Game Freak was originally a self-published game magazine in the 1980s until 1989 when the creators of the magazine formed a game company under the same name. They released their first title Yoshi in 1991 in Japan (known there as Yoshi's Egg and in Europe and Australia as Mario & Yoshi) for the NES. Things were relatively quiet for the company until Satoshi Tajiri created Pokémon in 1996 with the release of Pokémon Red & Blue (which to be confusing were actually released as Pokémon Red & Green in Japan initially, with the enhanced Blue version hitting stores 8 months later). Pokémon then became one of the biggest child media frenzied behemoths the world has ever seen, which as of January 2007, is the second-largest game franchise in the world (only to the Mario series)1.
The company also developed the software for the Game Boy Camera, as well as Drill Dozer for the Game Boy Advance.
- Trading Name
- 株式会社ゲームフリーク
- Founded
- April 26, 1989
- Founder(s)
- Satoshi Tajiri
- Headquarters
- Segata, Tokyo, Japan
- Employees
- 90 (as of April 2012)
- Key people
- Ken Sugimori (Pokémon art director & character designer)
- Junichi Masuda (Pokémon game director)
- Major Franchises
- Pokémon
- Official Site
- http://www.gamefreak.co.jp/
