Game Freak was officially incorporated on April 26, 1989, establishing the company that later developed the original Pokémon games.
Game Freak began as a self-published video-game magazine created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1983. Ken Sugimori joined the project as an illustrator, and the magazine eventually evolved into a game-development group. The team’s first released game was the puzzle title Quinty, published by Namco in 1989.
After becoming a company, Game Freak worked on games for several platforms before developing Pokémon for Nintendo’s Game Boy. Tajiri’s concept combined creature collecting with communication through the Game Link Cable, while Sugimori designed the creatures and Junichi Masuda contributed music and development work.
The incorporation date predates Pokémon by nearly seven years. It is therefore part of the franchise’s prehistory rather than the anniversary date itself, which commemorates the Japanese release of the first Pokémon games in 1996.