Who created the Pokémon franchise and co-founded the video game developer Game Freak?

Satoshi Tajiri created the Pokémon franchise and co-founded the video game developer Game Freak.

Tajiri grew up collecting insects, an experience that influenced Pokémon’s central idea of finding and collecting creatures. He first developed the Game Freak fanzine, then transformed it into a video game company with illustrator Ken Sugimori.

The Pokémon concept took shape after Tajiri saw the Game Boy and considered what its Link Cable could make possible. He imagined creatures traveling between connected systems, turning a technical feature into a social activity involving collection and exchange.

Tajiri pitched the idea to Nintendo around 1990, and Pokémon Red and Green eventually took roughly six years to complete. Shigeru Miyamoto advised the project, while Sugimori created the original artwork. These collaborators are sometimes credited as co-creators, but Tajiri is specifically identified as the creator of the Pokémon franchise.