Creatures is the company that co-owns the Pokémon franchise with Nintendo and Game Freak.
The three companies are the core owners behind Pokémon’s Japanese franchise structure. Creatures grew out of Ape, the studio associated with EarthBound, and became involved in Pokémon through development, character work, licensing, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
The Pokémon Company manages the franchise as a business, but it is not one of the original three co-owning companies in the same sense. The Pokémon Company was established to coordinate Pokémon’s expanding commercial operations, while Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak remain the principal corporate owners behind the brand.
Creatures is often overlooked because Nintendo has the greatest public profile and Game Freak is credited on the main games. Yet Creatures has played a major creative and commercial role, especially in the card game and computer-generated Pokémon imagery. Its involvement helps explain why Pokémon’s ownership and production credits are shared across several companies.