Satoshi Tajiri Born: Pokemon Creator Who Built a Global Empire

Satoshi Tajiri channeled his childhood obsession with insect collecting into Pokemon, a Game Boy title that became the highest-grossing media franchise in history with over $100 billion in lifetime revenue. His concept of capturing, training, and trading creatures connected with a global audience and spawned an empire spanning games, cards, television, and films. Born in 1965 in Machida, Tokyo, Tajiri spent his childhood exploring the ponds, forests, and rice paddies near his home, collecting insects and cataloguing them with the obsessive detail that would later define his game design. Neighborhood kids called him "Dr. Bug." As suburban sprawl paved over his collecting grounds, he channeled that loss into video games, founding Game Freak as a gaming magazine before transforming it into a development studio. Pokemon's six-year development nearly bankrupted the company. Nintendo initially rejected the concept, and Tajiri worked without salary for long stretches, sustained by loans from his father. The Game Boy was considered a dying platform by the time Pokemon Red and Green launched in Japan in 1996, but the trading mechanic, which required a link cable between two devices, turned the hardware's limitation into a social phenomenon. Within a year, Pokemon was Japan's best-selling game. Within three years, it had conquered the world. Tajiri, who has Asperger's syndrome, rarely gives interviews and avoids public appearances, preferring to focus on game design rather than celebrity.