Game Freak Co-Founder Leaves to Join The Pokemon Company

gamerant.com:

The Pokemon franchise has been an international hit gaming franchise for over 25 years now. When asked to point out the two companies most integral to the widespread success of Pokemon, fans will often choose the developer of the mainline games in the franchise, Game Freak, and its publisher Nintendo. Established in 1989, Game Freak has made games other than the Pokemon series, but it is best known for creating the JRPGs millions of fans have played for over two decades.

Now, one of its three founding members is leaving Game Freak in order to work at The Pokemon Company. Junichi Masuda has developed Pokemon games since Game Freak's inception, initially serving as a composer on some of the original soundtracks for Pokemon Red, Green, and Blue. He also did some programming work on those games too. Following the breakout success of the early Pokemon titles, Masuda took on some more senior development roles and was until now serving as Game Freak's managing director.

Known Pokemon Leaker Hints at New Gen 2 Evolution in Scarlet and Violet

Masuda served as the director for Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen, Diamond and Pearl, Black and White, and Let's Go Pikachu, among a couple of other famous Pokemon titles. However, following Masuda's departure from Game Freak, he will no longer be working on future titles in the Pokemon series. Whether he has worked on the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is currently unknown, but it is possible, considering those games have likely been in development for some time.

Serving The Pokemon Company as a Chief Creative Fellow, Masuda will now be looking more into the Pokemon brand through merchandise instead of games. Tapping into his years of creative thinking spent at Game Freak,