On what date did Game Freak, the developer of Pokémon, become a video game company?

Game Freak became a video game company on April 26, 1989.

Before developing Pokémon, Game Freak was a self-published video-game magazine created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1983. Ken Sugimori later joined as an illustrator after discovering the magazine. The two eventually transformed the publication into a development company with the same name.

One of Game Freak’s early games was Quinty, an action and puzzle title released in North America as Mendel Palace. This early work helped establish the studio before it began creating Pokémon for Nintendo’s Game Boy. Tajiri brought the original concept, while Sugimori became closely associated with the visual design of the franchise.

The company’s history is sometimes compressed into the Pokémon story, making 1989 easy to overlook. Pokémon did not launch until 1996, but the studio that created it had already existed as a development company for nearly seven years. Game Freak continues to be identified primarily with the Pokémon core series.