The Pokémon Company is owned by three companies. One company is Game Freak, which is owned by the person who came up with the original idea for Pokémon, Satoshi Tajiri. Game Freak developed the original Pokémon video games, and owns roughly ⅓ of the company.
In 1990, Satoshi approached Nintendo to publish and distribute the games on their Gameboy. He was inspired by the Link Cable. They set a release date for late 1991. Nintendo owns roughly ⅓ of The Pokémon Company.
If the timeline worked out, Pokémon would have debuted at the peak of the Nintendo Gameboy. Unfortunately, Game Freak needed more time, and spent another four years designing and developing the first Pokémon games. That brings us to the third company that owns Pokémon.
When money got really tight for Game Freak, Creatures Inc. offered funding in exchange for ⅓ of the company. It also took on the role of producing the Trading Card Game, the merchandise, and several spin-off video games. (Did Nintendo make an offer? I’m not sure; possibly not, if it was managing risk.)
By the time Game Freak completed the first Pokémon video games, the Gameboy was near the end of its life cycle and had lost traction. Pokémon’s initial debut was very shaky, and success took a few months to find it. The debut deserves its own post.
What caught my interest was how the team of 10 people at Game Freak sustained the business and bought more time to make Pokémon. Here are three ways they adapted:
Game Freak made other comparably simple games, like Quinty and Smart Ball. Income from game sales was passive. It also seems that the passive income wouldn’t keep the lights on at the company either.
In addition to developing Pokémon, Game Freak made its team available for hire. It helped develop many games involving other companies’ intellectual property, including Yoshi and Pulseman. While I’m not sure what the deals looked like, I imagine their clients provided cash to help keep the company afloat. This took time and energy away from Pokémon development—extending the time it took to ship.
The Game Freak team also made due with frugal and often late paycheques. For most of his late 20s, Satoshi didn’t pay himself and lived with his father to save money. Frugality bought him the freedom to sustain a small bet that turned out to be bigger than he thought.
I imagine while the excitement propelled the process, there was an undercurrent of discontent and frustration. While this story lacks a primary source, five people—half the team—once quit at the same time.
The takeaway was how Game Freak pivoted and sustained themselves for a longer haul than they’d originally hoped, while still eventually delivering the product in spite of delays. Again, working on other people’s products helped sustain this process, even though it also pushed the actual Pokémon release back.
Sometimes, you just need to accept, commit, and endure.