Game Freak

Japan · Founded 1989 · Developer

Satoshi Tajiri's studio, which began as a self-published game fanzine and became the developer of Pokémon.

Game Freak began in 1983 as a doujin magazine about video games written by Satoshi Tajiri, with Ken Sugimori later joining as illustrator. On 26 April 1989 the two turned the name into a development company in Tokyo. Its first game was the NES action-puzzle game Quinty, released in North America as Mendel Palace. Game Freak's defining work was Pokémon: Pokémon Red and Green, published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in 1996, began a series that the studio has developed ever since, working with Nintendo and Creatures Inc., the co-founders of The Pokémon Company, with Nintendo publishing the games worldwide. Alongside Pokémon the studio has made smaller original games, including Pulseman (1994) for Sega's Mega Drive and Drill Dozer (2005) for the Game Boy Advance.