Below is an excerpt from our Pokemon Story feature
Pokémon is owned by multiple companies, creating a complicated relationship between the valued brand and its parents. When asked if he could explain the relationship between Game Freak, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company while visiting Game Freak in 2017, co-founder Junichi Masuda turned to a whiteboard behind him to give his explanation.
After drawing circles for Game Freak, Nintendo, and former producer Creatures, Masuda explained. “Addicted to games? We develop all the major Pokémon games. Originally, Creatures, were the producers of the game. Nintendo was the seller of the games, the distributor. So that was the original structure of the Pokémon games. In terms of who owns the rights to the games, it’s these three companies.”
Currently, Creatures primarily handles the Pokémon trading card game, and The Pokémon Company was formed in 1998, shortly before the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver, to manage the brand and its entire array of products. In terms of genuine ownership, Masuda says it’s one-third to Game Freak, Creatures, and Nintendo. “It’s a little more complicated than that in certain scenarios, like for example, the production role that Creatures originally had was for The Pokémon Company, and a percentage of the rights went with that, so there are certain complications, and it depends of the project. , but there is no situation where Nintendo and The Pokémon Company put pressure on Game Freak or anything like that,” says Masuda.
Masuda specifically points to Game Freak’s relationship with Nintendo as a friendship, which is why Game Freak only creates Pokémon games for Nintendo platforms, even when his other projects are released with other publishers for other platforms. “Everyone really knows Nintendo; there is a familiarity with the brand, and they have that really strong brand and Pokémon being associated with that and being affiliated with that brand is very important,” says Masuda.
When asked if Pokemon would ever appear on another platform, Masuda says it’s highly unlikely. “With Pokémon, at least, we really feel like it’s very important to be with Nintendo, specifically with the Pokémon titles, so I don’t think that will ever happen.”
