Creatures Inc. is a Japanese video game company connected to Game Freak and Nintendo. It is one of the companies that owns the Pokémon franchise. The company was started in November 1995 by Tsunekazu Ishihara, with help from Satoru Iwata, who was then the president of HAL Laboratory. Creatures Inc. took over from Shigesato Itoi’s company, Ape Inc.
Creatures Inc. shares ownership of The Pokémon Company with Game Freak and Nintendo. The company is most famous for creating the Pokémon Trading Card Game and designing Pokémon toys. It also runs the Pokémon CG Studio, which makes 3D models and animations of Pokémon for all Pokémon games. Creatures Inc. has developed other games related to Pokémon and some games not connected to Pokémon. The company’s main office is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, near Kudanshita Station.
History
Ape Inc. was started in March 1989 with Shigesato Itoi as its leader. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted to support new game designers. He liked Itoi's work and suggested starting the company. He also helped fund it. Ape's team included Tsunekazu Ishihara, who later became president of The Pokémon Company, and Ashura Benimaru Itoh, a famous artist. They worked on a game called Mother, which was released on July 27, 1989. The music was created by Hirokazu Tanaka, who later became the second leader of Creatures. The team then developed Mother 2, known in the West as EarthBound. When the project faced challenges, Satoru Iwata from HAL Laboratory joined to help. The game was released in Japan on August 27, 1994. Ape stopped making games in 1995.
Ape also made official guidebooks for Nintendo, working with Nintendo and Shogakukan. Their first book was Encyclopedia Mother in October 1989, and their last was Nintendo Official Guidebook—Pocket Monsters: Red, Green, Blue (Complete Compatibility, Revised Edition) on January 10, 1997. Shogakukan took over Ape's role and continues to make these guidebooks.
Creatures Inc. was started on November 8, 1995, with Tsunekazu Ishihara as its leader. It included former Ape employees. In 2000, Hirokazu Tanaka, also known as Hip Tanaka, became president of Creatures after joining in 1999. Ishihara became president of The Pokémon Company in 2000 but remained a leader at Creatures.
Creatures' headquarters was first on the 7th floor of the Nintendo Kanda Building in Sudachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Later, it moved to the fifth floor of the Kawasakiteitoku Building in Nihonbashi, Chūō, Tokyo. In 2007, it moved to the 10th floor of the Gorbanchō-ku Building in Gobanchō. In 2017, it moved to the 23rd floor of the Iidabashi Grand Bloom building in Fujimi. In 2022, it moved to the 9th floor of the Kudan-Kaikan Terrace building in Kudanminami.
Creatures has a division called Pokémon CG Studio, which makes 3D models and animations for Pokémon characters. Human characters are created by Game Freak. In 2017, the studio had 22 full-time artists. The director, Atsuko Ujiya, said they wanted to double this number. During busy times, the studio had about 100 workers, including temporary staff. In 2019, the division moved back to Creatures' main office from the Fujimi Duplex Biz building.
On October 16, 2020, Creatures announced it had bought Ambrella, a company that made Pokémon spin-off games. Creatures gained all rights to Ambrella's work, and Ambrella shut down. Its employees joined Creatures.
In April 2023, Creatures announced that Tsunekazu Ishihara and Hirokazu Tanaka had left their roles as CEO and president, respectively. Ishihara remains president of The Pokémon Company and continues to help manage it. Tanaka will stay as a Creative Fellow. Yuji Kitano became CEO and president of Creatures, and Tomotaka Komura became Executive Vice President.