Game Freak facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Game Freak Inc.

Native name	株式会社ゲームフリーク
Romanized name	Gēmu Furīku
Type	Private KK
Industry	Video games
Genre	Video game development
Founded	April 26, 1989; 36 years ago (1989-04-26) in Tokyo, Japan
Founders	Satoshi Tajiri Ken Sugimori Junichi Masuda
Headquarters	Kanda Square, 2-2-1 Kandanishiki-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo , Japan
Number of locations	1 Kanda Square (2020)
Key people	Satoshi Tajiri (president) Tetsuya Watanabe (managing director) Shigeru Ohmori (senior director) Ken Sugimori (art director)
Products	Games
Brands	Pokémon
Number of employees	212 (2023)

Game Freak Inc. is a Japanese company that makes video games. It is most famous for creating the Pokémon series of role-playing video games. Game Freak is also one of the companies that owns the Pokémon brand.

The Story of Game Freak

Before Game Freak became a video game company, it was a magazine about video games. Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori started this magazine in the 1980s. The very first issue came out in 1983, created by Tajiri. Sugimori joined later as an artist after he found the magazine in a shop and really liked it. Tajiri even used "Game Freak" as his special writer's name when he wrote for other magazines like Family Computer Magazine.

Starting the Company

On April 26, 1989, Tajiri, Sugimori, and Junichi Masuda officially started a video game company. They gave it the same name: Game Freak. One of their first games was Quinty, an action and puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In North America, this game was called Mendel Palace.

Creating Pokémon

Game Freak's most popular game series is Pokémon. The name "Pokémon" is a mix of the Japanese words for "Pocket Monsters" (Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā)). The Pokémon games are sold and shared around the world by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo.

Growing the Company

In October 2015, Game Freak bought another company called Koa Games, which made mobile games. Koa Games then became part of Game Freak in December 2015.

In May 2019, a director at Game Freak, Masayuki Onoue, shared that the company wants to make more original games. This helps their team learn new things and grow their skills. They have a special plan called "Gear Project." This plan encourages their game creators to come up with new game ideas during quieter times. Some games that came from this idea include HarmoKnight, Pocket Card Jockey, Tembo the ... Elephant, and Giga Wrecker.

In February 2020, Game Freak moved to a much bigger office building in Tokyo. This building is owned by Nintendo. Now, Game Freak is in the same building as other well-known game companies like Nintendo EPD Tokyo, HAL Laboratory, and 1-Up Studio.

Games Made by Game Freak

Game Freak has developed many video games over the years. Here is a list of some of them:

See also

• In Spanish: Game Freak para niños