Not Harry Potter. It's that little yellow Pikachu, my friend. Over $150 billion in cumulative revenue since 1996, across games, cards, toys, anime, and merchandising.
When The Pokémon Company announces two new titles to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary, that's not entertainment news. That's a market event.
Nintendo — which holds a significant stake in the operation — has seen its stock climb during previous Pokémon game launch cycles. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, released in 2022, sold over 10 million units in three days. Three days. There are publicly traded companies that don't generate that kind of revenue in a whole year.
Nostalgia Is the New Oil
You know what Warren Buffett calls a "moat" — the competitive advantage that protects a business? Pokémon's moat isn't technology. It's not pretty graphics. It's not radical innovation.
It's nostalgia.
The 35-year-old dude who played Pokémon Blue on his Game Boy in 1998 now has a credit card, a kid, and an uncontrollable urge to buy the new game "to play with the little one" — but really it's for himself. The Pokémon Company understands this like few others on the planet.
It's the same mechanism that's kept Coca-Cola selling for 130 years. You don't buy the product. You buy the feeling. And feeling, as Taleb once said, is the one thing you can't quantify in a risk model — but it moves entire markets.
The Numbers That Matter
Let's get to the good stuff. The global gaming industry is set to hit $280 billion in 2025. That's bigger than movies and music combined. And Nintendo, with its Switch selling over 140 million units, is one of the queens of this ball.
The announcement of Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves comes at a strategic moment: Nintendo is in the middle of transitioning to the Switch 2, expected later this year. Pokémon games are the kind of title that sells hardware. It's the same logic as a blockbuster movie that saves an entire quarter's box office.
If you own Nintendo stock (ticker: 7974 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, or ADRs like NTDOY in the U.S.), pay attention. Historically, Pokémon launch cycles + new hardware = strong quarters. It's no guarantee — nothing ever is — but the pattern is clear as day.
Wall Street Ignores It, Smart Money Doesn't
While suit-wearing analysts keep debating whether the Fed will cut 25 or 50 basis points, investors like Peter Lynch would be watching this kind of thing closely. Lynch built his legend at the Fidelity Magellan Fund by observing exactly what people around him were buying. What their kids wanted. What dominated the culture.
Pokémon has dominated the culture for 30 years. And it shows no signs of stopping.
The original content I received was basically a Google cookies screen — the full article didn't even make it to me. That alone says a lot: the news is so hot that the algorithm tripped over its own feet trying to deliver it.
But the fact is concrete. Two new games. A billion-dollar franchise. A company that knows how to turn pixels into money better than most central banks know how to print currency.
The question is simple: are you going to keep ignoring the gaming industry in your portfolio just because "it's not serious"? Or are you going to do what smart money does — follow the cash flow, not the bias?
Pikachu doesn't care about your pride. He's just counting the money.
