Who conceived the Pokémon franchise and co-founded Game Freak?

Satoshi Tajiri conceived the Pokémon franchise and co-founded Game Freak, the development company behind its original games.

Tajiri grew up enjoying insect collecting, an interest that shaped Pokémon's central idea of finding, collecting, and observing creatures. Around 1990, the Game Boy's ability to connect two systems with a Link Cable inspired him to imagine creatures traveling between players' consoles.

Tajiri and illustrator Ken Sugimori had already worked together on the video game magazine Game Freak. They formally turned that project into a development company in 1989, before pitching the Pokémon concept to Nintendo. Development of the first games eventually lasted about six years.

Sugimori was crucial to the visual identity of the original Pokémon, while composer Junichi Masuda helped build the games' music and sound. Shigeru Miyamoto also advised the team during development, but Tajiri remains the franchise's credited creator.