[majewsky]

The main reason for the commercial success of Pokemon is the huge array of readily available merchandise and anime/movie tie-ins. How would you go about replicating that with a crowd-sourced competitor? How would I be able to obtain a plushie for my favorite crowd-sourced character without paying the high prices associated with custom commissions?

[benologist]

It'd be open source so you'd get plushies, figurines, videos etc after someone else made them because permissive licensing let them use the art and ideas to do whatever they want. There would be nothing preventing a plushie company or a person or a DIY project making them affordable.

[majewsky]

Yeah, but economies of scale couldn't apply as much, increasing unit prices.

[crobertsbmw]

But competition could be much higher, pushing down unit prices...

[benologist]

It would be potentially much cheaper without licensing negotiations, royalties and IP policing adding to the price too.