Game Freak (ゲームフリーク)

Game Freak was first a mimeographed fanzine Satoshi Tajiri sold by hand in Tokyo arcades. Turned studio in 1989, it spent six years developing a game inspired by his childhood passion, insect collecting, coming close to bankruptcy several times; Shigeru Miyamoto backed it to the end.

Pokémon Red and Green shipped in 1996 on a Game Boy everyone thought dead, and became the most lucrative media franchise in history. The studio remains, even now, a structure of about a hundred people — tiny against what it produces — and owns only a third of the Pokémon Company, alongside Nintendo and Creatures.