The Pokemon Company International to Buy Millennium Print Group

JustInBasil

JustInBasil

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In an official press release today, The Pokemon Company International has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Millenium Print Group, which has been a partner in the manufacture of cards for the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2015. Millenium Print group will continue to operate independently but will gain “both investment and industry- expertise from The Pokémon Company International.”
The full text of the press release follows below.
Bellevue, Wash. – April 18, 2022 – The Pokémon Company International, the company responsible for management of the globally popular Pokémon brand outside of Asia, has entered into agreement to purchase North Carolina-based Millennium Print Group, a manufacturer and printer of trading cards and associated packaging in the US. The two companies have been business partners since 2015 with...
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Wasn't it the case that all TCGs are essentially printed in the same plant? If that's true, then Pokemon is about to cut checks every time their competitor prints a new set.
 
Yaginku said:
Wasn't it the case that all TCGs are essentially printed in the same plant? If that's true, then Pokemon is about to cut checks every time their competitor prints a new set.
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It seems like there'd have to be at least one other printer, given TPCi didn't start working with Millennium until 2015.
 
Yaginku said:
Wasn't it the case that all TCGs are essentially printed in the same plant? If that's true, then Pokemon is about to cut checks every time their competitor prints a new set.
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Probably, TPCi will try to improve MPG's printing capabilities for North (and Latin) American market(s). It will have a considerably moderate impact for other regions, because they has other printer companies, like Copag Amazonia for Brazilian Portuguese products.
 
Tvoretz said:
It seems like there'd have to be at least one other printer, given TPCi didn't start working with Millennium until 2015.
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Off the top of my head, Topps has (or at least had) their own printer, and Upper Deck prints (printed?) their own cards as well. MPG is not the card printer out there – they're also not only a card printing company.

This acquisition is a bit unusual. I would not be surprised if this is at least partly motivated by an interest on TPCI's part in preventing future set leaks/thefts from the print line and/or MPG signalling to the company they were not particularly interested in continuing to fire employees for leaks.
 
DMYSYS said:
I would not be surprised if this is at least partly motivated by an interest on TPCI's part in preventing future set leaks/thefts from the print line and/or MPG signalling to the company they were not particularly interested in continuing to fire employees for leaks.
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After the incident with brilliant stars getting leak way to early, i can see this being the reason of buying the company.
 
Sources tell me they need another printer for all the extra garbage V's and pack filler people have been demanding! ?
 
HershelLayton said:
Sources tell me they need another printer for all the extra garbage V's and pack filler people have been demanding! ?
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If it bugs you so much you could just stop buying the packs and leave them for the people that actually likes that stuff, i.e. kids and set collectors
 
Snowy Lilacs said:
If it bugs you so much you could just stop buying the packs and leave them for the people that actually likes that stuff, i.e. kids and set collectors
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Just because little Johnny is five, it doesn't mean he likes a garbage 3D rendered pokemon over something nicely drawn. I used to in fact be a kid and prefer the nicely drawn cards over the dreadful 3D cards. Next time don't respond in a rude way over a lighthearted comment.
 
I tend to forget how much money the Pokemon Company has, but I am a bit surprised that type of thing hasn't happened before (or at least recently).
 
Ranger64 said:
I tend to forget how much money the Pokemon Company has, but I am a bit surprised that type of thing hasn't happened before (or at least recently).
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Because they don't make as much money as you probably think. They only get a pretty small slice of the Pokemon pie, and TPCi as a subsidiary gets even less of that. This company probably just isn't worth all that much.
 
HershelLayton said:
Just because little Johnny is five, it doesn't mean he likes a garbage 3D rendered pokemon over something nicely drawn. I used to in fact be a kid and prefer the nicely drawn cards over the dreadful 3D cards. Next time don't respond in a rude way over a lighthearted comment.
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You're telling me you didn't like Keiji Kinebuchi's Grimer?
 
DMYSYS said:
You're telling me you didn't like Keiji Kinebuchi's Grimer?
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I think those cards had an odd charm, but even during gen 3/4 I disliked the awful 3D models used for some Pokemon. It got particularly bad in gen 5 with those bland backgrounds used for holo pokemon in the first few sets
 
Mimikeon said:
Because they don't make as much money as you probably think. They only get a pretty small slice of the Pokemon pie, and TPCi as a subsidiary gets even less of that. This company probably just isn't worth all that much.
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You do know that the Pokemon Company is the #1 highest grossing franchise in the world, right? You can look it up if you don't believe me. Here's a link to the website that shows it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises . The "licensed merchandise" section includes the TCG, and is the part of the company that makes the most money ($82.805 billion).
 
Ranger64 said:
You do know that the Pokemon Company is the #1 highest grossing franchise in the world, right? You can look it up if you don't believe me. Here's a link to the website that shows it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises . The "licensed merchandise" section includes the TCG, and is the part of the company that makes the most money ($82.805 billion).
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I believe his post was more of a comment on the value of TPCi as a holding company, and not so much a comment on the value of the franchise.
 
Ranger64 said:
You do know that the Pokemon Company is the #1 highest grossing franchise in the world, right? You can look it up if you don't believe me. Here's a link to the website that shows it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises . The "licensed merchandise" section includes the TCG, and is the part of the company that makes the most money ($82.805 billion).
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You're mistaken on one major part of it though: not all of that revenue goes to The Pokemon Company. In fact, most of it doesn't. The company and IP are not the same entity. If you look up their revenue in 2020, which was a record year for them, they made $1.1 billion in revenue. The IP has an "average" (yes, I know, mean is bad, but there's no source with exact info) annual revenue of $4.4 billion, means that TPC doesn't even get a quarter of the revenue most years. TPCi, a subsidiary, would get a portion of what the company proper gets. Trust me, this wasn't a huge billion-dollar purchase by a longshot.
 
Either way, Pokemon cards printed in the US have some very serious quality issues compared to ones printed in Japan. That's my only real concern here.
 
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