Game Freak is the Japanese video-game company that developed the original Pokémon games.
Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori founded Game Freak as a video-game development company on April 26, 1989. It grew out of a self-published magazine that Tajiri had started several years earlier. The company’s early releases included Quinty, known as Mendel Palace outside Japan.
Game Freak later created Pokémon Red and Green for Nintendo’s Game Boy. Nintendo published the games, while Game Freak handled the core development. This division of roles explains why Nintendo is strongly associated with Pokémon even though Game Freak is the primary developer of the main role-playing series.
Creatures is another company frequently confused with Game Freak. Creatures became a co-owner and helped with parts of the wider franchise, but Game Freak remains the key developer behind the main Pokémon games.