If you’re a Pokémon fan (it’s OK, you can admit it, this is a safe space), chances are at some point in your life you’ve wondered how the Pokémon training business would go in real life. Where would you find Rattatas and Pidgeys if you weren’t hanging out around tall grass? Wonder no more, because the latest Pokemon installment is bringing Pocket Monsters into the real world.
Pokémon Go is the latest project unveiled by The Pokémon Company, but this time it’s meant exclusively for your smartphone instead of your 3DS. Pairing with the developer Niantic, a former Google start-up, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo are ready to bring Pokémon into the real world with a decidedly different spin on the classic role-playing franchise (It’s also a lot less creepy than when the anime was recreated in Grand Theft Auto).
Niantic’s previous claim to fame was the popular augmented reality smartphone adventure Ingress, which demanded players to go out into the world and claim areas as their own. Pokémon Go will work similarly, with players going outside to catch Pokémon via smartphone app. Where was this when we were kids, again? Oh, wait. Smartphones weren’t a thing back then.
The game will also incorporate a special watch/bracelet hybrid that will allow players to “throw” Poké Balls to capture monsters and integrate with the app further to notify you when they’re around to be captured. It’s also possible that this app could tie into the regular Pokémon games in the main series, which opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
Pokémon Go is slated for release for both Android and iOS in 2016.
