Game Freak was incorporated as a video-game development company in 1989. Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori transformed their earlier self-published gaming magazine into the studio that would later create Pokémon.
The Game Freak magazine began in 1983 and focused on arcade games, reviews, tips, and strategies. Tajiri used the same name for the development company founded with Sugimori six years later, preserving the identity of the original publication.
One of Game Freak’s early games was Quinty, released outside Japan as Mendel Palace. The studio later developed Pokémon Red and Green for Nintendo’s Game Boy, turning a small Japanese developer into a globally recognized company.
The year 1989 is therefore different from Pokémon’s own launch year, 1996. Game Freak existed for several years before the first Pokémon games reached players, and its earlier history helps explain the franchise’s development roots.