“Pokemon GO” came out very recently, but it’s already one of the most popular games we’ve seen. The title was preceded by huge anticipation, and once players were allowed to actually play it, they swarmed the servers and forced the developers to upgrade their infrastructure a bit. Now, it’s rolling out in stages in different parts of the world, and its player numbers are rising at incredible rates.
Players in the UK and Germany can now enjoy the experience of hunting for virtual Pokemon too, and it’s expected to arrive to various other European countries over the next few weeks/months. And even though the game’s features are still somewhat limited, this hasn’t stopped players from sinking dozens of hours into it, some going to great lengths to acquire some rarer locations and to hunt down as many Pokemon as possible.
For example, a post that became viral on social media showed a couple of people rowing a boat out to a gym in the middle of a large body of water, while others have been cooperating to hold down certain more valuable gyms. Some locations are particularly heavily contested – such as the gym located in the middle of the Pentagon, as one could guess.
At the same time, there have been some incidents related to the game as well. For example, a group of criminals reportedly exploited the remote, isolated location of an important in-game object, and lured players out to it so they could rob them. It’s not that hard to imagine criminals going for such a strategy either, as a person walking around focused on their phone’s screen is not exactly a difficult target.
The game has had an interesting impact on the mobile market as well. It’s currently only available on Android and iOS, and a port for Windows Phone is not planned anytime soon. This has caused a lot of disturbance in the community of Windows Phone fans, with some even taking drastic measures such as buying cheap Android devices so they can play the game.
Some have even formed a petition to Niantic, asking them to port the game over to Windows. But, while the number of signatures on the petition is not small by itself – over 50,000 as of now – it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the over 60 million players the game already has on its current two platforms. The viability of porting it to Windows at this point is quite questionable, especially with the platform itself being on such a decline lately.
It’s also been an interesting story to follow for those interested in the gaming industry. It’s curious to see how “Ingress”, a previous game by Niantic using very similar mechanics, failed to achieve the level of popularity that “Pokemon GO” currently enjoys, despite having significantly more features. It just goes to show something many people were already painfully aware of – brand recognition can go a long way, beating raw quality by a large margin.
Niantic are very determined to keep developing the game though, and we expect to see multiple content updates over the next few months. It’s basically a money printer at this point, and they wouldn’t have to do much to maintain its current level of popularity. Hopefully nothing goes wrong with the game in any major way that would prevent it from realizing its full potential.