Pokémon.com
Pokémon.com is the official international Pokémon website. Each iteration has had an online Pokédex. Pokémon.com has updated info on most Pokémon games, particularly the latest ones, such as new missions for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness. There is also a section called the "Funzone" where there are downloads, games (mostly on the Advanced Generation series), and puzzles, as well as a Mailbag. A video game section provides information on every Pokémon video game and links to a few mini-sites, as well as the pages for the games on nintendo.com. The "TV & Movies" section has a complete episode guide, from the very first episode to the most recent episode; it also has links to the official movie sites. Pokémon.com is known as the number-one source for Pokémon news and information. On January 11, 2010, the website was overhauled, now having full episodes, games different than the regular games, Trading Card Game information, and new things to do with the Fun Zone. The mailbag, however, was removed after not being updated since October-November.
Pokémon Center
The Pokémon Center was an online store where people could buy different kinds of Pokémon merchandise over the internet. It also featured exclusive items only available at the online store. The store closed on January 31, 2008. When it was closed, it was claimed that Pokémon merchandise would now be mainly distributed by other retailers.
Fun Zone
Before the overhaul on January 11, the Fun Zone mainly had quizzes, puzzles, and wallpapers, either based on Generation III or Pokémon Platinum. After the overhaul however, the Fun Zone was expanded to have games, such as Turtwig's Target Smash, a Pokémon Trainer builder and store, and even more downloads. The games can be played to receive up to 15 Trainer Tokens per week. As the name hints, the Trainer builder allows viewers to construct different Pokémon Trainers. However, every game from before the overhaul was not put on the new site.
TCG
Before the overhaul, there weren't many news articles of the various TCG cards and sets. However, after the overhaul, the TCG got a new section of the site, and a database. There is also a featured card of the day. However, things like pre-release images are no longer present on the site, and many news stories were lost in the transition.
Pokémon Trainer's Club
The Pokémon Trainer's Club is a fairly new club developed by the Pokémon company. It has customizable trainers, with the outfits being bought at the Trainer Store. These outfits are bought with Trainer Tokens, which are rewarded when reaching goals in the online games. One must first sign up for the club before being able to register high scores or to earn tokens. Anyone who has a Trainer Club account can also keep track of their Organized Play statistics.
Anime
Before the overhaul, the anime section simply had synopses of almost every anime episode. After the overhaul, several anime episodes can be viewed from the site, including the first anime episode.
Video Games
Before the overhaul, the Video Games section had information of the games, with some of them having mini-sites and sub-sites. After the overhaul, the section was expanded to include game strategies, and information about the VG Organized Play.
Nintendo Events
Pokémon.com is generally the first site to report on a Nintendo event in an effort to obtain event-only Pokémon. One of these was the the Ranger Net code for receiving Manaphy from Pokémon Ranger. An advertising technique used for the majority of the Generation IV event Pokémon is a floating image. A Manaphy egg was shown before the Ranger Net code was revealed, whilst shadows of Darkrai and Shaymin appeared before their revelation. For unknown reasons, this did not apply for Arceus, whom was directly revealed without any gimmick.
Sub-sites
At times, when a new Pokémon game, movie, or other item of importance is revealed, a sub-site on Pokémon.com could later be created. The sites could either be on the Pokémon.com domain, such as the Giratina and the Sky Warrior sub-site,[1] or on their own domain, like the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series.[2] Other examples include a sub-site with the Pokémon currently on the GTS,[3] and a sub-site for Pokémon Platinum.[4]
Mini-sites
Mini-sites are areas of the website made for games that are not main series games, such as Pokémon Battle Revolution or My Pokémon Ranch. These are linked to via the video games section of the site.
Trivia
- Several (but not all) Pokémon namespaces (such as "bulbasaur.com") redirect to either Pokémon.com or Nintendo.com, and others, such as Manaphy.com and Darkrai.com, redirected to their respective minisites. Ironically, typing the correct spelling of Pokémon in the url, Pokémon.com, will not redirect. After the update, many urls became broken as the respective pages no longer exist.
- Pokémon.com used to feature a media player that played music from the Pokémon X collection and had a mailbag where fans could submit their question and get answers.
- In Advanced Generation's overview in the animation section, Mt. Coronet is noted. However, Mt. Coronet is in Sinnoh, which was in the Diamond & Pearl series.
- Despite the overhaul the site received in early January 2010, the old version was relocated to a new URL: http://origin.pokemon.com/
