It appears that The Pokémon Company wants to bring the printing of its immensely popular (and lucrative) Pokémon Trading Card Game off-shoot in-house. After working closely with Millenium Print Group since 2015, The Pokémon Company has acquired the card printing company.
According to the official press release, The Pokémon Company hopes that the acquisition can help the Millenium Print Group scale and “become a premier printer of trading cards, serving the broader industry.” The Pokémon Company clarified that its latest acquisition will continue operating as a “separate, autonomous organization” but with the benefit of “both investment and industry expertise from The Pokémon Company International.”
Once considered the niche little brother of the mainline Pokémon media franchise such as the games and the animated series, the Pokémon TCG has grown immensely popular over the past few years. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic saw plenty of content creators like Logan Paul spend millions of dollars on rare collectible cards. It came to the point that The Pokémon Company had to ramp up the production last year to meet the increased demand.
By acquiring the Millenium Print Group, The Pokémon Company is surely hoping that the surge in demand for Pokémon cards will continue growing going forward.
In other Pokémon news, the next mainline Pokémon games are coming later this year like clockwork. However, unlike previous attempts, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will integrate the same open-world elements seen in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. We can expect to find out more about Scarlet and Violet in the next few months as Nintendo holds another Direct showcase for games that are headed to the Nintendo Switch later this year.
