While most gamers and industry experts were convinced that “Pokemon GO” would result in Nintendo’s stocks skyrocketing, the company’s recent announcement of a quarterly loss to the tune of $230 million has raised some eyebrows. Granted, the period covered by the quarter in question does not actually include the launch of the game, so things might change when the company announces their next results three months down the line.
Along with that, we got an announcement that Pokemon GO Plus, the physical accessory for the game, will be delayed until September. The device was supposed to come out this month, and we don’t know any details on the delay, including the exact reason behind it. It’s possible that this is actually a good sign, as it could simply mean that Nintendo want to produce more units to meet an unexpectedly high demand.
On the other hand, they might also want to refine the design and add a feature or two before making the device public, as there have been some comments that the preview of the device seemed a bit disappointing. The Pokemon GO Plus will allow players to capture their favorite creatures even without having a smartphone on them. Shaped like a small key token, it will vibrate when a Pokemon is in the vicinity of the player, after which the Pokemon can be captured with the push of a button.
One interesting detail about the Plus is that players will not know what they’ve caught until they connect to a smartphone, which could change the dynamics of the game a bit. Currently, some players travel to specific areas just to catch different unique Pokemon, and adding a layer of unknown could make things even more interesting.
Meanwhile, we’ve been hearing various peculiar bits of news about the game, and it’s clear that this kind of experience is unprecedented in the industry. We’ve also seen some worrying trends, like teenagers wandering off into dangerous places, but hopefully those are going to die down a bit.
On that note, it seems like interest in the game as a whole is dwindling lately. “Pokemon GO” started out very strong, and it immediately attracted huge swarms of players, but recently less and less fans have been walking around with their smartphones. According to most, the main reason for that is the lack of any actual content in the game past the collection of different Pokemon. While we’ve seen various extra features planned and announced, it’s not clear when they will actually arrive to the game, and it might be too late if Niantic delay the development of those updates by a few months.
Of course, it’s always possible that Nintendo will use their huge marketing power to pull the game out of a difficult position, and this might be exactly what they’re planning to do once a new update has been launched. Depending on when that update rolls around, Nintendo and Niantic might find themselves facing some fierce competition from multiple sides.
That’s because other studios are already eyeing the idea of Augmented Reality games, and there are various franchises out there which would make a great platform for that. Just because “Pokemon GO” was the first to actually realize that idea properly (utilizing the power of a strong brand on top of its fun gameplay) doesn’t mean that it will stay at the top forever, and we’ve seen plenty of examples for that in the past.