Pokémon is a media franchise published by Japanese video game company Nintendo, owned by The Pokémon Company, and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996, focused on the titular creatures. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second-most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's Mario franchise. Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media.