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, short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese
media franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program ...
encompassing
virtual pet A virtual pet (also known as a digital pet, artificial pet, or pet-raising simulation) is a type of artificial human companion. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment. People may keep a digital pet in lieu of a real pet. Digital ...
toys,
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
,
manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...
,
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
, films and a
trading card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...
. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a " Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks. The franchise was created in 1997 as a series of virtual pets, intended as the masculine counterpart to
Tamagotchi The is a handheld digital pet that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the USA on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the biggest toy fads o ...
. The creatures were first designed to look cute and iconic even on the devices' small screens; later developments had them created with a harder-edged style influenced by American
comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
. The franchise gained momentum with an early video game, ''
Digimon World is a video game by Bandai on the PlayStation, released in 1999, about the Digimon virtual pets. It was followed by various sequels released for the PlayStation and other platforms. The story focuses on a human brought to File City on File Islan ...
'', released only in Japan in January 1999. Several anime series and films including its first anime incarnation, ''
Digimon Adventure , known as ''Digimon: Digital Monsters'' in English-speaking territories, is a 1999 Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation in cooperation with WiZ, Bandai and Fuji Television. It is the first anime series in the '' ...
'', which based on both video game and digital pet have been released, and the video game series has expanded into genres such as
role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...
,
racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...
, fighting, and
MMORPGs A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a character (o ...
.


Conception and creation

The ''Digimon'' franchise began as a series of virtual pets created by WiZ and Bandai, intended as a masculine counterpart to the more female-oriented
Tamagotchi The is a handheld digital pet that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the USA on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the biggest toy fads o ...
pets. It was released in June 1997 with the name
Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a ...
, short for ''Digital Monster''. This device shows to players a
virtual pet A virtual pet (also known as a digital pet, artificial pet, or pet-raising simulation) is a type of artificial human companion. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment. People may keep a digital pet in lieu of a real pet. Digital ...
composed entirely of data and designed to play and fight. In February 1998, the ''DigiMon'' fighting game, compatible with
Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...
and developed by Rapture Technologies, Inc., was announced. The
one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...
manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...
'' C'mon Digimon'', designed by Tenya Yabuno, was published in the Japanese magazine
V-Jump is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine, focusing on new manga as well as video games based on popular manga. The magazine's debut was in 1993 by Shueisha under the '' Jump'' line of magazines. History A prototype magazine called '' Hobby's Jum ...
by
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...
in 1997. A second generation of ''virtual pets'' was marketed six months after the launch of the first, followed by a third in 1998. Each player starts with a baby-level digital creature that has a limited number of attacks and transformations and to make the creature stronger by training and nourishing the creature; when the player is successful in a workout, the Digimon becomes strong, when the player fails, the Digimon becomes weak. Two devices can be connected, allowing two players to battle with their respective creatures, an innovation at the time, however, the battle is only possible from the moment the creature is in the child level or bigger. Playgrounds and subways were where the majority of users of the apparatus were concentrated; The virtual pet was banned in some Asian schools by being considered by parents and teachers as very noisy and violent. The first Digimon were created by Japanese designer Kenji Watanabe, influenced by American
comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
, which were beginning to gain popularity in Japan, and as such began to make his characters look stronger and "cool." Other types of Digimon, which until the year 2000 totalled 279, came from extensive discussions and collaborations between the Bandai company members. The original Digital Monster model that was released in 1997 sold units worldwide, including million units in Japan and million overseas, up until March 2004. By 2005, more than Digital Monster units had been sold worldwide.


Premise

Though most works in the franchise are contained within their own continuity, they all share basic setting and lore elements. Most ''Digimon'' stories begin with a human child coming into contact with a Digimon, either through accidentally entering the Digital World or encountering a Digimon who has come into the human world. The child or children will find themselves equipped with a "digivice", a device modelled after the series' virtual pets that enables them to empower their partner Digimon. While some digimon act like wild beasts, many form small societies and follow governing bodies such as the Royal Knights or Digimon Sovereign. Digimon can grow through evolution (or "digivolution" in most English-language dubs) by absorbing additional data and changing forms; the process is normally linear but there are other methods. For example, "Jogress" (a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

Anime


Television series

Multiple ''Digimon'' anime series have been produced by
Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...
since 1999. The first of these was ''
Digimon Adventure , known as ''Digimon: Digital Monsters'' in English-speaking territories, is a 1999 Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation in cooperation with WiZ, Bandai and Fuji Television. It is the first anime series in the '' ...
''; it began as a short film, but after its storyboard was finished, a request for the film to become a television series was made. The film debuted in theaters a day before the series debuted on TV. The first six ''Digimon'' series were adapted into English for release in Western markets, with the first four treated as a single show under the collective title ''Digimon: Digital Monsters''. The sixth series, ''Digimon Fusion'', was only partially localized; its third season was never adapted into English.


Overview


Films

Several ''Digimon'' featurette films were released in Japan, with some of them seasonal tie-ins for their respective television series. Footage from the first three films was used for the American-produced ''Digimon: The Movie''.


Distribution and localization

In the United States, the first three series that made up ''Digimon: Digital Monsters'' first aired on
Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a jo ...
from August 14, 1999 to June 8, 2002. The localized series was produced by
Saban Entertainment Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and ...
, which would be acquired by
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...
during the show's Fox Kids run. Some scenes from the original shows were modified or omitted in order to comply with Fox's standards and practices. The show also featured more jokes and added dialogue, along with a completely different musical score. As a cross-promotional stunt, 2001 and 2002 saw ''Digi-Bowl'' specials co-produced with
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
; ''NFL on Fox'' commentator
Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...
provided interstitial segments in-between episodes as if the episodes were actually a football game. Disney's acquisition of Saban would result in ''Digimon'' airing on Disney's TV networks and programming blocks. Reruns of the show would begin airing on the
cable network Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, o ...
ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...
on March 4, 2002, while the fourth series, ''
Digimon Frontier , is the fourth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. Unlike the previous series, the main characters can merge with ancient spirits known as "Legendary Warriors" to become Digimon themselves. The ...
'', premiered on
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...
's Disney's One Too block. UPN aired the series until late August 2003, when they severed their ties to Disney. ''Frontier'' would also air in reruns on ABC Family and on
Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...
under the
Jetix Jetix (stylized as JETIX) was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action/adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated from the S ...
branding. An English version of ''
Digimon Data Squad ''Digimon Data Squad'', known in Japan as , is the fifth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series aired in Japan on Fuji TV from April 2, 2006 to March 25, 2007. A standalone film based on ...
'', produced by Studiopolis, would premiere October 1, 2007, on Toon Disney. Around this time, the remaining Digimon Adventure 02 movie, both Tamers movies and the Frontier movie would also be dubbed and aired on Toon Disney in the US, with most actors from the TV series reprising their roles. The Data Squad/Savers movie however would not get a North American localised English dub produced. In September 2012,
Saban Brands Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment firm based in Los Angeles, California focused on media, entertainment, and communications investments. Formed in 2010 by Haim Saban, Saban Capital Group owns Saban Films, part of Univision Commu ...
, a successor to Saban Entertainment, announced it had acquired the ''Digimon'' anime franchise. Saban would announce that they would be producing an English dub for ''Digimon Xros Wars'', retitled ''
Digimon Fusion ''Digimon Fusion'', known in Japan as , is the sixth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series was broadcast on TV Asahi and Asahi Broadcasting Corporation between July 2010 and March 2012. I ...
'', for broadcast on
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
in the United States starting September 7, 2013.
Saban Capital Group Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment firm based in Los Angeles, California focused on media, entertainment, and communications investments. Formed in 2010 by Haim Saban, Saban Capital Group owns Saban Films, part of Univision Commu ...
would later sell most of Saban Brands' entertainment properties to
Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...
in 2018 and shutter the division in July of that year. The ''Digimon Adventure tri.'' series would be distributed in North America by
Eleven Arts Eleven Arts is a film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. The company has Japanese executives and has "a largely Japanese lineup". It specializes in importing anime from Japan to the United States. Company hist ...
. The English dub would utilize localized names from Saban's original dub, reunite several voice actors from the original cast, and feature a remixed version of the English opening theme, while retaining the original Japanese score.
Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...
would acquire the broadcast and home media distribution rights for the films.,


International

In Canada, the English versions of ''Digimon'' were broadcast on YTV, with the exception of ''Data Squad'', which aired in Family Channel's Jetix block. YTV would eventually acquire ''Digimon Fusion'', but only the first 26 episodes were shown. In the United Kingdom, ''Digimon'' first aired on
Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...
.
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's children's slot
CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...
would broadcast ''Adventure'', ''Adventure 02'' and several episodes of ''Tamers'' during after school hours from 2001–2002. The rest of ''Tamers'' aired on
Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...
from 2002–03. ''
Digimon Frontier , is the fourth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. Unlike the previous series, the main characters can merge with ancient spirits known as "Legendary Warriors" to become Digimon themselves. The ...
'' was originally announced to be broadcast on Jetix, but the series was later dropped. The series eventually saw a release on October 29, 2018. In 2011, ''Digimon Data Squad'' aired on
Kix! Pop Max (formerly Kix! and then Kix) is a British free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. As of June 2014, it broadcasts cartoons, sci-fi, action and adventure series and ani ...
. According to Fox Kids' (2000–03) and Kix's (2010–)
BARB Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to: People * Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves * The Barbs, a band Places * Barb, ...
Television ratings, ''Adventure'', ''Adventure 02'' & ''Tamers'' have been the most popular series'/seasons in the United Kingdom and was consistently in the weekly top 10 broadcasts for both channels for new episodes. Broadcast rights and merchandising sub-licensing rights for ''Digimon Fusion'' in the UK have been acquired by
ITV Studios Global Entertainment ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadca ...
. ''Digimon Fusion'' had aired since Spring 2014 on digital terrestrial channel, CITV.


Manga

''Digimon'' first appeared in
narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
form in the one-shot manga '' C'mon Digimon'', released in the summer of 1997. ''C'mon Digimon'' spawned the popular '' Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01'' manga, written by Hiroshi Izawa, which began serialization on November 21, 1998. # '' C'mon Digimon'' # '' Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01'' # ''
Digimon Chronicle The Digital Monster is a digital pet created by WiZ and Bandai that spawned the ''Digimon'' franchise. It was released by Bandai on June 26, 1997 in Japan and on December 5, 1997 in North America. This pet was a masculine counterpart to the Tamag ...
'' # ''
Digimon Next is a Japanese manga series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and illustrated by Takeshi Okano. It is the second '' Digimon'' manga and was serialized in Shueisha's ''V Jump'' magazine from 2006 to 2008. The main character is Tsurugi Tatsuno and is ...
'' # ''
Digimon Xros Wars ''Digimon Fusion'', known in Japan as , is the sixth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series was broadcast on TV Asahi and Asahi Broadcasting Corporation between July 2010 and March 2012. I ...
'' # '' Digimon World Re:Digitize'' # '' Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode'' # '' Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth'' # '' Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker's Memory'' # '' Digimon Chronicle X'' # ''Digimon Dreamers''


Yuen Wong Yu manhua

A Chinese
manhua () are Chinese-language comics produced in China and Taiwan. Whilst Chinese comics and narrated illustrations have existed in China in some shape or form throughout its imperial history, the term first appeared in 1904 in a comic titled ''Cu ...
was written and drawn by (余 遠鍠 ''Yu Yuen-wong''), who based its storyline on the television series. This adaptation covers ''Digimon Adventure'' in five volumes, ''Digimon Adventure 02'' in two, ''Digimon Tamers'' in four, and ''Digimon Frontier'' in three. The original stories are heavily abridged, though on rare occasions events play out differently from the anime. The Chinese-language version was published by Rightman Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong. Yu also wrote ''
D-Cyber ''D-Cyber / Digimon D-Cyber'' ( zh, t=數碼暴龍) is a Chinese Digimon manhua, which was released by Rightman Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong, China on February 17, 2005. It is based on the adventures of Lóng Zhìguāng, Fāng Shēngjiàn, Luò ...
''. Two English versions were also released. The first one was published by
Chuang Yi Chuang Yi Publishing Pte Ltd. ( zh, s=创艺出版社) was a publishing company based in Singapore that specialized in producing domestic and imported comics and comics-related merchandise in English and simplified Chinese. Chuang Yi distributed ...
in Singapore. The second one, which was adapted by Lianne Sentar, was released by
TOKYOPOP Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed J ...
in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
.
The three volumes for ''Digimon Frontier'' have been released by Chuang Yi in English. These have not been released by TOKYOPOP in North America or Europe. However, the Chuang Yi releases of ''Digimon Frontier'' were distributed by
Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatr ...
in Australia.


Dark Horse

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...
published American-style Digimon
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s, adapting the first thirteen episodes of the English dub of ''Digimon Adventure'' in 2001. The story was written by Daniel Horn and Ryan Hill, and illustrated by Daniel Horn and Cara L. Niece.


Panini

The Italian publishing company, Panini, approached Digimon in different ways in different countries. While Germany created their own adaptations of episodes, the United Kingdom (UK) reprinted the Dark Horse titles, then translated some of the German adaptations of ''Adventure 02'' episodes. Eventually the UK comics were given their own original stories, which appeared in both the UK's official ''Digimon Magazine'' and the official UK Fox Kids companion magazine, ''Wickid''. These original stories only roughly followed the continuity of ''Adventure 02''. When the comic switched to the ''Tamers'' series the storylines adhered to continuity more strictly; sometimes it would expand on subject matter not covered by the original Japanese anime (such as
Mitsuo Yamaki is a Japanese anime television series and the third television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series takes place in a new setting separate from the preceding series, ''Digimon Adventure'' and ''Digimon ...
's past) or the English adaptations of the television shows and movies (such as Ryo's story or the movies that remained undubbed until 2005). In a money saving venture, the original stories were later removed from ''Digimon Magazine'', which returned to printing translated German adaptations of ''Tamers'' episodes. Eventually, both magazines were cancelled.


Video games

The ''Digimon'' series has inspired various video games, including the ''
Digimon World is a video game by Bandai on the PlayStation, released in 1999, about the Digimon virtual pets. It was followed by various sequels released for the PlayStation and other platforms. The story focuses on a human brought to File City on File Islan ...
'' and ''
Digimon Story , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a " Dig ...
'' sub-series of
role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...
. Other genres have included
life simulation Life simulation games form a subgenre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more virtual characters (human or otherwise). Such a game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation ...
,
adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
, video
card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
,
strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
, and
racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...
games. By March 2001, Bandai had sold approximately video games worldwide, including 400,000 in Japan. In February 2010, a website for the
MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
'' Digimon Battle Online'' was launched. On September 22, 2011, online game publisher
Joymax Joymax is a South Korean video game developer. Joymax initially published games for the PC then expanded to other platforms (including mobile devices). Joymax runs a data center in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain ...
announced the release of an MMORPG game called ''
Digimon Masters ''Digimon Masters'' (Korean: 디지몬 마스터즈), also known as ''Digimon Masters Online'', is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with microtransactions. The game is based on the ''Digimon'' media franchise, ...
'', which was developed by the Korean publisher
DIGITALIC ''Digimon RPG'' (Korean:디지몬 RPG), previously released in North America as ''Digimon Battle'', is a free to play micro-transaction supported massively multiplayer online role-playing game in a setting based on that of the Digimon media franch ...
. In June 2021 it was announced that they were developing a new MMORPG titled ''Digimon Super Rumble''. In 2011, a new entry in the ''Digimon World'' series was announced after a seven-year hiatus, titled '' Digimon World Re:Digitize''. The game would be released in Japan on July 19, 2012, followed by an enhanced version for
Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...
released in 2013. '' Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth'' was first released in Japan in 2015. It would be the first game in the ''Digimon Story'' series to be released in North America under its original title; ''
Digimon World DS ''Digimon World DS'', known in Japan as , is a role-playing video game for the Nintendo DS developed by BEC (company), BEC and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Bandai Namco Games. The game was released in Japan on June 15, 2006, and in ...
'' and ''
Digimon World Dawn and Dusk ''Digimon World Dawn'' and ''Digimon World Dusk'', originally released as in Japan, are two role-playing video games for the Nintendo DS handheld game console released in Japan on March 29, 2007 and North America on September 18, 2007. Toge ...
'' were originally marketed as entries in the ''Digimon World'' series, with the latter game being the last to be released in the West for nine years until ''Cyber Sleuths release on February 2, 2016. There have also been several mobile games. ''Digimon Links'' was active from March 2016 to July 2019, and was similar to the ''Story'' games in that the player raised digimon in a farm and fought enemies using team of three of their digimon. It was succeeded by ''Digimon ReArise'', which launched June 2018 in Japan and October 2019 in America.


Card game

The Digimon Collectible Card Game is a card game based on Digimon, first introduced in Japan in 1997 and published by Bandai. The third season (''
Digimon Tamers is a Japanese anime television series and the third television series in the '' Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series takes place in a new setting separate from the preceding series, ''Digimon Adventure'' and '' Digimo ...
'') utilized this aspect of the franchise by making the card game an integral part of the season. Versions of the card game are also included in some of the Digimon video games including ''Digital Card Battle'' and ''
Digimon World 3 , also known as ''Digimon World 2003'' in Europe and Australia, is a role-playing video game for the PlayStation developed by BEC and Boom Corp, and published by Bandai. It is the third installment in the ''Digimon World'' series and it was first ...
''. During the fourth anime (''
Digimon Frontier , is the fourth anime television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. Unlike the previous series, the main characters can merge with ancient spirits known as "Legendary Warriors" to become Digimon themselves. The ...
''), Bandai created the ''D-Tector Card Game'' to tie in to their own D-Tector virtual pet toys. This was a West-only card game. From February 25, 2011 to September 28, 2012, ''Digimon Jintrix'' was an online card game supported by physical card releases. It was followed up by the mobile game ''Digimon Crusader'', which lasted fom December 2012 to December 2017. In 2020 a new card game was launched to coincide with '' Digimon Adventure:'' using a new system, this was released in the West in January 2021.


References


External links

* * , outside-of-Asia series {{Non-sports trading cards Video game franchises introduced in 1997 Works set in computers Bandai brands Bandai Namco Entertainment franchises Boys' toys and games Fictional shapeshifters Mass media franchises Video game franchises Virtual reality in fiction Television series about parallel universes Mythopoeia Portal fantasy