Niantic wants to do more with Pokemon GO’s story in the future
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 2 Comments
Niantic CEO John Hanke previously indicated that Pokemon GO’s lore would be expanded in the coming months. However, in an interview with Polygon, senior product manager Tatsuo Nomura mentioned that it isn’t a top priority currently. That’s simply because Niantic is “a very small team and we can only do so much at once.”
Nomura added:
“It’s not like we’re forgetting [about the characters], but it’s just resource-wise, what we are doing next … Do we do multiplayer and gen two versus putting out more narrative?. So far, it’s not being our focus, but we are not leaving it behind. I personally still want to think a lot more stories behind them and narratives.”
Niantic is currently focusing on building new functionality of Pokemon GO. This includes trading as well as other multiplayer features.
More: interview, Niantic, Pokemon GO, Tatsuo Nomura, top
Pokemon GO wins “Best Handheld / Mobile Game” at 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments
The 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards took place earlier this evening. At the event, there was one Nintendo-related winner.
Pokemon GO was chosen as the “Best Handheld / Mobile Game”. It beat out Super Mario Run, Pokemon Sun / Moon, Clash Royale, and Reigns.
More: Niantic, Pokemon GO
Niantic trying to determine best approach for trading in Pokemon GO, won’t be done through the internet
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 3 Comments
Pokemon GO is still missing a key feature from the main Pokemon games: trading. It should be added via an update in the future, but Niantic still has some work to do before it’s ready.
Speaking with Polygon at GDC, senior product manager Tatsuo Nomura confirmed that trading won’t happen through the internet. He also indicated that the team is still trying to figure out the best way to handle the functionality. Failing here could “easily kill the game.”
Nomura said:
“[Trading] won’t be through the internet. You shouldn’t be able to exchange your Pokémon with someone who is 100 miles away from you. … The person needs to be in your proximity.”
“I wasn’t really thinking of trading as a way to solve the local area spawn issue. That was more, we have a couple Pokémon that only spawn in a couple regions, and that was the hope, that some Pokémon you have to know someone or find someone who lives in certain regions and meet and exchange. We don’t want to just have that be an online game that you can just exchange virtually.”
“We’re still trying to come up with an answer [to trading] that makes sense so it doesn’t kill the game. If we fail this, we can easily kill the game.”
More: interview, Niantic, Pokemon GO, top
Niantic shows off early designs for Pokemon GO, including original design for trainer avatar
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 2 Comments
During a session at GDC this week, Niantic’s Dennis Hwang provided a look at how Pokemon GO changed throughout development. The company messed around with different versions of the overworld map, a variety of takes on the appearance of the battle screen, and even original plans for the trainer avatar.
As for the trainer, originally Niantic had an avatar more in line with the character from Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire. However, it was scrapped during early stages of development.
Hwang said during his talk:
“[In] the original IP, the trainers have a much younger look as the target audience tends to skew younger. But for us, the avatars, we wanted to kind of elevate them to an older generation slightly.”
“We didn’t want some super stylized big-headed, small-bodied characters running on the map when you’re the real game hero. We kind of wanted to match the virtual with the physical.”
Pokemon GO getting three major updates this year
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 8 Comments
At a keynote in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress today, Niantic CEO John Hanke teased the future of Pokemon GO. Three major new releases are planned for the mobile game this year. Hanke didn’t clarify, but that’s likely in addition to the Generation 2 update.
More: Niantic, Pokemon GO
Pokemon GO update rolling out (version 1.27.3 / 0.57.3)
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments
Update (2/27): The update should now be live on iOS and Android.
Original (2/24): A new update is rolling out for Pokemon GO. However, it won’t be as significant as the last one that introduced a bunch of Pokemon and features.
iOS users will soon have access to version 1.27.3. On Android, the game’s update will be 0.57.3. Niantic says the patch will “implement performance improvements.”
More: Niantic, Pokemon GO, title update
Niantic announces 650 million downloads for Pokemon GO
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 4 Comments
During the 2017 Game Developers Conference today, Niantic announced that its hit mobile game Pokemon GO has exceeded 650 million downloads.
Niantic chief technology officer Phil Keslin mentioned that trainers have now walked roughly 8.7 billion kilometers (5.4 billion miles) while playing Pokemon GO. Keslin said that distance is “just shy of Pluto”, but it’s actually closer since Pluto is about 7.5 billion kilometers (4.67 billion miles) away even at its farthest distance from Earth.
Keslin added that Niantic intends to keep Pokemon GO fresh with regular content updates.
More: GDC 2017, Niantic, Phil Keslin, Pokemon GO, top
Pokemon GO – a look at the special Pikachu with party hat for Pokemon Day
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Images, Mobile | 5 Comments
To celebrate Pokemon’s latest anniversary, formally known as Pokemon Day, Pikachus encountered in Pokemon GO will come wearing a festive party hat. We now have a look at this above.
The event with Pikachu kicks off on February 26. It ends on March 26.
More: Niantic, Pokemon GO
Pikachu with festive party hat will appear in Pokemon GO starting February 26
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 3 Comments
Pokemon is about to ring in its 21st anniversary. To celebrate, Pokemon GO will be holding a special promotion.
Between February 26 and March 6 at 1 PM PT, when you encounter a Pikachu, it’ll come wearing a festive party hat. The Pikachu caught during that time will keep its party hat forever.
More: Niantic, Pokemon GO
Pokemon GO Gen 2 update brings surge of activity, revenue
Posted on 9 years ago by Zack in Mobile, News | 16 Comments
After releasing the second generation of Pokemon into the wild for players to capture, Pokemon GO has reclaimed its position as the highest grossing iPhone game in the App store. In the Google Play store, Pokemon GO is third on the same chart, right behind mobile game titans Game of War and Mobile Strike.
While Pokemon GO making huge amounts of money may seem like a familiar story, prior to the most recent content update Pokemon GO was in the bottom 10 for highest grossing games in both the App store and the Google Play store, and hasn’t been in the number one position since January 4th. Furthermore, the recent Valentines Day event only got the game as far as number eight in the list of top grossing games.
It seems that Pokemon GO could have an extremely long reign as the biggest name on the App store if the response to these content updates are anything to go by. Considering that only 251 of the 800+ Pokemon that exist so far are represented in Pokemon GO at the moment, it’s safe to assume that this game will be a dominating force in the mobile market for a while.
