Since its announcement in September, "Pokemon GO" has kept fans anticipating for more details of the mobile reality game, particularly after seeing the official trailer released. And most recently, Niantic CEO John Hanke dished some details of "Pokemon GO" gameplay and how it will bring real-life experience of having Pokemon.
"Pokemon GO" is developed by Niantic in partnership with Google, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company with a $30 million fund. No specific date of release has been announced, but it is expected to come in 2016. Some reports suggest a first-quarter of 2016 release window.
In an interview with Venture Beat, Hanke talked about how multiplayer will work in this new game where players can catch, trade and battle Pokemons based on real locations.
"Pokemon GO" will work like "Ingress," a location-based game developed by Niantic. Despite the locations being a challenging aspect, the Android smartphone game has notably been successful. Players get to gather in public places to battle each other, in addition to live events hosted to bring more players together.
"Pokemon GO" will use global locations, which can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. But Hanke said that the goal is to allow players to find a Pokemon as fast as 5 minutes since getting out of his house. The catch though is that it is unlikely to be a rare Pokemon, and gyms will also be not that easy to find.
Hanke said, "Pokémon will live in different parts of the world depending on what type of Pokémon they are. Water Pokémon will live near the water. It may be that certain Pokémon will only exist in certain parts of the world. Very rare Pokémon may exist in very few places. But you can trade."
"We'll have events for Pokémon as well. Those are competitive, but they can also be places to trade stuff with other players. Pokémon trading is going to be huge. You can't get all of them by yourself," he added. "If you want all of them you'll have to trade with other players. Or you have to be someone who takes time off work and travels the world for a year. There may be people who do that."
"Pokemon GO" will be available on iOS and Android devices. Watch the trailer below:
