Pokémon will become the first Nintendo property to release on mobile devices. Pokémon Go, an augmented-reality collaboration between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company and Niantec, will release on iOS and Android smartphones.
The game was announced at a press conference in Japan today with The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara stating the game had been inspired by massively multiplayer AR titles like Ingress. Similar to Ingress, Pokémon Go will be a location-based game, which will allow players to capture, battle and train Pokémon in various real-world locations. Ishihara went on to claim the late president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata was heavily involved in the game’s conceptual stages.
The game will allow players to track down and snag Pokémon in the real world. John Hanke from Niantic gave players an idea of what they could be doing – catching Bulbasaur at Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station or a Pikachu at the Eiffel Tower. Pokémon will show up everywhere – on streets, in parks, in your yard, in your office.
The game will launch with a bluetooth-power gizmo called Pokémon Go Plus which players can strap to their wrist or wear pinned to their clothes. The device itself looks very similar to a Pokéball mashed up with the Google Maps marker pin and has a little LED built in and a vibration function that will tell you when Pokémon are near.
No release date has been set as yet.
———-
