Game Freak was incorporated as a video game company in 1989, several years before it released Pokémon.
Satoshi Tajiri originally used Game Freak as the name of a self-published video game magazine. Ken Sugimori later joined as an illustrator, and the pair transformed the magazine’s identity into a development company. Game Freak was officially incorporated on April 26, 1989.
The company’s early project was Quinty, a puzzle-action game published by Namco. In North America, that game was released as Mendel Palace. Game Freak’s experience with earlier projects helped its team eventually tackle the much larger Pokémon concept.
The year is often confused with 1983, when Tajiri began the Game Freak magazine, or 1990, when the Pokémon idea was pitched to Nintendo. Those dates mark important stages in the company’s story, but 1989 is the incorporation year. Game Freak remains Pokémon’s principal game developer.