Pokemon GO! (Gotta catch ‘em all?)
Nintendo seems to be making a big splash on the mobile gaming scene with one of its top grossing game series ‘Pokemon’. Making the move to mobile titles seems to be the safest road for Nintendo to make, due to the overwhelming success and popularity of mobile gaming in Japan. Making their first debut into the mobile gaming work The Pokemon Company has teamed up with AR developer Niantic to create Pokemon Go.
Pokemon Go promises an AR experience that will direct players to real world locations around them where players will be able to come across wild Pokemon in the real world. These wild Pokemon can then be captured through the app. The app will also alter users to other trainers who are willing to trade, or battle, in your area. For those of you not in the countryside there appears to be public events held in cities, where all players will be able to team up against a legendary or rare Pokemon to capture it.
Does this mean we have to go to space for Deoxys?
Nintendo is tapping into two markets here; the growing mobile gaming industry and nostalgia. Every child who has grown up playing Pokemon, has dreamed at some point of finding Pokemon in the wild, in your very own backyard even, and now Nintendo seems to be making a step forward in that direction. Watching the trailer I was instantly teleported back to the mindset of my ten-year-old self, ecstatic at the thought of more Pokemon.
The release date has been announced for early 2016, with beta coming in December 2015. While the announcement of Pokemon Go was not what I was expecting, or wanting, I am finding that the internet is becoming more hyped up , by the minute, just by the thought of Pokemon Go.