Topic: Pokemon Go Mobile Augmented Reality Game in Development

[MegaByte]

Partnership with Ingress's Niantic Labs brings Pokemon to the real world.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41127/pokemon-go-mobile-augmented-reality-game-in-development

A new mobile Pokémon game is under development by Niantic Labs in a partnership with The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, and Game Freak to bring an augmented reality game to mobile. A surprise press conference hosted by Pokemon president Tsunekazu Ishihara showed a sneak peak of the game.

Pokémon Go brings Pokémon to the real world, encouraging players to capture virtual Pokémon by visiting real life places. The game attempts to capture the feeling of looking for Pokémon while also getting people to explore the real world.

Niantic Labs was founded within Google in 2010 with the goal of encouraging people to explore the world in a fun way. Niantic was spun out of Google with the Alphabet reorganization last month. Niantic's first game, Ingress, is an augmented reality sci-fi game that has players visit real world locations as a member of one of two competing factions to take control of geographical areas. Pokémon's goal of bringing players together to explore and battle fits well with the Niantic mission.

As Pokémon Go is meant to get players to explore the world, an optional watch-like accessory called Pokémon Go Plus will be available, which has simple LED and vibration functions and pairs via Bluetooth Low Energy. The device activates to notify players to check their phones.

Game Freak's Junichi Masuda will be working with Niantic on various aspects of the game, including game design and music composition. Before his passing, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata had been working on the project, and Shigeru Miyamoto is also involved in developing the Pokémon Go Plus.

The game will launch next year on Android and iOS smartphones.

[TOPHATANT123]

He's got a Pokei, Pokei Watch.


All in all a fairly uneventful press conference and it's a good thing they didn't hype it up before hand. Considering it sounds like it's just a Pokemon skin for something that basically already exists I'm not too excited for it, although that was a very well done trailer.

[ClexYoshi]

this either has some crazy ass potential if the mechanics are anywhere NEAR as compelling as the legit games and with a force of organized play put behind it...

Or this is geocaching without the free swag.

[broodwars]

Ugh. It's on garbage, so it's guaranteed to be garbage but maybe to some it will be garbage that sucks less time & money from them than the other garbage on mobile.

[broodwars]

And this is why I try not to post at 3:30 in the morning... -_-

EDIT:

Ugh. It's on mobile, so it's guaranteed to be garbage but maybe to some it will be garbage that sucks less time & money from them than the other garbage on mobile.

[Enner]

And this is why I try not to post at 3:30 in the morning... -_-

I think your first one is more honest! Or at least I got what you were saying.


That trailer... that has a lot of money and effort put in to it. That and the little Bluetooth accessory shows the high degree of commitment The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, and Niantic have for this smart device venture.


Surprising and unsurprisingly, the promise of Pokemon GO captures a lot of the promise of the main games. Going on adventures in a big world, battling, catching, trading, and collaborating with friends and like-minded people. Granted, the game will be trying to do this through a lo-fi game app, but it's the thoughts that I'm counting! (Please no dark humor on poorly-lit alleys and AR games.)


Since this game is a free-to-start product, I do wonder how it will handle content, pacing, and microtransactions. Those three things are always deeply-connected in smart device games, and it is where games live and die.


Lastly, credit is due for the companies making a game that is weird and takes advantage of unique smart phone features that aren't available on a 3DS or Wii U.

[ClexYoshi]

(Please no dark humor on poorly-lit alleys and AR games.)

I mean, you gotta catch your Trubbish somewhere, right?

[Ian Sane]

So how long until a misguided mobile effort moves the bulk of the Pokémon fanbase off of Nintendo devices onto phones?  The target audience of Pokémon are kids and kids are dumb so if you give them something close enough to the real Pokémon on a phone then they'll probably be content with that.  Then they aren't begging their parents for a Nintendo handheld.  Pokémon is the LAST Nintendo IP I would put on phones.  As a turn based RPG it actually can be adapted to the mobile interface pretty easily.  If Pokémon works on phones then the "need" for a dedicated handheld videogame system for like 90% of the general public isn't there.  WE know you need something designed more with games in mind to get a wide variety of good games but we're a dedicated minority.  When a kid asks for a Nintendo handheld Nintendo should never be giving the parent the excuse to say "Pokémon is on our phone, just play it there".

[ThePerm]

I think Nintendo realizes that, and that's why they're doing it.  How far can handhelds go? Is the writing on the wall? Why not put Pokémon on phones if it could make them another billion dollars? As time goes forward most everyone will have a smart phone. Most everyone already does.

[BiteThePillow]

No love for Windows Phone 

[Mop it up]

I'm not surprised at all. They're going to make truckloads of money off this.

[sudoshuff]

So how long until a misguided mobile effort moves the bulk of the Pokémon fanbase off of Nintendo devices onto phones?  When a kid asks for a Nintendo handheld Nintendo should never be giving the parent the excuse to say "Pokémon is on our phone, just play it there".

It's a good point, but I don't think keeping Pokémon on Nintendo hardware would have been sustainable forever.  Eventually, some new IP will capture the hearts of the next generation of kids and it will most likely been on mobile (Angry Birds came close, but didn't quite have the legs).  This seems like the best move to keep Pokémon alive as long as possible and still make money off it.  Besides, it may force Nintendo to go for something new...and I'm totally OK with that.


Also, parents will always say to their kids, "you have games on your phone, just play those" regardless of the situation.