Pokémon[lower-alpha 1] is a series of video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company as part of the Pokémon media franchise. First released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy, the main series of role-playing video games (RPGs), also referred as the "core series" by their developers,[1][2][3] has continued on each generation of Nintendo's handhelds.