When Pokemon Red/Blue first hit the shelves, everyone was aware of the existence of 150 different species of Pokemon. However, as more and more gamers began exploring this title, rumors began to surface about a 151st Pokemon named Mew. Most people dismissed these rumors as idle gossip, especially since Nintendo itself could not confirm such a Pokemon. As it turns out, Mew was real, and Nintendo could not report on its existence because it was just as oblivious as we.



The magazine Nintendo Power issue number 134 eventually revealed the truth about Mew in an interview with the developers at Game Freak. As they explained, Mew was indeed conceptualized, but eventually removed from the game. However, 2 weeks before development of Pokemon concluded and after the debugging faze of the process had likewise been conducted, one developer noticed that there was just enough data space to add one more Pokemon, and so he did in the form of Mew. Due to the fact that nothing new is supposed to be added to a game after it has gone through the debugging process, Nintendo was kept unaware of this unsanctioned addition, for if it knew, the project would be delayed, or perhaps even debunked. In this interview, Game Freak described Mew's late inclusion as one developer "pranking" another, and it was not supposed to be accessible or even appear in the game unless the team wanted to reveal Mew through post-launch activity.



As alluded to earlier, Game Freak's innocent prank did not go exactly as planned. A glitch in the game (not found due to Mew's inclusion being absent from the debugging process) could be exploited in order to legitimately encounter Mew in the early portions of the story. Some gamers stumbled upon this glitch, and so rumors of a secret, legendary 151st Pokemon began to spread across the world. In an age where the internet was far less prominent, information about Mew, how to capture Mew, or even if rumors about Mew were true were very hard to come by, and largely relied on word-of-mouth. Nonetheless, these rumors produced a very positive effect on Pokemon as more and more individuals bought the game, and shared information in search of the elusive, mythical Pokemon. Eventually Game Freak held a "Legendary Pokemon Offer" that gave 20 contest winners the data for Mew, thus confirming the elusive Pokemon's existence.



Sales of Pokemon Red/Blue exploded both before and after the official confirmation of Mew. What boggles the mind the most however, is that so much success is owed to an illegal prank concerning information kept even from the publisher.