Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori established Game Freak as a video-game company on April 26, 1989.
Game Freak began as a self-published video-game magazine created by Tajiri. Sugimori joined as an illustrator after discovering the magazine, and the pair eventually transformed the publication into a development studio. The company’s name therefore predates Pokémon and was not created solely for the franchise.
One of Game Freak’s early games was Quinty, an action-puzzle title published by Namco in 1989. In North America, the game was released as Mendel Palace. This early work helped Game Freak build experience before it pitched the Pokémon concept to Nintendo.
The company later became the primary developer of the main Pokémon role-playing games. Because Game Freak is closely linked with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, people sometimes incorrectly identify Nintendo as the developer. Nintendo published the original Pokémon games, but Game Freak developed them.