The Pokémon Company

The Pokémon Company (株式会社ポケモン, Kabushiki Gaisha Pokemon; TPC), formerly known as Pokémon Center Co., Ltd. (ポケモンセンター株式会社, Pokemon Sentā Kabushiki gaisha), is a Japanese company responsible for brand management, production, publishing, marketing, and licensing of the Pokémonfranchise, which consists of video games, a trading card game, anime television series, films, manga, home entertainment products, merchandise, and other ventures.

Pokémon Center Co., Ltd. was founded in April 1998 through a joint investment by video game series developer Game Freak, original series publisher Nintendo, and Trading Card Game developer and original series producer Creatures to operate the Pokémon Center stores in Japan. In October 2000, it expanded its operations to cover the entire Pokémon franchise, and rebranded to its current name. The company is headquartered in the Roppongi HillsMori Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo.

The company owns separate subsidiaries that handle operations in different parts of the world, with The Pokémon Company International supporting territories outside Asia and being responsible for brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and the official Pokémon website on those territories, including in the Americas and Europe.

Since 2001, The Pokémon Company has handled the publishing of all Pokémon console games in Japan, while overseas Nintendo subsidiaries such as Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe handle distribution and co- publication working together with The Pokémon Company International in localization, production and QA, while development is often handled by different companies contracted in spin-offs and by Game Freak in mainline titles. The company is solely responsible for publishing and licensing mobile Pokémon titles separated from Nintendo's own mobile games, unlike console titles where it has help from Nintendo in overseas regional publishing.