Satoshi Tajiri | |
|---|---|
田尻 智 | |
| Born | August 28, 1965 (1965-08-28) (age 60) Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan |
| Alma mater | National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College |
| Occupation(s) | Game director,game producer,game designer |
| Employer | Game Freak (1989–present) |
| Notable work | Pokémon series |
| Title | President & CEO |
Satoshi Tajiri (Japanese:田尻 智,Hepburn:Tajiri Satoshi; born August 28, 1965[1]) is a Japanese videogame designer anddirector who is the creator of thePokémon franchise and the co-founder and president of video game developerGame Freak.
A fan ofarcade games in his youth, Tajiri wrote for and edited his own video gamingfanzineGame Freak withKen Sugimori, before evolving it into a development company of the same name. Tajiri claims that the joining of twoGame Boys via a link cable inspired him to create a game which embodied the collection and companionship of his childhood hobby,insect collecting. The game, which becamePokémon Red andPokémon Green, took six years to complete and went on to spark a multibillion-dollar franchise which reinvigoratedNintendo'shandheld gaming scene. Tajiri continued to work as director for thePokémon series until the development ofPokémon Ruby andSapphire, when he changed his role to executive producer, which he holds to this day. Tajiri has also worked for other Game Freak projects.
Satoshi Tajiri was born on August 28, 1965, inSetagaya,Tokyo.[2] Tajiri grew up inMachida, Tokyo, which at the time still maintained a rural atmosphere[3] and was rapidly growing.[4] As a child, Tajiri enjoyedinsect collecting as a hobby, which would be an inspiration for his later video game work.[5] Other children called him "Dr. Bug",[3] and he wanted to become anentomologist.[2] As urban areas of Japan spread and more land was paved over, habitats for hunting bugs were lost. Tajiri wanted his games to allow children to have the feeling of catching and collecting creatures as he had.[5]
He became fascinated witharcade games as a teenager, though his parents thought he was adelinquent for this pastime.[2] He particularly enjoyed playingTaito'sSpace Invaders (1978), which drew him into other video games.[3]Space Invaders got him interested in video games; after playingSpace Invaders and itsvideo game clones, he wanted to make his own sequel toSpace Invaders. He was also inspired byNamco games designed around a single specific action, notablyDig Dug (1982).[6] His interest eventually evolved into attempting to plan his own games. He took hisFamicom apart to see how it worked, and won a contest for a video game idea sponsored bySega.[3]
Because of his fascination with video games, Tajiri frequentlycut classes. He took make-up classes and eventually earned his high school diploma.[7] Tajiri did not attend university, but instead attended a two-year technical degree program at the National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College, where he majored in electronics and computer science.[2]
Tajiri wrote and edited afanzine calledGame Freak from 1981 to 1986, focusing on the arcade game scene.[8][9] It was handwritten and stapled together. Satoshi created theGame Freak fanzine to help gamers with winning strategies and lists ofeaster eggs. The highest selling issue, at more than 10,000 copies, details how to get a high score inXevious.[10][11]Ken Sugimori, who later illustrated the first 151 Pokémon, saw the magazine at adōjinshi shop, and became its illustrator.[3][12] As more contributors came toGame Freak, Tajiri began to realize that most games were lacking in quality, and he and Sugimori decided the solution was to make their own games.[3] Tajiri studied theFamily BASIC game programming package, to better grasp the concepts of Famicom game design. He then purchased the requisite hardware for game development.[9] Tajiri and Sugimori evolved the magazine into the video game development companyGame Freak in 1989.[1][13] Soon after, the two pitched their first game, anarcade-style game calledQuinty, toNamco, who published the game.[14] Tajiri also wrote as a freelance writer for the magazineFamicom Hisshōbon, later calledHippon,[15] and reviewed arcade games forFamily Computer Magazine andFamicom Tsūshin.
Tajiri first conceived the idea ofPokémon in 1990.[3] The idea came together after he saw aGame Boy and the ability to communicate between Game Boys,[3] and Tajiri decidedPokémon made the most sense on the handheld console. When he thought about the link cable being able to interact with two Game Boys, he envisioned bugs crawling back and forth, recalling his childhood love of bug collecting.[10] Tajiri advanced the connectivity betweenhandheld game consoles beyondTetris style competition, by suggesting thatGame Boys could use theirlink cables to trade collectibles.[16]
When he first pitched the idea ofPokémon toNintendo staff, they could not quite grasp the concept, but were impressed enough with Tajiri's game design reputation that they decided to explore it.Shigeru Miyamoto began to mentor Tajiri, guiding him during the creation process.[2]Pokémon Red andGreen took six years to produce, and nearly bankrupted Game Freak in the process; often, there was barely enough money to pay the employees.[2] Five employees quit, and Tajiri did not take a salary, instead living off of his father's income.[2] Investment fromCreatures Inc. allowed Game Freak to complete the games, and in return, Creatures received one-third of the franchise rights.[17]
Between the approval and completion stages of the project, Tajiri assisted in the design of twoMario spin-off games for Nintendo:Yoshi and the Japanese-only releaseMario & Wario.[18] He also worked on 1994'sPulseman forSega.[19]
Once the games were completed, very few media outlets gave it attention, believing the Game Boy was a dead console; a general lack of interest of merchandising convinced Tajiri that Nintendo would reject the games.[2] ThePokémon games were not expected to do well, but sales steadily increased until the series found itself amongNintendo's top franchises.[5] Rumors of a hidden Pokémon creature namedMew, which could only be obtained by exploiting programming errors, increased interest in the game.[2] Tajiri had included Mew in the game in order to promote trading and interaction between players, but Nintendo was not aware of the creature upon release.[20] The franchise helpedNintendo's waning sales.[21] Tajiri deliberately toned down violence in his games. In this vein, he designed Pokémon creatures to faint rather than die upon their defeat, as he believed it was unhealthy for children to equate the concept of death with losing a game.[3] After the completion and release ofRed andGreen in Japan, Tajiri later worked on 1997'sBushi Seiryūden: Futari no Yūsha.[22] Tajiri continues to be involved in the more modernPokémon games as well. ForPokémon FireRed andLeafGreen, he supervised the process from start to finish and approved all the text.[23] While developing games, Tajiri works irregular hours, often laboring 24 hours at a time and resting 12 hours.[3]
Tajiri citesShigeru Miyamoto as a major influence, thinking of him as a sort of mentor. For this reason, his developmental style closely matches that of Miyamoto.[5] In the Japanese version of thePokémon anime, the main character is named Satoshi (Ash Ketchum in the English version), and his rival is Shigeru (Gary Oak in the English version).[5]
Tajiri drew much of his inspiration from old Japanese TV shows and movies,[24] includingGodzilla andUltraman.[3] He has stated that if he did not design video games, he would most likely be in theanime field.[3]
IGN named Tajiri one of the top 100 game creators of all time, mainly for his ability to have builtPokémon into a "worldwide phenomenon".[5]Electronic Gaming Monthly credited Tajiri as one of the 10 most influential people who made the modern video game market.[21] Video game magazineEdge placed Tajiri on their list of the "Hot 100 Game Developers of 2008".[25] Tajiri, alongsideTsunekazu Ishihara, received the Special Award from theComputer Entertainment Developers Conference in 2011.[26]The Economist has describedPokémon as "Japan's most successful export."[27]
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