Nintendo Announces Pokemon Go

If you recall, a few months back Nintendo announced it was going to go ahead and start developing games for Mobile Phones in addition to the 3DS and any other future portable gaming consoles. The news was met with some… mild confusion, but once they said their games would be big, well-developed, and not free-to-play, it calmed people’s anxieties. Well, Nintendo just announced the first of their big mobile games and, unsurprisingly, they’re starting with the license that got them their first big success in the portable world: Pokemon.

Introducing Pokemon Go: Pokemon in the real world.



Developed in coordination with Nintendo, the Pokemon Company and former Google Start-up firm Niantic, Pokemon Go is a Augmented Reality Pokemon game where you, as per usual, find, capture, trade, and battle pokemon. This all takes place on your phone, but don’t worry: you don’t have to walk around with your phone up to see Pokemon (which, let’s be honest, wouldn’t be that big a problem since most people do that anyway).

To help you find Pokemon and prevent people from walking into traffic, the game will launch with a special wristband called the Pokemon Go Plus. It lets you throw pokeballs and do other basic functions, but it also lights up and vibrates if you’re close to a capturable Pokemon.

Miyamoto, who was present at the press release, said it reminded him of Pokemon Snap, and he liked the idea of people going outside and enjoying fresh air as well as playing. He also suggested parents could work together with their children to make Pokemon teams.

Also, if you’re worried about this replacing standard Pokemon titles, don’t. In fact, the Pokemon Company is thinking about ways to combine Pokemon Go with the next generation of Pokemon Game, whatever it might be. So it’s like a super-advanced PokeWalker, I guess.

Pokemon Go will be released for the iOS and Android sometime in 2016.