Creatures Inc CEO steps down amidst high-level shakeup at Pokemon studio

Creatures Inc, one of the main controlling interests in the Pokemon franchise, has seen a significant shakeup as its CEO/President and Executive Vice President have both stepped down.

As noticed by Serebii owner Joe Merrick, Tsunekazu Ishihara and Hirokazu Tanaka have both left their roles as CEO/President and Executive Vice President respectively.

Yuji Kitano succeeds Ishihara in his role as CEO/President and Tomotaka Komura will take the role of Executive Vice President.

Tsunekazu Ishihara is probably best known to Pokemon fans as the main host of the Pokemon Presents live streams.

At the time of writing, Ishihara remains the CEO/President of The Pokemon Company, one of the other firms with a controlling interest in the Pokémon franchise.

While each of Pokemon’s stakeholders’ roles in the creation of the games is rarely made clear, Creatures Inc. is largely credited in recent Pokemon titles with creating the models for the Pokemon themselves.

However, the studio did develop the 3DS Detective Pikachu title and is currently reportedly working on the long-promised sequel to that game. 

Pokemon CG Studio, which is a division within Creatures, also reportedly assisted in the modeling work for the Detective Pikachu film.

The Pokémon Company announced a two-part Pokémon Scarlet and Violet expansion earlier this year.

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask and Part 2: The Indigo Disk will be released this fall/autumn and winter 2023 respectively.

Last month a datamined list of around 220 Pokémon that will be seemingly returning to Scarlet and Violet as part of its upcoming DLC was posted online.