Pokémon was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996 and published by Nintendo. It is the second most successful and lucrative game franchise worldwide. The first Pokémon games, Red and Green, were released in Japan in 1996. Red and Blue were then released internationally in 1998 and 1999. The RPG games had the player collecting all 151 Pokémon as a young trainer in the fictional Kanto region. Pokémon Red and Blue received critical acclaim and commercial success, becoming two of the best-selling video games of all time.