Avid fans of "Pokémon" has something to cheer about and to expect come 2016. The Pokémon Company has announced in a press conference in Japan on Thursday that it will roll out an all-new game called "Pokémon Go," which will be a mobile game both for Android and iOS platforms. It was said that the new mobile game was developed in collaboration between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company and Niantic, a report from iDigital Times said.
"The new game will use reality augmented technology for players to catch, trade and battle Pokémon as they traverse the real world. It's an interesting thought and there's not much gameplay to speak of but the Pokémon Company has released a video for Pokémon Go," the report said.
The augmented reality is said to be developed by Niantic, the developer responsible also for the augmented reality mobile game "Ingress."
"Our new project is a Pokémon game on smartphones. We're calling it Pokémon GO. A new team was formed in order to create Pokémon GO. The development of this project will be handled by Niantic Labs which began as an internal startup at Google. As was recently announced, Niantic Labs just became an independent company called Niantic, Inc. The Pokémon Company will act as a business partner with Niantic, Inc. to move forward with the creation of Pokémon GO," said Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company, in a press statement.
Polygon reports that "Pokémon Go" was actually inspired by "Ingress," a massive multiplayer, location-based and augmented reality mobile game originally developed by Google. The company claims that like "Ingress," Pokémon GO will also be a location-based game that will allow players to track, capture, train and battle Pokémon in real-world settings.
It was noted that "Pokémon Go" will also work with "Pokémon Go Plus," a Bluetooth-powered wearable device that players can wear either on their wrist or by pinning it to their clothes. The device was described as "'a Pokéball combined with a Google Maps marker pin,'" that has an embedded built-in LED light and a vibration function that will notify players that something important is happening in the game, such as a Pokémon appearing nearby."
