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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallSatoshi Tajiri is credited by Nintendo as the creator of the Pokémon series. The original games, however, were a Game Freak project: Tajiri’s company planned and developed them, with other partners contributing to the wider franchise. The idea began not with an RPG, but with a way for players to trade creatures using the Game Boy link cable.
Who created Pokémon?
Nintendo identifies Satoshi Tajiri as the creator of the Pokémon series and president of Game Freak in its Iwata Asks material. That credit does not mean he made every part of the games alone. The Pokémon Company’s official history attributes the original planning and development of the video game series to GAME FREAK and describes distinct roles for other companies.
| Participant | Documented role |
|---|---|
| Satoshi Tajiri | Credited by Nintendo as creator of the Pokémon series. Junichi Masuda says Tajiri established Game Freak in 1989. |
| GAME FREAK | Original planning and development of the Pokémon video game series, according to The Pokémon Company. |
| Creatures Inc. | Development of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, video games, and CG models and motion, according to The Pokémon Company. |
| Nintendo | Manufacture and sale of the Pokémon video games, according to The Pokémon Company. |
How Tajiri’s interests became Pokémon
TIME’s 2024 account connects two of Tajiri’s interests: collecting insects as a child and playing arcade games as a teenager. It also describes how he and his friend Ken Sugimori collaborated on Game Freak, first as a game-focused magazine. Sugimori later became an important Pokémon designer and art director, TIME reports.
In TIME’s account, Tajiri’s interest in the Game Boy link cable was central to the concept. The cable could transfer information between Game Boy systems, but it had commonly been used for competitive play. Tajiri’s original idea was to let players trade creatures; the role-playing-game structure came later. TIME quotes him explaining: “So our original idea for Pokémon wasn’t ‘We want to make an RPG’—instead, it was ‘We want to trade.’ The fact [that] it’s an RPG came later.”
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That origin is sometimes condensed into an image of bugs crawling through a cable. The documented point is more specific: the link cable suggested a new way for players to exchange creatures. TIME also quotes Tajiri describing the project as a way to combine what he had done as a child: “Everything I did as a kid is kind of rolled into one thing,” followed by “Pokémon.”
Game Freak before Pokémon
Game Freak began before the Pokémon games. Junichi Masuda, writing on the Game Freak blog, says Tajiri established the company in 1989 for the launch of Quinty. TIME describes the earlier Game Freak as a magazine about games that Tajiri made with Sugimori, before it developed into a game-making venture.
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TIME quotes Tajiri recalling the magazine’s motivation: “Our conclusion was, there weren’t too many good-quality games, so let’s make our own.” TIME reports that Pokémon’s development, including initial planning, took nearly six years. That is an approximate duration in TIME’s account, not an exact production interval independently established by the company histories.
From Japanese Game Boy games to a global franchise
The Pokémon Company’s corporate history records these release milestones:
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| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| February 1996 | Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Green Version launched in Japan for Game Boy. |
| October 1996 | The Pokémon Trading Card Game launched in Japan. |
| April 1997 | The Pokémon television anime launched in Japan. |
| September 1998 | The U.S. launch period included the anime and Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue for Game Boy. |
The timeline shows how the games became the foundation for a broader entertainment franchise. The Pokémon Company credits GAME FREAK with the original video game planning and development, Creatures with work including the trading card game and game assets, and Nintendo with manufacturing and selling the video games.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why trading mattered to the original games
Trading was not simply an extra feature added to an RPG. In TIME’s account of Tajiri’s explanation, it was the starting point: the link cable made communication between players tangible, and exchanging creatures gave that connection a purpose beyond battling. The RPG framework followed, giving players a world in which to find and collect those creatures.
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Tajiri’s explanation, quoted by TIME from an interview in an official Japanese Pokémon book, captures the distinction: “The moment I saw the Game Boy, the link cable really captured my attention, but at the time, most games only used it for battling.” His idea expanded what two connected Game Boys could do, turning a technical accessory into a social part of play.
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