On what date was Game Freak, the studio behind Pokémon, incorporated?

Game Freak, the studio behind Pokémon, was incorporated on April 26, 1989.

The company grew from a video game fanzine of the same name created by Satoshi Tajiri. Tajiri worked with illustrator Ken Sugimori, and the pair eventually transformed the publication into a game-development team. Their early project Quinty was published by Namco in 1989.

Game Freak later developed Pokémon after Tajiri proposed a creature-collecting game inspired by insects and the Game Boy Link Cable. The company worked with Nintendo and Creatures on the project, which took approximately six years to complete before Pokémon Red and Green launched in Japan.

The incorporation date predates Pokémon by nearly seven years. That distinction matters: Game Freak existed first as a creative studio, while Pokémon became the company’s defining franchise after its 1996 release.